Movie Review: The Flash (2023)

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Emotions at the end work

Cons: Very little else does

The Bottom Line:

Flash gets solo film

But more time spent on others

He deserves better

“Do You Want to Get a Bite?  I’m Still Hungry.”

Yes, I’d heard all the issues with The Flash and the rumors of reshoots even before it came out in 2023.  But, I always intended to give this movie a shot at some point.  It was pretty much as bad as I’d heard.

No, I don’t remember all the behind-the-scenes drama and delays at this point.  But it was one of the last movies in the failed Zack Snyder DC Universe.  That killed interest as well since, by the time it came out, we knew we were getting new versions of these characters.  Really, the movie was doomed.  Not that it was good.

Anyway, the story sort of focuses on Barry Allen, aka The Flash (Ezra Miller).  He’s a science tech in a crime lab who is attempting to clear his father (Ron Livingston) of a crime he didn’t commit – killing Barry’s mother Nora (Maribel Verdú).  But then Barry gets the idea to go back in time to keep his mother from being killed.  What could possibly go wrong?

Of course, we all know what could go wrong.  But in this case, it means a movie that is mostly set in an alternative universe.  Act one sets things up in pretty good fashion.  Yes, there’s an action sequence that could have been cut if they really wanted to speed things up, but that’s a minor issue.  It does what it needs to do to get the story going.

Act two is where the movie really falls apart.  Yes, it is fun at first watching Barry figure out what he’s done and then have to start interacting with a new version of himself.  But here’s the things.  This is called The Flash.  It’s supposed to finally be a chance for us to get to know the big screen version of the character.  But we quickly go meet Michael Keaton’s version of Batman and then rescue Supergirl, as played by Sasha Calle.  And who is our villain?  General Zod (Michael Shannon).  If we were going to have a Flash movie, shouldn’t these cameos from other characters be kept to a minimum?  And shouldn’t we have had one of his villains as the threat we are facing for much of the movie?  Barry felt like a supporting character in his own movie, which is ironic given his complaint early on during that first act action scene.

Now, I’m going to contradict myself.  The movie could have done with less Barry.  Essentially, we have two versions of the character through much of the film, both played by Ezra Miller.  And I found both versions annoying much of the time.  Now, I’m not talking about the acting.  This is the way the character is written to be played.  But seriously, could we make him less awkward?

And, to be clear, none of the complaints are aimed at any of the actors.  It is the script that lets them down.

Meanwhile, if I hadn’t watched the show, I wouldn’t have gotten that Kiersey Clemons’s Iris West is a pretty important character in Barry’s life.  She’s an afterthought.  Yes, the lead character’s comic book love interest is sidelined in his big movie.

The special effects are also poor.  Laughably poor at times.  You get a sense of where how things are going to look from that first act action sequence, and they don’t get any better.  For a big budget movie like this, it’s very surprising.

Given all I’ve been saying, I was surprised at just how much the climax touched me.  Yes, we still managed to get the emotional impact we should have.

Going into this movie, I did try to separate my expectations from the TV show The Flash, which I mostly enjoyed, especially the first few seasons.  While not exactly a story that show told, I still feel like that show did the similar story so much better.  Granted, they have multiple episodes to tell a story instead of only two and a half hours.  But this movie didn’t really even try to tell Barry’s story.

And yes, we get more cameos from various versions of DC characters, including those from the Zack Snyder series.  We could have done without most of them since they didn’t really add anything to the story.

The only reason to watch The Flash is if you are a die hard superhero fan, especially since this version of the character is no longer important.  You can just skip this mess of a film.