Director: Andy Muschietti
Writers: Christina Hodson, Joby Harold
Cast: Ezra Miller, Ben Affleck, Ron Livingston, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Jeremy Irons, Kiersey Clemons, Maribel Verdú, Saoirse-Monica Jackson, Rudy Mancuso

Let’s quickly address one of two elephants in the room (the other will be addressed in the course of this review): DC/Warner Bros. have not got a great record of producing decent movies based on DC characters and comics. Ever since Man of Steel (released exactly ten years ago), the DCEU has had some real highs (Man of Steel and Wonder Woman for me) and abysmal lows (Black Adam and Aquaman, and with Suicide Squad [2016] lagging not far in front of those two). Unlike Marvel, who have been fairly consistent with the quality of their movies in more or less the same timeframe (give or take an Eternals or Thor: The Dark World), DC/WB have struggled to keep up with successfully bringing their popular characters to the big screen. So, as we come to fan-favourite the Flash’s big screen solo debut, does the movie manage to leave a mark in film history, or is it one you’ll want to forget even faster than the Flash can run?

***WARNING: There will be no spoilers for this movie (except at the very end, where a spoiler warning will be given), but there will likely be spoilers for previous DCEU movies.***

After the events of Justice League (2017) and the formation of the JL, Barry Allen, aka the Flash (Miller), is attempting to balance his work life with his superhero duties, as well as dealing with his father Henry’s (Livingston) incarceration on the grounds of murdering Barry’s mother, Nora (Verdú). Barry knows of his father’s innocence and is determined to prove it. After figuring out he is able to run faster than the speed of light, he decides, against the advice of friend Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (Affleck), to go back in time and save his mother. But, as many a time travel story has taught us, changing anything in the past is likely to create a butterfly effect and potentially create chaos, something which Barry comes to find out and must put right again with the help of some new friends.

I had low expectations for this movie, and I think that was justified considering my above points on the DCEU’s (DC Extended Universe) troubled history. However, I am pleased to say that I have been very pleasantly surprised by The Flash, not only with its plot, but the depth of characters and the overall production value. The Flash isn’t framed as an origin story, but we are provided with Barry’s background and beginnings as the Flash quite organically within the plot of the film. Through this, and other occurrences, we are introduced to characters that are very well fleshed out, particularly Barry himself. The story itself is taken from the Flashpoint narrative in the comic books, and though it’s not one I have read myself, from what I hear it’s a pretty solid story to go with, and it definitely works on the big screen.

The costumes were very well constructed, with lots of newer details mixed with familiar logos and designs, and they blend quite seamlessly with the use of computer graphics. The CGI might not be the best put to film, but I for one thought it was pretty solid. The shots of Barry running at full speed, his “phasing” through solid objects, Supergirl’s flying and stunts and not to mention practically EVERYTHING to do with Batman was done well. Having said that, whether the CGI was top notch or not is almost inconsequential: the story is strong enough to stand with or without the amount of CGI/VFX needed, and that certainly says a lot about the quality of the writing and the performances.

Now I will mention the second elephant in the room: Ezra Miller. Miller (who goes by they/them pronouns and so I will address them as such) has been the source of many troubling controversies in the past few years, and I will say it put me in two minds as to whether I would see this movie or not. However, making a movie isn’t something done by just one person. It wouldn’t be fair to negate all the work done by thousands of others based on one person’s actions. To keep this about the movie, I will talk about their performance, but I do not agree with their actions in their personal life.

Miller provides a great performance as Barry Allen/the Flash. Barry is much to the DCEU what Peter Parker/Spider-Man is to the MCU, in that he is generally younger than his counterparts and has a lot of humour to him, making him something of a breath of fresh air amongst more serious superheroes. Miller embodies all of this very well and does a really good job of portraying Barry, and in more than one way. I hear many fans were disappointed not to have Grant Gustin, the actor who portrays Barry/the Flash in the TV show, but it makes sense to keep the two universes separate. Batfleck is back(fleck?), and there’s not much to say about Affleck reprising his role. The character makes sense as something of a guiding light for Barry, but Affleck’s Bruce/Batman has never really stood out for me. But then we have Keaton returning in the Bruce/Batman role. He has a more significant role in this movie than I thought he might, and it’s honestly one of the highlights of the whole film. It’s not done in a gimmicky way, and Keaton plays Bruce/Bats just as well as he ever did and it’s great to see him back in his own Batsuit, Batmobile and Batcave, with a few updates (and we even get reprisals of Danny Elfman’s original Batman theme, which is just wonderful and goosebump-inducing for fans like myself). Calle takes on the mantle of Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, and she brings something new to the character, something darker yet with that classic hope that members of the house of El are known for. I for one hope she pops up again in a future DCU movie (more on the new DCU will be discussed below). Livingston (taking over from Billy Crudup who previously portrayed Henry Allen) and Verdú do a wonderful job as Barry’s parents, their characters giving the movie, and Barry, its motive. They embody everything anyone would want to fight for when it comes to family, and their performances keep it injected with the right amount of pathos and optimism simultaneously.

Overall, The Flash can be considered a success for DC/Warner Bros. It’s entertaining, it’s FULL of nerdy stuff, from film references and trivia (two words: Eric Stoltz) to little easter eggs pertaining to DC and other characters. Apparently, The Flash is to be considered a “reboot”, or “reset”, of the DC timeline, but that’s a little confusing, because next we will have Blue Beetle later this year, which is supposed to link in with The Flash but also stand separate from the DCEU (???), and then Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom, which is due toward the back end of 2023, will be the start of the new timeline, in which we enter James Gunn’s DCU (DC Universe). It all sounds rather confusing (I got all my info mostly from Wikipedia and Gunn’s social media), but ultimately it seems like the DCEU ended with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, got a reset in The Flash, then Blue Beetle will just be… there… and then Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom will be after the reset, but I’m not sure if it will be DCEU or DCU… I have a lot of hope that Gunn can do something to fix DC’s movie problems, but once again, I’m keeping my expectations low, though I’m taking some of that house of El hope that I will be as pleasantly surprised as I was with The Flash. A shame such a good movie came at the back end of the DCEU, but better to have it than not at all.

***WARNING: Spoilers below, including a post-credit scene.***

I was already aware of some cameos in this film, so I went prepared to be emotionally moved, which I was. During Barry’s cock-up of the timelines, they begin to collide, and we see many other iterations of our favourite superheroes and their actors, including Adam West’s Batman, George Reeves’s Superman, Helen Slater’s Supergirl and Christopher Reeve’s Superman. Seeing Christopher Reeve (however dodgy the CGI/deep fake appeared to be), was a huge deal for me, with Reeve being my Superman, and it was even more moving to see Slater next to him, as I always wanted to see them both in a movie together. Throw in a snippet from the Superman theme by John Williams, and I got goosebumps and tears. That felt like a childhood dream come true for me. Speaking of childhood dreams coming true, even Nicolas Cage finally gets his turn to don the Supersuit properly for the big screen, as he gets a cameo as Superman, too. Cage is famously known to be a huge fan of Superman, even naming his son Kal-El, and he was once cast in a Tim Burton Superman movie that never came to be, titled Superman Lives. We also got George Clooney back as Bruce Wayne, after it’s revealed that Barry messed with his own timeline too much. It made the whole thing feel just like when Marvel brought back Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield for Spider-Man: No Way Home. It’s a nice thing to do for the fans, and overall, a good way to introduce a reset to the timelines by making us aware of the existence of a multiverse in the DCEU/DCU.

The post-credit scene is just Barry being sent to search for more beer as an incredibly drunk Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman (Jason Momoa) passes out in a puddle. Nothing to be excited about. Oh, also Temuera Morrison pops up at one point for a small cameo as Arthur’s father, Tom.

Finally, for any Big Bang Theory fans, I also personally hope there’s a universe where Sheldon Cooper watches this movie and cries happy tears at the end.