The Flash is a fun, but pretty basic, superhero genre film that is slightly elevated by performances from Miller and Keaton. I mostly agree with the positive reviews about Miller. They play Barry Allen with a down-to-earth and sincere vulnerability that works. Although, there is one fourth wall break that is a little distracting.
The Flash has all the superhero origin story beats: traumatic childhood events, callbacks to past iterations of the IP, crossovers, a shitty CGI-filled third act, and of course, traveling through time and multiverses. Even though Sam Raimi perfected how to show super speed on film with 1981’s The Evil Dead, the advent of CGI altered how we visualize super speed. Here, Muschetti relies on every trick in the book. We see fast blurs, extended comedic slow-mo sequences a la Quicksilver, and wide shots of Barry traversing from international landmark to international landmark. None of it seems particularly authentic, but it feels like we’ve entered this shitty CGI era where - in the right situations - it can be a little charming.
The film turns into a watered down Edge of Tomorrow in the third act. And by then, the CGI lost its magic. This act is where we get the ghoulishly unnecessary cameo you may have heard about on social media. It’s not as bad as Rogue One’s Tarkin, but it didn’t do much narratively.
Despite the third act, I still had a lot of fun. The film emits unexpectedly comforting, nostalgic vibes. I think Keaton and Miller deserve the credit for the warm and fuzzy feelings. Miller plays Barry with an underlying anxiety that makes it easy to empathize with their character. They even lean on the super speed as stand-in for Barry’s anxiety disorder. It reminded me of young Clark in Man of Steel.
The first superhero film I fell for was Batman 89, so this movie hit the right nostalgic notes for me. Keaton had fun as a washed-up Batman who looked as nostalgic for Burton’s world as I was. Personally, I loved this movie. But that doesn’t mean it’s a good movie. I suspect those who don’t have a special place in their hearts for Burton’s Batman may see The Flash for what it really is: a basic superhero genre film done pretty well in comparison to its contemporaries.
The Flash gets 3.5 Rations out of 5. (Like vibRATIONS. Is this good?).
Do you pronounce ration with a long A like in the word vibration or a short A, like rations, like your food provisions in the army?