I had two big worries going into The Flash this weekend. My first worry is the same I feel going to any DC extended universe movie: That it will be dull, long and overly saturated with CGI, crutching on effects rather than compelling conflicts.
The second was more unique to this film in particular: The Flash star Ezra Miller has been embroiled in one bizarre controversy after another, including violent confrontations and genuinely worrisome mental breaks.
It turns out that Miller’s personal life has not impacted their ability to dazzle as an actor. By far the best thing about The Flash was Miller’s twin performances as two versions of Barry Allen. The basic premise is simple: Barry realizes he can use his speed to go back in time, and decides to use this newfound power to return to the moment of his mother’s death and save her.
This has a butterfly effect a la Back To The Future. If the past is changed too much, major events in the future never come to pass, and in this case all of that leads to calamity. Somehow—Michael Keaton’s eccentric Bruce Wayne sort of explains to us—by changing the past, you also change the past before the changed event, not just after. This makes no sense whatsoever, but since he uses pasta to explain it, I guess it’s fine.
In his attempts to fix things, Barry makes them worse. When he tries to make sure that he gives his alternate universe self powers, he succeeds but also loses his own, meaning that all the superhero stuff will need to be carried out by the spoiled, unserious version of himself instead. This leads to some funny gags and also, in the end, to bigger, more important revelations.
Throughout, Miller is excellent. They’re genuinely funny, but bring a lot of heart to Barry and some great slapstick comedy to the Flash. It’s also fun to see Keaton reprise his role as Batman, and the weirdly under-utilized Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle) seemed like she might have been a cool Supergirl, if only the film had given her even a fraction of character development.
As for my other concern, well, unfortunately The Flash, once it tries on a story rather than double Barry antics, becomes a dull, overly-saturated CGI action movie mess, that’s both half an hour too long (as per usual!) and rushed. The conclusion, in particular, felt underwhelming and massively rushed, like there was an entire other movie here waiting to be told, but we got it all in the last 20 minutes.
I suppose I can’t help but make comparisons to The Flash on the CW, a show that quickly wore out its welcome, but offered up a truly incredible first season that told much the same story as this film, but with more heart and better twists and turns. It also relied a lot less on flashy CGI. Even the film’s opening segment, which was fun and funny, felt completely fake. Too much slow-motion CGI. But I loved Miller here, and thought their performance was both hilarious and surprisingly moving at times.
I’m not sure where I’d rank this in the DCEU/DCU film tier. I liked it a lot more than Aquaman, which was even more dull and made much worse use of its lead, but I enjoyed the first Wonder Woman more. I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Miller did a terrific job as the fastest man alive, but we all deserved a better The Flash. Shave off 20 or 30 minutes, ease up on the CGI and give us a more coherent story that moves along at a brisk pace without rushing the most important beats, and you have yourself a much better film.
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