The Flash 2023

It has been increasingly difficult to keep up with this site lately. I still have a love of superhero movies but somehow it’s been easier to stay on track with my podcasts looking at movies and shows in minute detail rather than making it out to the theater or watch a full length movie with a one year old running the household. I did even manage to watch the Super Mario Bros. Movie with the intention of writing a review for it, and I still might manage to plumb the depths of my memory to write one after this review but it’s been hard to just sit down and write. The renewal for the domain name just recently came up so the site will remain for another year at least and I have hopes that I haven’t given up on this site completely so be on the lookout for more reviews to come before the year is out, but I wouldn’t hold your breath for them. Anyway, as for the Flash; I watched in instead of Spider-Verse or Guardians 3 for a few different reasons. The main two were that I happened to sign up for the Lambcast covering this movie and that it came out during my birthday weekend which I saw as a sign that I should watch it. It’s had some middling reviews, fan complaints, behind the scenes struggles, and a low box office. But honestly, this movie was right up my alley and I loved everything it threw at me. And there are plenty of little Easter eggs that I will be discussing, so if you haven’t seen it and are avoiding spoilers, here’s your warning.

One thing that originally set the DC universe apart from the MCU was the tone. While the MCU was mostly light with some heavy moments here and there, DC was the opposite being mostly heavy with some comic elements here and there. And after Snyder left, it’s grown closer to the light and airy side of things for better and worse. This movie is easily the most comedic DCEU film outside of The Suicide Squad and it tells you exactly what it’s going to be with the opening action sequence. The sequence really feels like a throwback superhero action scene. It’s a random catastrophic disaster as the Flash has to help save a hospital being threatened by a collapse who’s source is barely and/or not mentioned at all. There’s collapsing asphalt and eventually part of the building starts to collapse resulting in a group of babies on an upper floor falling out the window that turns into practically a Looney Tunes short complete with flaming canisters and a jar of acid. This is also the first instance of the poor CGI which the director has gone on record to say was intentional and for this scene especially, that excuse holds up. It would be a very different tone if realistic babies were in mortal danger, but when it’s clearly CGI babies, that makes it ok to laugh out loud at the absurdity of the situation.

The actual meat of the story centers around the Flashpoint story, one that’s been told in comics and in the animated movie from 2013. This version only has a few elements of that story: The Flash saves his mother and creates a completely new timeline and for a portion of the story he doesn’t have his powers. And that’s about it. In this version, his change in the timeline creates a fulcrum break that not only changes the future, but also goes backwards and changes the past, which is the explanation for changes that happened before the death of Barry’s mother as the Flash is much younger than any version of Bruce Wayne we see in this movie. It’s a great explanation and a perfect excuse to see Michael Keaton return as the same Batman that we saw in the Tim Burton movies, complete with a look at the classic Batmobile and many instances of Danny Elfman’s score. Anyone who is a fan of those movies will be hard pressed not to feel a rush of nostalgia. He’s not just a glorified cameo either. Keaton’s Bruce Wayne and Batman play a significant role in the middle of this movie and he plays the crazy recluse Wayne and the return to form hero expertly. The one hero role that did feel like an extended cameo was Sasha Calle’s Supergirl whose arc is very similar to Superman’s arc in the original Flashpoint. She was great in the role and the character looked and felt fantastic, but there wasn’t really a whole lot for her to do compared to Batman and the two Flashes.

We’re also treated to a bit of a Parent Trap element with 18 year old Barry who spent a full life with both parents becomes present Barry’s sidekick slash trainee as the recreation of the accident where he became the Flash goes slightly wrong and gives young Barry the Speed Force powers but removes them from old Barry. Ezra Miller’s off-screen shenanigans aside, he really nails both roles, making them feel like two sides of the same coin, similar as they’re the same person, yet distinct due to their different upbringings. Older Barry has this sense of both experience, and the social awkwardness that’s come from his difficult life. Younger Barry has this 18 year old energy and is much more carefree that comes from someone who hasn’t had significant trauma, though occasionally it felt a little turned up to almost caricature. The twist at the end also had just enough set up to work as we just get the one moment of young Barry not accepting that a math problem doesn’t have a concrete solution that’s not just infinity that builds into this person who has spent a lifetime trying to solve his own Kobayashi Maru, covered in Kryptonian weapon shards as he tries to save his world’s mini Justice League and stop General Zod without Superman. The self sacrifice does do a little bit too much work to undo this already paradoxical situation as this dark, future Flash was the one who pushed present Barry out in order to create himself, and yet when young Barry sacrifices himself, it vanishes Dark Flash. It’s all timey-wimey stuff anyway and the overall tone of the movie actually works in its advantage to not question the specifics of the “how” and just lets you accept it as is.

There are also plenty of other cameos and slight changes that offered different levels of enjoyment. When all three Barrys are in the middle of this Chrono-ball, there’s a display of the multiverse with various movie incarnations of Superman and Batman with CGI images of George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Helen Slater, and the big fun one was seeing the unproduced Nicolas Cage Superman Reborn fighting the giant spider made famous from Kevin Smith’s various discussions about his script. The other fun bit was the ending where older Barry made a slight change in the past that would only affect his present and the events afterwards. But by this movie’s explanation of time travel, that was enough to change Bruce Wayne into George Clooney which was a fantastic way to end this movie and a welcome change to give this entire section of the franchise its own little bit of closure despite the upcoming Aquaman movie. The explanation was also just enough to give the current DC enough leeway to keep whichever actors they want to keep while still going ahead with new incarnations of different characters. It’s a little bit meta, but in a good way.

Recently Michael Shannon who plays Zod gave an interview saying that playing Zod in this movie was “unfulfilling” as an actor and that it felt like the director was just playing with action figures. And I agree with that statement, but as an audience member who is familiar with all of these action figures, I look at it as a good thing. Of course, every superhero movie shouldn’t be like this, but once in a while it’s good to remember that superhero movies are a toybox, and this movie has a lot of different toys to play with. It’s also so great that the writer and/or director is familiar with a lot of the same toys that I am, aka behind the scenes tidbits of movies like the Nicolas Cage Superman, Eric Stoltz in Back to the Future, even the little nod too the fact that the classic Batman hood made it impossible to turn your head, all things that big movie fans know and are represented on screen. It’s a little disappointing that this movie doesn’t look like it’s doing that well critically, financially, and even has some fan backlash likely tied to its connection with the scrapped Batgirl movie. But it does do something different with superhero movies that we haven’t really seen a whole lot of: it has fun with the toybox, and for that reason I really enjoyed watching it. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.