The Flash (2023) Review

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

DC Comics has been known to struggle to be consistent in quality with their filmography in comparison to Marvel, especially with the DC Extended Universe that would start in 2013 and be reset after 2023. Chaos on and offscreen would damage it with constant changes, but for once, chaos became a good thing for one film in particular.


PLOT


2023’s The Flash follows Barry Allen, whose been a speedster ever since being struck by lightning 10 years prior. When not saving lives as a member of the Justice League, he works as a forensic chemist. He is motivated to free his father Henry (Ron Livingston) from false imprisonment, accused of murdering his wife Nora (Maribel Verdú). Barry knows his father couldn’t have done it because he was out to get a grocery while she was attacked by an unseen force. One night, Barry discovers he can travel through time, finding himself somewhere he was just at  hours earlier. He does share this discovery to Bruce Wayne/Batman, but the latter would insist on not tampering with the past because it could cause a lot of bad when trying to do good. Barry would go against this advice and change the past by placing the tomato sauce his mother forgot, so that his dad never has to leave in the first place. He would then find himself in alternate 2013 after being pushed out by another speedster. In this new universe, his parents are still together but he encounters another version of him that hasn’t gotten his powers. Since he is placed in the day he originally got his powers, he takes 2013-Barry to the Central City Police Department to recreate the incident. Both get struck by lightning and Barry ends up losing his speed while his alternate self gains it. As he tries to train him, they discover that General Zod is preparing to invade Earth. Needing to get all the help possible, Barry hopes to unite the Justice League, but it’s far from a success: In this timeline, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) is nowhere to be located (implying she never left Themyscira), Victor Stone hasn’t became Cyborg yet and Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) was never born. The only other hero that remains to exist is the Batman. Both Barrys would go to Wayne Manor to meet this alternate version of Bruce Wayne, whose older and has retired from his vigilante lifestyle after wiping out all crime in Gotham City. When Barry explains his situation, the retired detective would further share that the use of time travel has altered history before and after the alteration. He helps find the last possible sighting of Superman when a Kryptonian pod was found in Siberia years prior. Instead of Kal El, they find his cousin Kara Zor El whose been trapped for so long. When returning to Wayne Manor, she would explain that she was sent to protect her infant cousin after Krypton was destroyed and must have been separated due to an interception. She would return the favor of the heroes’ help by flying Barry into a storm to have him be struck by lightning, gaining him his speed back. After this miracle, all superheroes move forward with a rally against Zod’s forces. It almost becomes a success until Kara confronts Zod personally, devastated that he confesses to killing an infant Kal to retrieve the Codex, realizing it was within her all along. As she dies fighting him, Batman would be killed in action. Both Barrys would reverse time to save them both, but their deaths are proven to be inevitable. 2013-Barry acts in denial and keeps trying to save them with the hopes to save them, mostly driven when overhearing his older self accepting to reverse the mess by allowing his mother to die. As the older Barry tries to stop his younger self, the dark speedster appears, revealing to be a future version of 2013-Barry whose been a constant loop paradox. As this confrontation occurs, the multiverse would begin to implode. It partially begins to be undone when the ‘Dark Flash’ inadvertently takes his own life by stabbing his younger self, wiping himself out of the timeline completely. Barry would be able to completely undo the catastrophe by undoing what he did, putting back the tomato can and come to terms with what will happen to Nora. Things would appear to be better for Barry when his father is finally exonerated thanks to new evidence, but the film ends in a shocking cliffhanger as he would see Bruce again with another altered appearance as a result of everything he’s done.


THOUGHTS


The best way to describe this film is through PROS and CONS.


PROS: Superhero adaptations come and go whether it’s a hit or miss, but this has been a favorite genre of mine so I’m always down to see what’s out there. I almost didn’t think this film would ever come out due to the struggle of getting a director onboard before Andy Muschietti came to get the job done and the controversy surrounding lead actor Ezra Miller. Knowing this makes it quite a miracle for this to be released and despite not being a financial success, is not that bad of a film. Generally speaking, I believe Muschietti succeeds in crafting something smartly chaotic. Exploring time travel and the multiverse is not easy to discuss, but it felt simple enough here to understand that the simple decisions we make for ourselves can affect everyone around us more than we’d expect. I would shrug over the fact of a can of tomato sauce being the macguffin that almost breaks the multiverse, but that again comes to show any change will make a bigger impact than anticipated. I’m not that hard on visual effects if I’m gonna keep being honest. Everyone has been the most critical towards the ‘worlds collide’ sequence in which we see computerized versions of alternate supeheroes we’ve seen before: George Reeves’ Superman from the 50s, Adam West’s Batman from the 60s, Christopher Reeves’ Superman & Helen Slater's Supergirl from the 80s, and Nicolas Cage from the cancelled 90s film Superman Lives. Neither of their designs look perfect, but I’m okay with it because no matter how fast one like Barry would be as a speedster, it probably would feel disorienting to digest seeing all of that around him. On the other hand, the visuals were completely fine up until then. The colors to match Barry’s clothing was visually impressive and everything shown in slow motion was as sharp as possible. That benefits making the action sequences very cool. Overall, the film has a pay off by the end because it shows no matter how much we’d like to make changes to undo all the bad that’s happened to us, we have to understand our flaws do not always define us but can inspire us to be better versions of ourselves. This was greatly captured to our lead protagonist who learns the hard way that the past should’ve been left alone. Controversy aside, Miller flexed incredible range of not just playing the optimistic and determined main Barry we’ve been invested with since Justice League, while also playing his younger self that is less intuitive and gains maturity in the worst set of circumstances. The dynamic between both Flashes that ends up sparking the corrupted Dark Flash comes to show that you greatest enemy can be yourself if choosing to never let go of the past. Just because you can do things other couldn’t, doesn’t mean you should do it and that is what Barry catches on to the longer he waited to undo his actions. Off of that, this was safer than shoving Reverse Flash into the story, the villain responsible for Nora’s death in the comics. While it didn’t make things as it was completely, it’s safe to say Barry will be done time traveling unless another threat were to make him do so. It is also a safe bet when claiming Barry was bound to alter the past once finding the opportunity, but it’s still a relief he had a mentor who was always against it. Whether it was Ben Affleck or Michael Keaton, the Batman still had proper significance to the story because each version accepted the past and knew nothing would make things better for him. It was actually fitting for Affleck’s version to be against it because he knew he would use it without caution, and the only appropriate time he would use it would be to warn him about Lois Lane being the key to bringing Superman back to the light (as shown in Batman v Superman). While I was pretty surprised of that cliffhanger whammy that was George Clooney, I was delighted to see Keaton again since he was the first Batman I was introduced to in my childhood and it felt like picking up where we left off with him. What I respected a lot about him apart from still kicking ass the older he got, it has to be still being at peace with being alone although he could change it if he wanted to. He chose to help Barry until he reached his end because he saw himself in him, the natural feeling on wanting to help people when no one else would. Since he knew he was gonna undo the change, I’m sure he was proud of Flash coming around to accept what happened to him. While I wish Henry Cavill had another go at Superman due to his appearance in Black Adam now becoming anticlimactic, it was still cool to see Supergirl as the substitute. Sasha Calle positively got my attention for matching the energy Cavill had. She was an honorable warrior because despite knowing how flawed the human race, even she understands genocide doesn’t solve anything whatever the perspective. Like Batman, it was a bummer for her to be stuck in an inevitable fate because she had just regained motivation to be protective towards the innocent and deserved time to have a happier period in her life. If she also had the chance to better understand Barry’s predicament, I’m sure she would proud as well knowing he would end up doing the right thing.


CONS: I've said as much as I could do defend this film, but the good doesn't excuse the bad that prevents it from being better. For starters, I admit I was laughing over how Barry rescues the babies at the hospital. I mean it's just hard to keep a straight face while he goes straight to a vending machine due to his low blood sugar What bothered me a lot was wondering how come the babies don't have any kind of whiplash? I gotta ask since the nurse was stunned of the whole near death experience. I even felt off of hearing the microwave go off when it was unplugged. I really don't want to be too picky about this but if Barry is so worried of being late, he should've stolen coffee elsewhere the way he took food from the vending machine. All of that was more confusing than denying he can move a baby so fast. I also find it mind boggling for a deadly virus to be stealable from a public hospital by Falcone's crew, which is the same problem from the opening of Marvel's Captain America: Civil War. I then wonder how did Barry not know Iris was covering the paper involving his dad? I know he wouldn't want to be creepy towards her but since he is always involved in his dad's case, he should've known who'd be covering it. Moving on, why isn't his suit bulletproof? If Bruce and Alfred (Jeremy Irons) were involved and has his own set of bulletproof suits, it is crazy to forget such a detail. Had he not forgotten that, 2013-Barry would not have gotten shot. Also, how did Barry even forget he got his powers just the night before Zod arrived on Earth? Those are two life changing back-to-back moments that should be equally essential to remember. It's a crazy situation to see the lightning strike be re-enacted since we never saw it in this film franchise until now. However, there are two problems I had with the scene. One, Barry should not have told his younger self what was gonna hit him. Had he not done that, he would've stayed still. Two, it's a little too ridiculous for the security to not hear the thud he made in his failed attempt to phase in an empty building. Also, how the hell does he forget how Bruce's voice would sound? I am sure I would tell the difference on the phone who is Keaton, Clooney or Affleck, which makes it weird that he doesn't. I even feel confused on the fact his parents were not calling him during Zod's invasion in the new timeline? I don't want to overthink this, but this would've made more tension if either Barry heard Nora's voice again before going into battle. Another thing, I do not believe the Barrys took a cab from Central City to Gotham. Those places sound very far from each other compared to Metropolis and the latter and I don't think either had enough money to get there overnight. And how has he known about loops and paradoxes if he barely discovered time travel? That makes no sense for him to do such research if he was so focused on saving his mom originally. The last thing I can say is how irritating it was for Barry to tell his younger self to take breaks to avoid overcharging, only seconds before fighting Zod's army. He doesn't even point out how fast Kryptonians and he could've said all of that at the Batcave for crying out loud. I've said what I said about our protagonist, but he wasn't the only thing that bothered me as the story progressed. During the opening, I was also thrown off on not giving an update on Cyborg's whereabouts. I understand Ray Fisher had a bad experience while shooting the reshoots for Justice League, leading to his firing for opening up about it, but since they went out of their way to update where Superman was, this would've not hurt at all. The last thing bothered me the most was honestly about Zod. I was still intimidated with how determined Michael Shannon portrayed him just like so in Man of Steel, especially since we see him in a timeline he's bound to win. The problem I had with him here is the fact he doesn't pursue Kara when he spots her. And I don't even like how he's introduced to the story. It doesn't feel clear on how he directed himself to Earth since Kara's capture prevented her from leading him to her however it would've been possible. So if the coordinates were on Kal's pod as well, that should've definitely been clarified. If you can ignore all of this bullshit, you'll be good to go.
In conclusion, The Flash will remain as a movie that deserved better attention because apart from having a vast amount of issues on an off camera, this is still an entertaining superhero flick that also becomes a decent conclusion to the blended arc producer Walter Hamada invested in like we all did. If you still like superhero films, I hope you have a soft spot for this one like I did.