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One of the most spectacular and frustrating mixed bags of the superhero blockbuster era, "The Flash" is simultaneously thoughtful and clueless, challenging and pandering. It features some of the best digital FX work I've seen and some of the worst. Like its sincere but often hapless hero, it keeps exceeding every expectation we might have for its competence only to instantly face-plant into the nearest wall. 

Then it hits the reset button and starts again—which, come to think of it, is what "The Flash" keeps doing over and over again narratively, with time, parallel universes, and the question of whether "canonical" events in the life of a person or a whole dimension can be altered. From start to finish, it suffers the double misfortune of being its own worst enemy, despite real thoughtfulness and an intriguingly unstable cocktail of genres (slapstick comedy, family drama, heavy metal action flick, philosophically driven science fiction adventure); and also arriving on screens right after the release of "Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse," a high watermark for both superhero movies and major studio animated features that explores most of the same concepts as "The Flash" in a more aesthetically innovative way. 

Ezra Miller , whose  offscreen brushes with the law  make some of the film's raunchier comedy land poorly, stars as twentysomething forensic scientist and secret superhero Barry Allen, who feels like the "janitor" of the Justice League and is still grappling with the impact of his mother's murder and his father's wrongful imprisonment for the crime. Here, again, in this very review, we encounter a double bind characteristic of "The Flash": it's poor form to discuss the meatier parts of the movie because you can't do that without describing the plot in detail, and yet at the same time, a lot of it has already been "spoiled," not just on social media and online forums but in the film's own trailers and marketing material (Warner Bros. supplied the photo at the top of this review) and on Wikipedia. If you read all that, you know whether to keep going or put the rest of this piece aside for later.  

For those still reading: Remember the ending of the original 1978 "Superman: The Movie," where Christopher Reeve's Superman has to choose between stopping a nuclear missile headed for Miss Tesmacher's home state and preventing his great love Lois Lane from getting killed by an earthquake, tries to do both, loses Lois, then turns back time to resurrect her? Well, that sequence has been expanded into an entire film and merged with the " Back to the Future " series, courtesy of Barry's decision to try to go back in time and change one detail on the day his family was destroyed. Mom ( Maribel Verdú ) sent Dad ( Ron Livingston ) to the local supermarket to fetch a can of tomatoes she needed for a recipe. When little Barry hears a commotion and comes downstairs, he finds Mom on the kitchen floor with a knife jammed into her bloody chest and Dad weeping over her corpse with one hand on the hilt. Barry surmises that he can use his Flash powers to return to that fateful day, add a can of tomatoes to Mom's supermarket basket, and save both parents. Anybody who's seen a time travel movie (or read Ray Bradbury's short story The Sound of Thunder ) knows it's not that simple.

Directed by Andy Muschietti (" Mama ," both " It " movies), from a script by ace genre screenwriter  Christina Hodson ("Birds of Prey," " Bumblebee "), "The Flash" deserves credit for taking its ideas and the pain of its characters seriously without devolving into glum, colorless machismo. When Miller enters what he believes is "the past" (it's actually an alternate timeline), he not only encounters another version of himself with an intact, happy family but befriends and mentors the other Barry, discovering along the way how annoying he can be to others. 

Muschietti over-directs the pre-time-travel version of Barry, emphasizing his anxiety, clumsiness, and facial tics to the point where he seems like one of those schlemiels that Jerry Lewis used to play. But once the original Barry teams up with the other Barry, Miller keeps the schlemiel energy high for the second Barry while dialing it down for the original. This lets the first Barry mature in increments, part of the traditional arc of a young hero. The film showcases its finest effects in these mirror-image duets. The result is the most convincing instance of a leading man playing opposite himself since Michael Fassbender in " Alien: Covenant ." The shots of both Barrys even have a smidge of handheld shakiness that's visual shorthand for "authenticity." Within a scene or two, you'll likely forget that it's one actor playing the same part and instead focus on what Miller does with both incarnations of the character. 

The master narrative of the DCEU defines Superman's city-leveling battle with General Zod in " Man of Steel " as a character- and team-defining canonical event for every interlinked feature film in the series. The aftermath of that contest figured into the plots and dialogue of more than one film, most notably "Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice." When it's referenced again in the film's first act, you know Barry and Barry will have to deal with it again in another universe. Sure enough, here comes Zod with his villainous teammates, scarab starships, armored shock troopers, and terraforming World Engine. 

The problem is, there's no Justice League to team up against him, and only one superhero: the Caped Crusader. Not Ben Affleck's grizzled, Frank Miller-y Batman, but the one played by Michael Keaton in the 1980s Tim Burton films. Only he's older, more haggard, and even more alienated from the society he monitors. As the time-ripened version of Burton's Batman, essentially Bruce Wayne fused with the long-haired hermit incarnation of Howard Hughes, Keaton gives the movie's subtlest performance. He underplays and reacts in a way that adds freshness to a story that's probably too dependent on recycled situations and makes Miller's jumpy, abrasive tendencies easier to take. He's the acting version of a shock absorber, smoothing the ride without slowing it down. 

Barry, Barry, and Bruce become convinced that this universe's Superman is trapped in a Siberian prison run by Russian mercenaries and fly there to bust him out. Turns out he's a she: Kara Zor-El, Kal-El's cousin, aka Supergirl ( Sasha Calle , rocking a modified pixie cut and a killer stare). Superman, we're told, might still be out there somewhere, but his cousin (who was sent to protect him) is a powerful ally who can stand up to Zod. When the modified four-person Justice League substitute confronts Zod's invading army, the movie proves that its obsessive referencing of the "Back to the Future" films was not just a running gag.

The reimagining of Zod's attack is this movie's equivalent of the end of the second "BTTF" movie, where time-traveling adolescent Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox in our world, and in Barry's by Eric Stoltz , the actor Fox replaced!) had to attend the same prom that ended the original "BTTF" while avoiding a potentially time/space disruptive encounter with himself. (This movie's decisions about what to save and what to delete from real world history are weird; I'd love to hear the logic behind erasing a lot of the DCEU superheroes from the second Barry's universe while determining that "Back to the Future," "Footloose," and " Top Gun " and the first Chicago album were immutable occurrences.)

The film's big battle is its least convincing sequence (parts of it look like cutscenes from an early-aughts game). It's too bad, because it's the most thought-provoking: as Batman and the Flashes and Supergirl battle Zod, the two Barrys disagree on whether traveling back and forth along dimensional pathways will solve problems or add new ones. Like most science fiction with even the thinnest veneer of seriousness, "The Flash" connects back to the godmother of science fiction, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus . Shelley warned readers that using science to mimic God or defy nature has bad consequences, and it's better for the story's Prometheus figure to give up his illusions than continue traveling a ruinous path. Is this the sort of film that will heed Shelley's warning, or ignore it to give the hero what he wants and the audience the wish-fulfillment fantasies it craves and that superhero films nearly always endorse? Even the first two Reeve Superman films erred on the side of audience wish-fulfillment; the first film lets him turn back time, while the second has him erase Lois' knowledge of his secret identity with a super-kiss. "The Flash" deserves credit for threading the eye of that needle, giving audiences a somewhat hopeful ending without negating the philosophical and scientific issues it raises elsewhere. 

Unfortunately, "The Flash" also has a countervailing tendency that undermines its best self. Even as it cleverly translates Shelley's worries into contemporary comic book terms, it serves up callback after fan-wanking callback to other versions of heroes and villains from film and TV, seemingly with no other purpose than to burnish Warner Bros' properties and make the audience point to the screen and whisper the names of actors, characters, films, TV shows, and comic books that they recognize. Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Superman, Superman, Superman, Superman, Flash, Flash, Flash, etc., keep popping up scenes set in the "Chrono-Bowl," a cosmic switching station with a design that alludes to clockwork gears, the concentric rings of chopped-down trees, theater-in-the-round, and a tribunal. 

And rather than find an artful, modest way to repurpose library footage from earlier adaptations of DC comics—as, say, "In the Line of Fire" did with footage of a younger Clint Eastwood from " Dirty Harry "—the actors who originally played them, many of whom died long ago, have been scanned (or rebuilt) as vaguely three-dimensional but uncanny grotesques, like Madame Tussaud's wax figures laid over audio-animatronic puppets. Remember the process that "reanimated" Peter Cushing in "Star Wars: Rogue One," and later served up an even more unsettling "young Carrie Fisher " in the climax, paving the way for a nearly expressionless "young Mark Hamill " on "The Mandalorian," and de-aged '70s movie stars for various legacy sequels? It gets trotted out and multiplied ad nauseam here, even though the technology hasn't improved much. 

The film's principal cast also gets the zombie CGI treatment in the Chrono-Bowl, to visualize alternate realities. Some of the versions of these real, living actors with SAG cards and regularly updated IMDb pages look faintly demonic. The torsos and hands aren't anatomically credible. One has eyes that point in opposite directions like a gecko. Were the deadlines rushed and the digital effects artists exploited until quality control disappeared— a problem throughout the entertainment industry —or is the technology just not there yet? And even if it ever does "get there," will it ever not seem one (digital) step removed from wrapping a mannequin in corpse-flesh? Doing this sort of thing in a purely animated format moots such concerns. Everything in an animated comics adaptation is a drawing inspired by other drawings, and therefore a representation of a thing that is not meant to seem "real." Not so in live-action. "Hey, that's Actor X!" gives way to, "He looks kinda creepy and unreal," and the spell is broken.

What a mess. And what a shame, because what's good about "The Flash" is very good. The movie puts a lot of thought into what it wants to say and not enough into how it says it. It avidly warns against a thing while at the same time doing a version of that same thing. Barry, driven by a desire to resurrect the dead, grapples with the ethics and advisability of actions that the film constantly performs, in small ways and large, without breaking a sweat.  

Opens Friday, June 16th.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor at Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

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Film Credits

The Flash (2023)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some strong language and partial nudity.

144 minutes

Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash

Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl

Michael Shannon as General Zod

Ron Livingston as Henry Allen

Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen

Kiersey Clemons as Iris West

Antje Traue as Faora-Ul

Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman

Ian Loh as Young Barry Allen

Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Patty Spivot

Rudy Mancuso as Albert Desmond

• Andy Muschietti

Writer (story by)

• Joby Harold
• Christina Hodson

Cinematographer

• Henry Braham
• Jason Ballantine
• Paul Machliss
• Benjamin Wallfisch

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The Flash is a eulogy for every DC movie that never was

DC runs a victory lap in a race against itself

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For a movie about a guy who can move incomprehensibly fast, The Flash sure did arrive late. Originally planned for a 2016 release, according to a 2013 DC movie plan that ultimately proved too ambitious, The Flash arrives a full decade later from a chastened DC that’s getting ready to restart its cinematic universe with James Gunn in charge . In 2023, The Flash now serves as one of the final films in the Snyderverse , a eulogy for the Zack Snyder era of DC — but also, surprisingly, for all DC’s page-to-screen adaptations. The result is messy and strange: It’s a bright, breezy film that is overwhelmed by corporate hagiography, a pat on the back for a bunch of movies that never really worked out.

Given all this, the worst thing a movie called The Flash could do is feel slow. To its credit, the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour run time moves at an impressive clip. This is even more astonishing given that it has one of the most convoluted plots in a recent stretch of superhero films that are absolutely lousy with multiversal exposition. While it lacks the clarity or resonance of, say, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse , Christina Hodson’s script keeps the story squarely focused on its protagonist’s emotional journey and treats the finer points of its metaphysical world-building as flavor, an excuse to do some extremely comic book things.

The opening briefly reestablishes Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) as a part-time Justice League member and full-time forensics lab analyst on a personal journey to clear the name of his father, Henry (Ron Livingston), who’s been convicted of murdering Barry’s mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú). The plot kicks into gear when Barry learns that the last big potential break in his dad’s case will not exonerate him. In a moment of anguish, Barry discovers that if he runs fast enough, he can surpass the speed of light and travel through time, observing history in a ring of space-time he calls “the chronobowl.” Ignoring a warning from Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) about the perils of altering history, Barry decides to time travel to prevent his mother’s murder and his father’s imprisonment.

In spite of this angst-fueled premise, director Andy Muschietti ( It and It: Chapter Two ) smartly infuses the film with a Looney Tunes sensibility, reintroducing Barry with one of the goofiest opening sequences in a superhero film to date, and using the time-travel premise to make The Flash a buddy comedy, pairing Barry with a younger, more obnoxious version of himself from the past.

Most of the film takes place in a new timeline Barry creates, where the decision to save his mother ripples outward to create a version of the DC movie universe with no metahumans, on the brink of its foundational disaster: General Zod (Michael Shannon) arriving as he did in 2013’s Man of Steel , but this time, with no one to stop him. Barry is forced to recreate his superhero origin with his younger self, and to team up with the only known superhero in this timeline: Batman, but the one played by Michael Keaton in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman and its sequel.

This is where The Flash stops being a movie and instead becomes several other things, some of them outright cynical. There is the blatant nostalgia play in making Keaton’s Bruce Wayne/Batman the film’s biggest supporting character — a role Keaton, to his credit, does not phone in. Yet The Flash doesn’t stop there. Like Barry, the filmmakers run too far, too fast, and too wild, until their film nearly spirals out of their control in a confused tangle of meta-commentary and eulogy, contemplating the history of DC movie adaptations as well as the Snyderverse that began it, and that’s coming to a close shortly. (There’s still a second Aquaman movie and Blue Beetle on the way before Gunn’s universe, labeled the DCU, kicks off.)

In pivoting from time-travel caper into multiversal doomsday epic, Muschietti treats Barry’s emotional arc of acceptance less as the heart of The Flash , and more like its bookends, an experience Barry grows from in the hopes that the audience will also find it worthwhile. But so much of the substance of The Flash isn’t for Barry. It’s for the DC stalwarts who’ll get all the meta nods and in-jokes. The movie is a chronicle of corporate synergy, mashing together the old and new in an attempt to lure DC fans from across generations, with the assumption that meaning will emerge from mere recognition.

What’s so peculiar about The Flash ’s version of the multiverse shenanigans that have now taken place across three Spider-Man films, an entire Marvel animated TV series , and a Doctor Strange sequel is that so much of it leans on its audience knowing what might have been, and still craving it. It’s a film full of wistful what-ifs. What if Michael Keaton stayed on as the definitive movie Batman? How would he fit into the modern landscape? What if the Snyderverse wasn’t coming to an end as the James Gunn era of DC begins to lay its plans? What if The Flash could be free of having to address the controversy surrounding star Ezra Miller , and a bankable franchise could be built on their frankly bighearted and earnest performance?

The Flash is a bright, colorful, imaginative film with enough verve to pop off the screen, even though it’s often nonsensical in its wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff. But as fun as its imagery can be, it also signals the same priorities Muschietti showed in the It movies. So much of The Flash gives way to computer-generated effects, not just for the depiction of super-people fighting to save the world — Sasha Calle puts in a rage-fueled performance as Supergirl, even though the film leaves her with frustratingly little to do — but for its longing glances at alternate possible pasts, as Barry travels through time and space to see what might have been.

In these glances, the audience is shown a computerized guernica of faces and characters they know, or might have known. Yet disconcertingly, almost none of those familiar faces and familiar properties are played by real people. They’re just likenesses. Brands. A reward to the faithful who have actively followed not just the DC stories that came out in theaters, but the ones that almost did. In this, The Flash is the biggest, the ultimate DC comics movie. And it feels so much smaller for it.

The Flash opens in theaters on June 16.

This summer Batman: Year One, the best Batman comic, gets even better

The nice house by the sea is a dream vacation at the end of the world with the worst people you know, multiversus’ batman is still kevin conroy ‘for the foreseeable future’, loading comments....

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The Flash Reviews

Michael Keaton is the main reason to see “The Flash” (2023), the 13th film in the DC Extended Universe. Feel free to arrive at the theater under one hour late to see a decent Batman sequel otherwise you will be peeking at your watch

Full Review | May 25, 2024

For 2/3 of The Flash -- and it's too long -- it's kind of fun... in the last sections it becomes slightly video game-ish.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2024

Despite having fun throughout, The Flashisn't flawless, especially in its final act. But Miller as the eponymous superhero is clearly having fun, and so are the other key characters that wouldn't think twice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 28, 2023

Simply put, this movie is way fun and worth a watch in the theaters, put it on your list of to-do's this weekend.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 13, 2023

Given that seemingly every piece of media is unleashing its perception of whatever the multiverse may be, it’s refreshing that The Flash treats it as more of an existential test.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2023

... fun, generous, and entertaining. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2023

The Flash may be the most underrated, most underappreciated movie of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 27, 2023

Are multiverses just an excuse for not picking a tone or choosing a story? Our cinema’s flavor of the last few years may just be the child of channel-surfing... The Flash makes you feel simultaneously overserved and underserved.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2023

The Flash creates not just an origin story but lays the foundation for an emotional and layered performance few expect from superhero movies. He can see how things could have been, allowing him to question how he became the man and hero he believes he is.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2023

The result of literally decades of unsuccessful development, culminating in something that – if not borderline unwatchable – is certainly the most pronounced death throe of Warner Bros’ DC Extended Universe to date.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Sep 18, 2023

Color me shocked.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 8, 2023

Overall, The Flash is one of the better DCEU entries, but that’s not saying much for a universe of films often found thin or clunky. Muschietti focuses on the human side of meta-human Barry and that leads to a solid emotional journey.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2023

Perhaps the main problem with The Flash is there is too much of everything packed into its not short runtime. By the time we get to the final crisis of universes colliding it seems so inevitable that it’s tiring.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

With eighty percent of The Flash devoted to other DC heroes and underwhelming visual effects, the result seems like a foregone conclusion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Aug 30, 2023

The Flash has about two-thirds of a decent storyline, utilizing a much better characterization of the beloved superhero than we saw previously in the DC cinematic universe, but sadly the film is let down by a final act that unravels into a muddled mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 28, 2023

Ezra Miller’s superhero outing has an affecting storyline, fan service aplenty, and an easy-way-out anticlimax; maybe this is a befitting conclusion to the DCEU storyline.

Full Review | Aug 25, 2023

Ultimately, what you want to know, dear reader, is whether or not the film is worth your time? The best answer I can offer is: sorta.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2023

The characters are so driven that the film’s most earth-shattering moments don’t come during an epic battle, but in quiet moments of reflection and recognition of one’s responsibility. If you can get beyond multiverse overkill, this one is worth watching.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2023

It's an irregular superhero film that, with a handful of cameos and visual pyrotechnics, gets off to a fast-paced start by showing the origin of a solid Barry Allen played by Miller, but whose flashes fade at considerable speed. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 12, 2023

Setting aside the actor’s numerous legal issues, Miller turns in a masterful pair of performances.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 9, 2023

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Movie review: Ezra Miller speeds back to the future in ‘The Flash,’ fueled by calories and cameos

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ezra Miller, from left, Michael Keaton and Ezra Miller in a scene from “The Flash.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ezra Miller, from left, Ezra Miller and Sasha Calle in a scene from “The Flash.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ezra Miller, from left, Sasha Calle and Ezra Miller in a scene from “The Flash.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ezra Miller, left, and Sasha Calle in a scene from “The Flash.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows Ezra Miller in a scene from “The Flash.” (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)

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“It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature,” went a famous ’70s commercial catchphrase. But we learn in “The Flash” — the much awaited, long gestated new DC Studios offering — that it’s Father Time one musn’t cross. Because trying to change the past can really mess you up when you get back to the future and realize you’ve inadvertently changed that, too.

But of course, we already knew that. We learned it from Marty McFly, immortalized by Eric Stoltz in “Back to the Future.”

Relax! Of course it was Michael J. Fox, though Stoltz was initially cast in the role. But in “The Flash,” Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) realizes just how badly he’s messed up the space-time continuum when he arrives back from changing the past — just one teensy little thing, really — and learns that in his current world, Fox never replaced Stoltz. “I’ve destroyed the universe,” he frets in a laugh-out-loud moment.

If only the whole film, directed by Andy Muschietti and written by Christina Hodson, felt this breezily clever and entertaining. Alas, the final act bogs down in what feels like an endless, generic CGI battle and a kitchen-sink resolution that leaves one feeling just a little exhausted and somewhat confused.

We first meet Barry — Miller, whose naturally jittery energy is an excellent fit here — on the way to his job at a forensics lab, stopping to order breakfast. But then he gets a call from Alfred — yes, you know the one — needing his help in an imminent disaster. Barry turns into his red-suited alter-ego but desperately needs calories for fuel, begging a bystander for her candy bar.

Soon, in a rescue scene that’s audacious but also a little absurd, Barry is saving falling newborn babies from a collapsing hospital while desperately eating snacks. He also saves a maternity nurse — then suggests she seek the help of a mental health professional to cope with the trauma, noting “the Justice League is not very good at that yet.”

And now we must take a moment to consider the elephant in the room. Because it sure seems the movie wants us to.

If you’ve been reading about Miller lately, you know about the talented actor’s offscreen troubles. They’ve apologized for past behavior and said they’re undergoing mental health treatment.

So it hardly seems the line to the nurse is a coincidence, even if much of the trouble emerged during lengthy post-production. Could this be a subtle plea for empathy, so we can then appreciate what is, certainly, a compelling performance from Miller as not one, but two lead characters (why two? We’re getting to that.)

In any case, that line also sets a tone for many self-referential quips and sequences in a film that seems to thrive on, well, referring to itself and its roots. In this, the first standalone “Flash” film, the lineage of past Batmans, Supermans and associated characters is evoked early and often through surprise cameos. At one moment it feels like we’re watching an Oscar memorial reel; it garnered reverential applause at the screening I attended.

But back to the plot: Barry needs food, but what really powers him is the tragic murder of his mother (Maribel Verdu) in their home when he was a boy. Even worse, his father (Ron Livingston) is imprisoned — unjustly — for the crime.

Barry, desperate to prove his father innocent, suddenly discovers a way to go back in time (technical details are sparse, but it partly involves running REALLY fast) and comes up with a grander idea still. What if he could go back and prevent the whole sequence of events that led to his mother’s death? His friend and current Batman (the Ben Affleck version) tells him what a bad idea this is.

But Barry goes back anyway and makes a change, and what do you know — oops! – a younger Barry shows up (you may have seen them both in the trailer.) And now, for reasons too tough to explain within our word limit, Barry senior is potentially stuck in the wrong universe, with Barry junior.

What’s more, villainous General Zod (Michael Shannon) has returned, threatening total destruction. The Barrys need help. That’s how we find them with Michael Keaton’s Bruce Wayne, analyzing a pack of spaghetti.

It’s Keaton, having a fine time in his return as a graying, reluctant superhero, who explains the whole multiverse thing, showing with a deft manipulation of pasta strands how the past can’t change without the future changing. It all ends up with a gaggle of crazy spaghetti drowning under a shower of tomato sauce: a hot mess.

And we haven’t had time to mention Supergirl — newcomer Sasha Calle, who doesn’t get much to do before the battling starts, but at least provides some minimal female presence. Kiersey Clemons as a vague love interest has even less to do.

At one point in this 184-minute drama, I started wondering if I was seeing a bunch of disco balls trying to destroy each other. But maybe this was a moment of sensory overload.

Is a sequel in the offing, if the stars align offscreen as well? They’d have to come up with even more cameos, more surprises. Speaking of surprise: it’s probably never a good idea to leave while the credits are still rolling.

But again, we already knew that.

“The Flash,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release, has been rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America “for sequences of violence and action, some strong language and partial nudity.” Running time: 184 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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‘the flash’ review: ezra miller brings kinetic energy to a movie caught up in nostalgic dc fan service.

Andy Muschietti’s stand-alone superhero action-adventure features Michaels Keaton and Shannon reprising canonical roles, with newcomer Sasha Calle as Supergirl.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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'beetlejuice beetlejuice' trailer revives michael keaton in long-awaited sequel, m. night shyamalan's 'trap' trailer features josh hartnett as a serial killer at a concert.

The biggest news on the retro front is the return of Michael Keaton , more than 30 years after he last squeezed into the Batsuit. The frisson that exhilarates the audience when he first appears as a long-retired, reclusive Bruce Wayne, and shortly thereafter as a reborn Batman, continues in waves as each of his iconic Bat-vehicles revs its engine. And The Flash takes a leaf out of the Spider-Man: No Way Home book by welcoming back multiple actors who have played the Caped Crusader.

Spoiler avoidance makes it essential to keep the many cameos under wraps, but they pluck from both contemporary and vintage DC entries, even including one anticipated project that never came to fruition.

But before all that gets underway, Muschietti makes the smart decision to show us Barry at full speed in an amusing superhero riff on a James Bond-style action prologue.

Habitually late for his job in criminal forensics analysis at the Central City Research Center, Barry is further delayed at the breakfast bar where he picks up his regular morning fuel. An urgent call from Bruce Wayne’s butler Alfred (Jeremy Irons) alerts him to a situation unfolding that requires his immediate presence. Batman is in pursuit of fiends who have stolen a potentially deadly virus from Gotham Hospital, which is now collapsing into a sinkhole caused by their explosive entry.

The sequence gets us acquainted with the Flash’s red suit and zippy movement — a cool combo of high-cadence Tom Cruise sprint and ice-skater elegance, trailing luminous ribbons of electricity — as he sparks up and bolts across land and sea. It also introduces the self-deprecating humor that amps up the charm in Miller’s characterization as Barry. He describes himself as “the janitor of the Justice League,” always last on Alfred’s emergency call list and invariably cleaning up some Bat mess.

Back in Central City, Barry encounters his college crush, Iris West (Kiersey Clemons), now a journalist reporting on his father’s case. But that character’s presence here is more of a placeholder for later developments with which fans of the Flash comics will be familiar.

Pained by raw feelings stirred up by the trial, Barry stumbles on a way to use his superpowers to travel back in time, ignoring Bruce’s warning that tampering with the past will trigger an uncontrollable butterfly effect. The kinship between veteran and novice superheroes whose lives have both been defined by tragedy weaves in a moment of poignancy. Barry’s experiment works to a degree, but he gets punched out of the time-space continuum before completing his journey, landing him in the same timeline as his 18-year-old self, on the day he got his powers.

That glitch allows for Miller to display their sharp comic timing, as mature, mindful Barry and his impulsive adolescent counterpart struggle to find a workable middle ground. Their differences become more pronounced when a corrective experiment goes wrong, leaving the more seasoned Barry powerless and his reckless younger self equipped with gifts he can’t wait to use.

That development prompts a desperate attempt to round up the rest of the Justice League to halt Zod, starting with a very ornery Batman, who takes a hard pass on stepping back into the fray. In a scene that will tickle anyone who has ever gotten lost in superhero time-travel plotting, jaded Bruce uses spaghetti to explain multiverse theory, with a bowl of cooked pasta representing the tangled mess created by screwing with the continuum.

But the combination of older Barry’s reasoning and younger Barry’s excitable obstinacy inevitably reawakens Batman’s belief in justice and gains them access to the dusty wonders of the Batcave.

Like far too many superhero movies, The Flash gradually bogs down, devolving into rote mayhem as the protagonists go up against their mighty enemy in a chaotic clash where busy CG excess takes over from human — or humanoid — engagement. Shannon is wasted in generic snarling supervillain mode, while his vicious female sidekick (Antje Traue) looks fierce but mostly serves as a reminder of Sarah Douglas’ deliciously evil Ursa, second-in-command to Terence Stamp’s Zod in Superman and Superman II .

While the nostalgia often threatens to marginalize the central plotline, those scenes do yield pathos as the older Barry explains the futility of all that exertion to his teenage self, forcing them both to make the most painful sacrifice in order to set the world right.

The other distinguishing factor of the later action is the introduction of another seminal figure from DC lore — which, like the multi-Batman element, doesn’t really count as a spoiler since it’s all over the trailers.

While the search for Superman in a Siberian prison is unsuccessful, it does turn up his cousin Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl (Sasha Calle), who proves herself an invaluable ally and a tenacious opponent with a family grievance against Zod. In an impressive feature film debut, newcomer Calle is a quiet scene-stealer, channeling sullen Kristen Stewart energy and tough physicality that bodes well for her potential elevation to her own stand-alone movie.

If The Flash ultimately proves uneven, its wobbly climactic showdown far less interesting than the more character-driven buildup, the story’s core of a young man struggling to reconcile with the loss of his mother carries it through. Miller effectively layers that vein of melancholy beneath both the smart-aleck brashness of 18-year-old Barry and the rueful introspection of his older self.

The early word on The Flash calling it one of the greatest superhero movies ever made was pure hyperbole. But in the bumpy recent history of the DC Extended Universe, it’s certainly an above-average entry.

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Batman aside, 'The Flash' is far from one of the best superhero movies ever made

• Warning: Mild spoilers ahead for "The Flash."
• The Andy Muschietti-directed superhero movie has been overhyped by early critics.
• Michael Keaton's long-awaited return as Batman/Bruce Wayne is the film's best asset.

Early critics heralded "The Flash" as one of the best superhero movies ever made . That couldn't be further from the truth.

There's a scene early in Warner Bros.' latest DC outing where the titular hero (Ezra Miller) saves a group of babies and a nurse from falling to their deaths.

The dragged out, slowed-down scene involves a baby getting closed inside an unplugged microwave to save its life. Then, Miller's Barry Allen/The Flash offers mental health advice to a screaming nurse who's in shock. 

It's supposed to elicit laughter. Yet the fact that these scenes made the film's final cut given Miller's legal troubles , " complex mental health issues ," and accusations of grooming children make it difficult to separate the actor from his superhero facade. 

It gets better from there, but "The Flash" isn't the spectacle some critics and celebrities promised months ago.

The Andy Muschietti-directed movie, which has been in development as far back as the '80s, loosely follows the popular DC story "Flashpoint," in which the speedster travels back in time to prevent the death of his mother (Maribel Verdú) during his childhood. Unfortunately, changing the past alters the present. 

The Flash finds himself trapped in an alternate timeline where the Justice League doesn't exist and Superman villain Zod (Michael Shannon from 2013's "Man of Steel") threatens to once again take over Earth and transform it into a new home for his nearly extinct Kryptonian race.

Barry runs into his past self, a doe-eyed dingbat sans superpowers, and together they need to stop Zod and send the hero home. Help comes in the form of Supergirl (Sasha Calle) and a blast from the past — Michael Keaton's Batman, a cameo that's strategically been used in marketing, likely to take some of the attention off the film's troubled star.

Stuffed with unnecessary cameos seemingly for the sake of it, "The Flash" contains glimpses of fun, but is tonally uneven. It's often in conflict with itself over whether it wants to be a Batman nostalgia fest or about the fastest man alive.  

Michael Keaton's Batman is the best thing about 'The Flash' 

Let's be real. Despite being called "The Flash," audiences are likely venturing to theaters to see Keaton's reprisal as the Dark Knight. And Keaton doesn't disappoint. 

"The Flash" meanders and relies on cringey and juvenile jokes for much of its first hour. (The film lingers on an unfunny gag that will go over young viewers' heads about Eric Stoltz playing Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" in a different timeline for far too long.) 

It's not until Keaton shows up to fight two versions of the Flash with a broom on a table in nothing but sweats and one flip flop that the movie livens up. 

Every moment with Keaton on screen makes this movie worth watching. The actor gets the film's best fight sequence while effortlessly taking down Russians to Danny Elfman's familiar theme. 

Keaton reminds us his Batman can do anything efficiently, including delivering the most straightforward explanation of the multiverse in any comic-book movie to date using nothing more than a bowl of spaghetti. 

Every other hero outshines The Flash in this movie.

Miller gets overshadowed in their own film any time a version of Batman shows up (I won't spoil them all here). Affleck's latest and likely last outing as the Caped Crusader delivers an exciting chase scene through Gotham, while Keaton and one other Batman received the majority of the cheers in my early June screening filled with fans and journalists.

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At times, it feels like you're watching a follow-up to Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" instead of a standalone about the speedster. Throughout the film, Flash relies on Bats to formulate plans to get them out of trouble, help him restore his powers, and take down Zod.

The result is that The Flash feels more like a sidekick in his own film — even the movie poster has an identity crisis over which hero should be featured more prominently in a film titled "The Flash."

It's not just the Batmen who steal scenes.

Sasha Calle's Supergirl is another bright spot, featured in an adaptation of the popular "Red Son" Superman comic that explores what would've happened if Supes crash landed in Russia instead of a farm in Kansas. Though the film barely scratches the surface of the Eisner-winning Mark Millar story , Calle taps into a darker, more vengeful version of the hero than we've previously seen. 

Unfortunately, without giving away spoilers, the way the film wraps up Keaton and Calle's storylines makes it seem likely this will be the last time we see them in live-action.

The film is riddled with awful CGI

Noticeably wonky CGI makes "The Flash" tough to fully enjoy.

The babies Flash saves near the film's start look nightmarish . Any time the hero enters the Speed Force to try and turn back time, viewers see humans who look strangely animated, as if editors didn't have time to complete the film's effects. 

Apparently, it was intended to look " a little weird. " Muschietti and his sister, Barbara, who serves as a film's producer, told io9's Germain Lussier the CGI isn't a mistake . The visuals look the way they do on purpose to showcase those moments from Barry's point of view. 

Such an explanation would be fine; however, viewers have seen scenes from Barry's POV in previous DC films where his surroundings look well-defined. This jarring new take doesn't match with what's been introduced in the past. 

There's a better adaptation of 'Flashpoint' you can watch on Max.

"The Flash" is very good when it's a Batman movie and mediocre when it's about Barry Allen. 

The film fails to answer its biggest question: Who killed Barry's mom? Any fan familiar with The CW's nine-season "Flash" series — a show that debuted after WB's 2014 movie announcement and concluded weeks before its release — knows the culprit as Reverse Flash. Here, the question is ignored despite being at the heart of the film.

A Flash baddie could've naturally tied into the film's main story. 

Instead, "The Flash" bizarrely reintroduces Zod, a stale but familiar villain from one of DC's most divisive films, 2013's "Man of Steel," with a cliché goal of overtaking the planet. 

In doing so, the studio oddly revisits the Snyderverse era of DC that WB refused to continue . (As a reminder, Henry Cavill reprised his role as Superman in October's "Black Adam" only to be kicked to the curb two months later .)

By the film's end, Barry doesn't learn his lesson about fiddling with the past as his selfish actions result in another (less life-threatening) shift to the multiverse. It feels like a rushed sunset and solution to cleanly reset the DC universe moving forward, likely without Miller.

WB already made a more enjoyable Flashpoint adaptation in 2013 called " Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox ," currently streaming on Max . After you get your Keaton fix, watch that.

"The Flash," also starring Kiersey Clemons and Ron Livingston, is now in theaters.

Watch: How superhero costumes have evolved over 80 years in TV and movies

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‘The Flash’ Review: DC Makes a Solid Multiverse Film but a Poor Time Travel Story

Andy Muschietti finally brings the lightning-fast superhero to the big screen in his own adventure, with mixed results.

Over the last few years, movie-going audiences have been inundated with multiverses. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is currently making a dent at the box office, following up on the also-excellent Into the Spider-Verse , Marvel has been playing with the possibilities of multiple timelines for years now, and Everything Everywhere All at Once won the Best Picture Oscar earlier this year. Not only is the multiverse as a storytelling tool a way for characters that seemingly could never meet to finally come together, but it’s also a way to indulge in extreme fan service—which can be a good or a bad thing.

What Is 'The Flash' About?

The Flash , which has been in some form of development since the 1980s, is DC’s first major dip into the multiverse, and with the company’s long history of superhero projects, there are plenty of opportunities to dive into the past decades of beloved characters, heroes, and the stories that could’ve been. But The Flash isn’t just a multiverse story, it’s also a time-travel story. Based on the Flashpoint comic book storyline, The Flash ’s story has Barry Allen/The Flash ( Ezra Miller ) not only experiencing another timeline, but going back in time to do so. While The Flash is quite enjoyable as a multiverse story, the film’s biggest issues come from this time travel aspect, which sets up its own rules and then disregards them when it’s convenient.

The Flash finds Barry Allen as the self-proclaimed “janitor of the Justice League,” cleaning up the smaller messes while the other heroes handle the bad guys. In the opening scene, Allen’s The Flash has to rescue a maternity ward full of babies from falling out of a building, while Batman ( Ben Affleck ) chases after the true villains, in a scene that can’t help but remind of Christopher Nolan ’s Batman films—with Affleck riding a motorcycle reminiscent of that trilogy. But more important to him than his superhero duties is Barry’s desire to get his dad Henry ( Ron Livingston ) out of prison for the murder of Barry’s mother Nora ( Maribel Verdú ) when Barry was a child. Despite the help of Bruce Wayne with some security footage, it looks as though Henry is still going to remain behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit.

RELATED: How Many Multiverses Are Too Many Multiverses?

But one night, Barry realizes he can run fast enough to actually go back in time, and if he can’t help his dad in the present, maybe he can go back and stop his mom’s death altogether? Despite Bruce saying that any changes in the past could have massive implications on the future, Barry wants his family back together and goes back to save his mom. While he is able to reunite his family, his choice has a huge impact on this reality, as he meets that timeline’s Barry, has to ensure that this alt-version also goes through the same incident that turned him into The Flash, and deal with the threat of General Zod ( Michael Shannon ) on this world.

For DC, who has had a shaky reputation in recent years with the DCU, the multiverse is kind of a perfect idea for this company that has been putting out live-action superhero stories since the 1950s. There’s a rich history of beloved characters and even more comic iterations to explore, which is what The Flash does so well. In the multiverse that Barry finds himself in, Bruce Wayne is not played by Affleck, but instead, heralds the return of Michael Keaton as Batman. In this world, Batman has cleaned up Gotham, and now, Bruce is bearded and living in a messy mansion without the assistance of Alfred. It’s great to see Keaton return in this role, and he seems to be having a ton of fun revisiting the cape and cowl, and director Andy Muschietti —like with the opening’s homage to Nolan—does his best to make this version of Wayne Manor feel like it’s straight out of Tim Burton ’s films. Keaton works as a mentor to both Barrys, and caps off his time as The Caped Crusader in a way that is a satisfying, welcome return for the character.

The Flash also has quite a bit of fun playing with these alternate-universe possibilities. In addition to Keaton, Miller is also quite excellent as the dual Barrys, bringing a sense of humor to this role while never undercutting the emotional stakes at hand in terms of trying to save his family. The Flash also introduces us to Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle , who has been trapped in a prison for years and shows her fury at the human race in a way that makes sense for this character. It was understandable for people to be mad about the DCU’s handling of Superman’s anger in the past, but with Supergirl, this rage is a practical reaction to this character’s experiences. Calle plays Supergirl as her own thing, not tied to the mannerisms or behavior of Superman, which makes her a character that feels both familiar and unique.

'The Flash' Is Best in the Smaller Moments

The Flash also does a nice job of exploring the mentorship within this universe. Affleck and Keaton both handle Barry(s) in their own ways, and with their shared loss of family, this connection is inherently touching in how it's handled. Similarly, it’s a joy to watch the original Barry teaching the new Barry how to use his newfound powers, and coming to some realizations about himself and his own annoyance. It’s because of these bonds and these characters that The Flash is most interesting when it's a character drama and not a superhero film.

The Flash works best when it’s centered on Allen’s desire to reunite his family, and it’s the character moments that really stand out here. Having two Barrys discuss the possibilities of the multiverse with a dirty Michael Keaton Bruce Wayne is far more interesting than the big, superhero action scenes that have become expected in the third act of DC films. The screenplay by Christina Hodson , with story by John Francis Daley , Jonathan Goldstein , and Joby Harold , is great in the smaller moments and muddled when it becomes a “superhero film.” Because of that, The Flash often feels too stuffed with ideas that not all of them are given justice. Throughout the film, Zod is almost an afterthought, and the final fight—like many DC films—often feels like a kid slamming overly-CGI’ed action figures at each other. This packed story also hurts the smaller moments, as the film also attempts to give Allen a love interest with Kiersey Clemons ’ Iris West, a journalist and former classmate of Barry, but there’s just not enough time to make her anything more than just a tool for Barry’s realizations.

Speaking of the film’s CGI and special effects, it’s almost distracting in its quality throughout The Flash . Muschietti attempts to make Barry’s running at high speeds look as cool as it can, but there’s never any weight to it, and it never feels like anything more than an actor running through a world that simply doesn’t exist. And while it’s great to see Keaton back as Batman, the overreliance on special effects in any big fights makes it clear that he was never even close to the set for these moments. But it’s not just when the fights are huge that this becomes apparent as, even in smaller scenes, the falseness of a character being added to a scene they clearly weren’t in is distracting. This is at its most awkward when Barry goes back in time and sees the multiple possibilities, which turns all the opportunities into realities that look like PlayStation 3 characters—not to mention some fairly questionable usage of likenesses.

'The Flash's Exploration of Time Travel Just Doesn't Work

But the biggest flaw in The Flash is how the film explores its time travel. The Flash takes its time to set up the rules, using Back to the Future as a constant and easy reference point (in this alternate timeline, Eric Stoltz played Marty McFly, while Michael J. Fox starred in Footloose ), and even utilizing some of that film’s imagery for its own story. Without spoiling The Flash ’s ending, the film both wants to have its emotional realizations, while also still giving this character a happy ending in a way that undermines the lesson Barry is supposed to be learning in the first place. In the end, he’s still making the same mistakes, without seemingly realizing that he hasn’t grown in any way. It’s an awkward choice that in many ways damns the story overall—a false hero’s journey that never learns its lesson.

The Flash clearly wants its audience to get caught up in the excitement of multiverse adventures, returning superhero favorites, and fun antics of Barry Allen, to the point that they never consider that the time travel aspects make absolutely no sense, and only hurts the larger story in the way that it’s handled here. Thankfully, those antics are enjoyable and hard not to get excited about, but unfortunately, this isn’t a story that holds together on a narrative level. Cameos and fan service are fine to have, but the story has to be there to back them up, and it’s not quite there with The Flash .

The Flash comes to theaters on June 16.

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‘The Flash’ Review: Electric Company

In the latest DC Comics blowout, Ezra Miller suits up as the speedy superhero alongside special guests like Batman (hello, Michael Keaton).

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By Manohla Dargis

The Flash, the latest DC Comics superhero to get his very own big show, isn’t the outfit’s usual brooding heavyweight. He’s neither an old-style god nor new (a.k.a. a billionaire), but an electrified nerd who joined the super-ranks by accident, not by birthright or by design. Out of uniform, he is a normie, a goof and kind of endearing. He’s really, really fast on his feet, you bet. But what makes him pop onscreen is that when things go bigger and grimmer here, as they invariably do in blowouts of this type, he retains a playful weightlessness.

That’s a relief, particularly given how the movie tries to clobber you into submission. Big action-adventures invariably give the viewer a workout, smacking you around with their shocks and awesomeness, though it sometimes feels as if contemporary superhero movies have taken this kind of pummeling to new extremes. That may be true, though movies have long employed spectacle — pyrotechnics, lavish set pieces — to bait, hook and bludgeon the audience so it keeps begging for more. If the bludgeoning feels more inescapable these days, it’s partly because the major studios now bank so heavily on superhero movies.

“The Flash” is one of the more watchable ones. It’s smartly cast, ambitious and relatively brisk at two and a half hours. The story tracks Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) and his superhero persona, the Flash, as he whooshes, wrapped in tendrils of lightning; traverses space-time continuums; and tries to exonerate his father (Ron Livingston), who’s in prison for killing Barry’s mom (Maribel Verdú). As is usually the case with superhero movies, the story is nonsensical and convoluted — it’s no wonder a character uses a tangle of cooked spaghetti to try to explain a major plot point — but not calamitously so. The overall vibe is upbeat.

Some of that liveliness comes from Miller, a tense and almost feverishly charismatic presence. (Their well-publicized offscreen troubles hang like a cloud over this movie.) Some of the Flash’s appeal, of course, is also baked into the original comic-book character, “the fastest man on Earth,” who first hit in 1940 (via creators Gardner Fox and Harry Lampert) and was revamped (by Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino) in 1956. Five years later in Issue No. 123 , these versions of the Flash (there are others) discover that they exist on two seemingly separate Earths, an idea this movie, well, runs with by introducing parallel DC Comics realms.

It’s a conceit that pays off the second a shambolic Michael Keaton makes his entrance as a graybeard puttering about a near-derelict Wayne Manor. Having hung up his Bat-suit in his reality (while DC has repeatedly rebooted the franchise in ours), Bruce appears to have entered the Howard Hughes chapter of his cosseted life when Barry drops by. Long story short, the two rapidly join forces, dust off the Batcave tech, furrow their brows and suit up, as other members of the DC stock company join the party, including Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons), General Zod (Michael Shannon) and Supergirl (Sasha Calle).

The entrance of these company players are timed like special-guest appearances — ladies and gentlemen, Zod the Zaniac! — and they’re obviously meant to delight true believers. To a degree, they also feel like they’ve been brought in to shore up the Flash during his first stand-alone outing. Cramming the screen with established names to hedge their expensive bets is an old-fashioned studio gambit, whether in a 1920s musical revue or 1970s disaster flick. Whatever the rationale here, the results are amusing, and it’s especially nice to see Keaton, who first played Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 film . He seems to be having a good time, and when he looks in the mirror approvingly, it’s easy to share in his self-admiration.

Working from a script by Christina Hodson, the director Andy Muschietti keeps these pieces greased and quickly moving, though he almost blows it as soon as the movie begins. It opens with an unfunny protracted bit in which Barry, who’s late for work, orders a sandwich from a pokey server. (That the first villain in the story is a service worker is a choice.) While the guy readies the order, Barry turns into the Flash to help his world’s Batman (an uncredited Ben Affleck) dispatch some villains. It goes as expected — bam, splat — but then a hospital wing collapses, and newborn babies go flying, hurtling toward the street.

It’s a creepy setup that Muschietti milks for laughs that become queasier and ickier the longer and the more gleefully flamboyant the scene plays out. It’s absurd, outrageous, digitally fabricated and needless to say the Flash will save the day. The problem is that Muschietti, who has a talent for fraying your nerves with images of child endangerment (as he showed in the “It” horror flicks), is so obviously pleased with these airborne babies that he keeps showing off (turning a microwave into a bassinet), which drains the sequence both of its outlandish comedy and of any tension that might make the Flash’s heroism resonate.

The movie more or less recovers, settling into its lively groove, even if the Flash remains a curiously uncertain presence. Surrounding him with bigger superheroes may have made branding sense, but the net effect is that the movie never persuasively establishes the Flash as a confident stand-alone entity. That may make the question of Miller playing him in the future moot. Who knows? Last year, Miller apologized for their behavior and said they were seeking treatment for “ complex mental health issues .” I liked “The Flash” well enough while watching it. But thinking and writing about it and everything that has gone down has been dispiriting — real life has a way of insinuating itself into even better-wrought fantasies.

The Flash Rated PG-13 for superhero violence. Running time: 2 hours 24 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic of The Times, which she joined in 2004. She has an M.A. in cinema studies from New York University, and her work has been anthologized in several books. More about Manohla Dargis

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‘The Flash’ Review: DC’s Trip Into the Movie Multiverse Is Wild, Weird, and Ultimately Wearying

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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The release of DC’s “ The Flash ” comes at a particularly complicated time for the superhero outfit — there’s the myriad documented concerns, both potentially criminal and definitely personal , that have plagued star Ezra Miller , plus the issues that have pushed DC Studios into a moment of change and upheaval — but perhaps the most immediate worry is that the film arrives on the heels of another superhero blockbuster that covers similar ground, and does it better by nearly every metric. 

Yet, taken on its own merits, Andy Muschietti’s film has lots to offer, and frequently shows flashes (apologies) of brilliance that set it a cut above most of its existing DC Universe brethren . In its best moments, the film is funny, ambitious, and heartfelt, but it’s also frequently buried under iffy effects, convoluted storytelling, and a been-there-done-that familiarity that’s hard to shake. Just days after so many superhero fans were reminded of the possibility of the genre , “The Flash” mostly feels like a great example of a dying breed of blockbuster joint. It’s, somehow, already dated.

A high-energy opening sequence steeps us in Barry’s everyday life, from the necessity of a high-caloric breakfast (and a natty smartwatch that tells him when his energy is running low) to the high levels of popularity he enjoys when he’s in his super suit (he’s basically a nobody when he’s out of it), as the speedster is dispatched to help Batman (Ben Affleck) and Alfred (Jeremy Irons) during a Gotham-set hospital disaster. It’s a wonderful kick-off, showing off The Flash’s prodigious powers and his wily sense of humor, as he cracks wise about being the Justice League’s janitor while also saving a pack of babies in increasingly ingenious ways.

“The Flash” opts for an ambitious — and, we’re guessing, potentially divisive — way of showing off Barry’s time-turning powers: when he runs fast enough, he lands in a massive amphitheater (eventually referred to as the “Chronobowl”) in which every iteration of Barry’s life, every possible universe, flows up and out. All he has to do is run fast enough and far enough, and he can pick which moment to pop back into. Like, oh, perhaps the moment his mother forgot to buy a can of tomatoes, which ultimately led to her death in the Allen family home all those years ago? Barry, for all of his smarts, can’t deny what his heart wants: to save his mother, to save his father, to save himself.

Other things have changed, too, flourishes that run the gamut and are often quite funny and clever — this timeline includes everything from a fast casual joint named “Bananabee’s” to a “Back to the Future” franchise that really did star the originally-cast Eric Stoltz (Michael J. Fox? Isn’t he the guy in “Footloose”? Kevin Bacon? No, no, he’s the star of “Top Gun”!) — original enough choices that add real pop to an otherwise heady storyline. But Barry (and, yes, Other Barry) have too many problems to really enjoy them, including yet another major roadblock: Other Barry doesn’t have powers, and when he finally gets them, our original Barry is left without them. Sounds like a fun fight for General Zod.

( Small spoiler alert for “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” here. ) In “Across the Spider-Verse” the breaking of “canon” — changing the core events that are duplicated in the life of every Spidey, from being bitten by a radioactive spider to losing a close compatriot who happens to be a police captain — is so dangerous that it has the power to rip the very fabric of the multiverse itself. Changing these key plot points is so horrifying that it’s basically forbidden, but it is  possible . In “The Flash,” the concept of canon events is flipped on its head: Bruce calls them “inevitable intersections,” essential moments that occur in every timeline, no matter how many tweaks Barry (or whoever) tries to throw at them.

Part of the problem: the way this all looks and moves. This particular story doesn’t work without two Barry Allens and Miller, for all their off-screen troubles, does turn in wonderful, funny, soulful performances in both iterations, but this ambitious idea isn’t entirely supported by the technology at hand. Once you start seeing the seams, the moments when Miller’s face is obviously stitched on another body, when these two superheroes are clearly not in the same room (of course such a thing is not possible, but what of the possibility of movie magic in tricking us to think it?), when the artifice of this entire outing is lost to fuzzy effects, it’s all too easy to fall out of the feature.

And then? You can’t help but see more seams, more problems, more cracks. And, as is the case with most time travel stories, the less time you spend trying to understand and untangle how it all works, the better. Once that veil is lifted, it’s hard to fall back into the film (to say nothing of the itchy feeling inspired by its ending, probably once very fun and tongue-in-cheek, but that now feels utterly played out and exhausting).

Warner Bros. will release “The Flash” in theaters on Friday, June 16.

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THE FLASH: Detailed Ending & Post-Credits Scene Breakdowns Reveal How [Spoiler] Factors Into The Movie

We now have a more detailed breakdown of the ending of The Flash , and it reveals how a certain character that's long been rumored to appear factors into the movie. Major spoilers follow...

More in-depth breakdowns of both the final scene and post-credits sequence of The Flash have found their way online (via @CanWeGetToast ), and they reveal details of one particular cameo that was thought to be a joke for quite a while!

As far as we know, these scenes featured in the most recent press screening of the movie, and will likely be included in the upcoming theatrical release.

So, major spoilers follow from this point on!

As previously rumored, George Clooney's take on Bruce Wayne reportedly shows up at the end of the film. The timeline context is a bit murky, but it sounds like Barry Allen gets trapped in his reality, as he says "you're not Batman" to the shocked hero, who looks around to make sure nobody has heard The Flash reveal his big secret.

Then, in the stinger, we see Barry (the original version, presumably) and Aquaman  (Jason Momoa) walking out of a bar. Arthur finds it hard to believe that there are different Batmen all across the Multiverse, and asks about himself. Allen tells him he's the same "furry, friendly guy" (Curry is a dog in Supergirl's world, apparently), before the Atlantean hero falls face down in a puddle and tells his fellow Justice Leaguer to find them more beer.

What do you make of these details? Be sure to let us know in the comments, and check back later on when the review embargo lifts.

"Directed by Andy Muschietti, The Flash features Barry Allen traveling back in time in order to change events of the past. But when his attempt to save his family inadvertently alters the future, Barry becomes trapped in a reality in which General Zod has returned, threatening annihilation, and there are no Super Heroes to help. That is, unless Barry can coax a very different Batman out of retirement and rescue an imprisoned Kryptonian…albeit not the one he’s looking for.

Ultimately, to save the world that he is in and return to the future that he knows, Barry’s only hope is to race for his life. But will making the ultimate sacrifice be enough to reset the universe?"

The Flash  is produced by Barbara Muschietti and Michael Disco, with a screenplay by Christina Hodson, and a screen story by John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein and Joby Harold, based on characters from DC. Warner Bros. Pictures presents a Double Dream/a Disco Factory production of an Andy Muschietti film.

THE FLASH: Hot Toys Has Canceled Its Upcoming Young Barry Allen Figure (But Not For The Reason You'd Expect)

Christopher Reeve's Children Confirm They Had No Involvement With His CGI SUPERMAN Cameo In THE FLASH

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