The Flash

I was hesitant about watching this film. DC has always left me a bit skeptical, although my doubts are slowly fading with each new release. Plus, Ezra Miller, who’s not exactly Hollywood’s most beloved face, plays the lead. But I was wrong. DC is rising from the ashes and might just be digging Marvel's grave. Flash turns out to be an incredibly enjoyable, laid-back movie that truly earns its blockbuster status. Despite his controversies, Miller delivers a surprisingly likable performance in a dual role. The film is packed with fantastic references to various parallel dimensions that will thrill any fan, especially with the return of Michael Keaton. Overall, this movie is an unexpectedly good superhero adventure with the classic time paradox theme, making it even more delightful if you didn't see it coming. It certainly delighted me. (08/09/2023)

Visually, it often looks worse than excrement, the quality of the humour highly surpasses the bar of awkwardness already in the opening sequence with the babies and doesn't dip below it for the rest of the film, and Ezra Miller is the most annoying, sleazy superhero I can remember, and as if that wasn't enough, he's here twice. And perhaps because of this off-kilter combination of strange creative choices, I actually ended up enjoying it more than I ever dared to expect. I just can't see The Flash as being another rank-and-file comic book film, it feels more like a parody, like the Hot Shots comic-book adaptations (thanks to which it’s not a problem that it doesn't make much sense). God forbid that someone would follow it up in style to set a trend (which won't happen given the box office flop), but as a one-off, for me, it’s quite the guilty pleasure. (18/07/2023)

I find that I get bored with these comic book movies, unless it's an R-rated movie in the style of Suicide Squad or Deadpool . This one is just another in a line of mediocre originals where a couple of old characters (Keaton and Shannon) are enjoyable, but otherwise I wasn't too blown away. The humour didn't work for me, and I only liked two of the the action scenes (the opening slow motion scene with the babies is fun). The finale itself is decent too, but everything in between doesn't really stick and flows along without much interest, though it was a bit more fun than Doctor Strange. The multiverse is presented surprisingly more clearly here than in Marvel. As a one-shot, The Flash is okay, but nothing I keep coming back to. 6/10. (08/07/2023)

The Flash is a highly unorthodox superhero movie that defies standards and is so unpredictable plot that it won me over and I'm satisfied! The Flash, thanks to his ability to run faster than light, goes back in time to rescue his mother, but as it happens, everything goes wrong and he gets caught up in a different world. Most of the superheroes don't exist, Michael Keaton is Batman (nostalgia!!), we have Superwoman flying around, and we get a new Flash from the present day of that line. On the one hand, I initially remarked that even DC couldn't avoid the parallel multiverse idea, but in the end they played with this one very well and I enjoyed all those ideas, characters, cameos and changes. The first half of the film runs purely on the comedy side and it's in the second half that we get the bad guy, the action and the unexpectedly engaging multiverse and everything in it, right up until the final shot that suggests there's still more to watch in a sequel. The idea of "walking through walls" and going back in time are fine fleshing out of a "basic" character like the Flash and show that he's a far more important character to DC's version than he originally seemed, and when you add in the backstory reveal of how and when he got his powers, we have another superhero I definitely want to see on screen! Well in the end, a perfectly satisfactory enough popcorn movie, I'm not sure why everyone is hating on it like this. Oh, and the cameo by Nicolas Cage and George Clooney are great! For a director of three horror features, definitely a quality first film in the genre! (15/06/2023)

After Marvel's Spider-Man, I went "across parallel worlds" for the second time this week, and even though DC is a bit behind in this regard, I left the cinema quite satisfied. Though the plot of The Flash, like the new Spider-Man, revolves around the (un)avoidability of fate that goes hand in hand with the reckless actions of the main character, I didn't feel like I was watching a copycat in the theater. In spite of the at times rather trivial visual effects – especially in the opening with the raining babies (it worked better for Quicksilver in Days of Future Past and Apocalypse) and in that vicious knot – I enjoyed Barry's new adventure, thanks in no small part to the participation of Michael Keaton, who is still the most likeable Batman for me, and Maribel Verdú's small but essential role. I liked the return (albeit in CGI) of the old but also never-realized Batman, I enjoyed the allusions to other films and I appreciate that they prepared some nice script surprises alongside the mandatory action. If I were being strict, I'd give the film three stars, but since it just sat right with me in the theater by entertaining, surprising, and moving me, I give it a (weaker) four. (17/06/2023)