Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Starring: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Ben Affleck, Kiersey Clemons, Maribel Verdu, Jeremy Irons
The Flash is yet another multiverse superhero movie which serves as little more purpose than allwoing the viewer to wonder when a "hey look, it's..." cameo will appear on screen. The Flash outdoes its predecessors by including not only Michael Keaton returning as Batman, but a CGI George Reeves and Christopher Reeve as Superman, and Helen Slater as Supergirl from decades ago. Why are Reeves' and Reeve's images in the film at all? Don't ask because I don't know. Outside of the obligatory cameos, The Flash is what has become tiresome in superhero movies: CGI run wild, things blowing up, and bodies flying around, all centered around a time-travel plot which on its surface could be interesting if the movie dialed down.
I'm sure I'm not the only person who is weary of superhero movies. The box office figures tell the tale. The Flash doesn't distinguish itself from the other noisy, overwrought movies of the genre. Once the initial, very brief thrill of seeing Michael Keaton once again as Bruce Wayne/Batman, then where does it go from there? The Flash stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen, the twentysomething who can run nearly as fast as the speed of light, with lightning flashing all around him as he does it. After an opening sequence involving a botched robbery, a collapsing hospital with babies from the maternity ward falling from the sky, Batman chasing the thieves and causing traffic disasters all over Gotham, The Flash discovers he can actually run faster than the speed of light and travel through time. Do you recall when Batman wanted to kill Superman in Batman v. Superman because Superman was never held accountable for collateral damage? Batman apparently doesn't recall that either.
The Flash's mother Nora (Verdu) was murdered years ago and his father Henry (Livingston) was unjustly convicted of the crime. Barry has been working to free his father from prison ever since. Despite warning from Bruce Wayne (Affleck) not to travel back in time to fix the past, Barry finds this too tough a temptation to resist and returns to the past where he saves his mother from her death and runs into his past self who does not have any of The Flash's powers. In a lab experiment gone wrong, the current Flash is stripped of his powers as the unwitting past Flash gains them but doesn't know what to do with them. Then, General Zod (Shannon), the criminal from Krypton shows up and wreaks havoc on Earth because somehow Superman's vessel never made it Earth and the only other survivor of the extinct planet is Supergirl (Calle). The Flash(s) find an alternative Bruce Wayne/Batman (Keaton) who aids them in their battles against Zod complete with incoherent battle scenes which take place in a desert where it's hard to see who's who.
The Flash is incoherence itself with Miller at the center looking as bewildered as everyone else. Barry Allen doesn't have the mystery of a Bruce Wayne or youthful enthusiasm of Peter Parker/Spider-Man. However, the best scenes in The Flash, of which there aren't many, involve Barry keenly feeling the pain of the loss of his mother and handling that. Those scenes are fleeting, and we're mostly stuck with dull action and stunt cameos, including Nicolas Cage as Superman from the Superman film abandoned long ago. How many audience members would actually understand the reference?
No comments:
Post a Comment