Flash & Dash
Against all odds, it doesn’t totally suck.
the Flash
Directors: Andy Muschietti • Writer: Christina Hodson
Starring: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Kiersey Clemons, Maribel Verdú, Ben Affleck
USA • 2hrs 24mins
Opens Hong Kong June 15 • IIA
Grade: B
Let’s be honest. The Flash has no right being nearly as good as it is. If ever a movie came with baggage, it’s The Flash. First it came in the wake of a disastrous Justice League movie, then came Warner’s sale to AT&T, then its purchase by Discovery. After which star Ezra Miller went off the rails and allegedly start grooming young girls and get in a million bar fights in Hawaii. Then the new overlords at Discovery decided they need to get their budget in order and killed the mostly finished Batgirl – a bad look given the Miller clusterfuck and keeping the (rumoured) $250 million The Flash on the release schedule. Somewhere in there DC imploded and hired then fired Henry Cavill as Superman, set Wonder Woman III adrift, foisted Black Adam and Shazam: Fury of the Gods upon an unsuspecting public, and called James Gunn for a rescue. Vaguely in that order. The Flash has every right to be a hot mess.
But against all odds it’s not. It’s fortunate that it has particularly strong comic source material to draw from, and elements from one of DC’s more compelling crossovers in Flashpoint. It’s also fortunate that writer Christina Hodson (Bumblebee) has tackled DC material in the past, even if it was the hit-and-miss Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Problem with that was there were no damn birds of prey; they got together in the last 20 minutes. WTF? Director Andy Muschietti (Mama), who’s shown off a flair for the spooky, gets the reins for this one, and thank god it’s just one film because It (2017) was great and It Chapter Two was a turkey. The Flash is pretty much what you expect. Miller is a LOT to handle, and with the alternative time stream story, he’s in almost every scene. It’s nice to see Michael Keaton don the batcape again, even if he now seems like another iteration of Ben Affleck’s bitter Bruce Wayne. Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El is a nice jolt of energy who … gets nothing to do. Some of the jokes splat like bird turds, but the ones that land are solid. It’s far from embarrassing; it’s about a bajillion times better than Black Adam and Wonder Woman 1984, not quite the goofy fun of Aquaman, and it’s remarkably well paced given its generous running time. But it’s not going to set the superhero world on fire.
It’s a lot of Ezra Miller
As has been well documented, Warner Bros. Discovery has been abjectly paranoid with screenings, dropping embargoes and controlling the narrative to an unprecedented and ridiculous degree. Therefore, this review is based on the preview cut that was clearly labelled “NOT THE FINAL EDIT”. You can practically see these dudes in a boardroom throwing tantrums while ignoring the striking writers outside their windows and who will have a lot to do with any success The Flash has but fuck them. I digress. The Flash begins with an excellent set piece that puts all the film’s peaks and valleys in one convenient package: Barry Allen (Miller) is trying to get to work at Star Labs and he’s being held by a slow barista. He’s called away by Batman (Affleck) to save a collapsing hospital, but he didn’t get his high calorie breakfast so it’s tough going. There’s a maternity ward involved so needless to say, the image of falling babies – and a service dog for good measure – is darkly hilarious. It’s a great action sequence, a great character sequence, a great technical sequence, but it also pivots on Miller at his most grating with maximum kvetch. Strap in.
The rest of the story follows Barry’s attempt to find that one moment in the past, that flashpoint if you will, that prevents his mother’s murder and his father’s mistaken imprisonment. He finds it, and despite Bruce’s warning, heads back in time and fucks up the world. Worlds. When he’s stranded in another time stream (it’s not quite a metaverse) with his other self, The Two Barrys (Barries?) seek out that world’s Bruce Wayne (Keaton), to help fix it. Fixing it involves busting Superman out of prison – wait. It’s not Clark/Superman in this ’verse, it’s Kara Zor-El (soap star Calle in her feature debut) because in this world Supes never got to Earth and General Zod (Michael Shannon, whose innate weirdness is always, always welcome) is unstoppable.
As we said: this is an unfinished edit. Just how unfinished remains to be seen, though the fundamental story is unlikely to change. The momentum stems from Barry grieving his mother (Maribel Verdú, Y tu mamá también, Apple TV+ series Now and Then) and gives The Flash its emotional core, and Barry’s eventual struggle with his wish fulfilment, recognising trauma as part of his identity, fate and “what ifs”, and not letting the world die is well played by Miller, who, despite being a social menace is a very good actor when they’re not laying down some bizarre giggle as Other Barry. But then the third act happens and the cut scene visuals come out to clang with some genuine drama, and you can only sit there and wonder how no one saw this cliff coming. If VFX touch-ups on the big, noisy, anti-physics boss fight in the finale of crashing times and worlds are part of the as-yet-unreleased edit, more power to it. The segment is jam packed with Easter eggs to go with the copious fan service, and high profile archival footage (Christopher Reeve!), but it’s so garish and mucky it’s hard to see any of it – strange considering how good some of the other CGI is. The film was turned off before the credits, so that flashy (sorry), mystery (not really) stinger remains, well, a mystery. We’ll get back to you in a few days with an update. — DEK