Underappreciated: The Flash

Underappreciated, Likewise

For the past two weeks, my subject has been films that had a larger budget, targeted blockbuster status, and are part of an established intellectual property. This is the last for this particular series of three. The previous two films were Terminator Salvation and RoboCop (2014). Even with the higher bar for audience response, to be underappreciated is to have deserved better. Critical opinion is not necessarily as important for these films, but good reception does usually equate to longevity.

The Flash (2023) | Superhero Action

Much of my focus for posts on items that originated on the pages of comic books thus far has been Batman. In order, The Dark Knight was a contender for "Into the Fray: Sequels", I shared some Batman '66 Trivia & Stats, my opinion through "Retro (mini)Reviews" for the Batman Anthology '89-'97, my multiverse theory regarding those same films, and "Into the Fray: Batman". With Batman comes a fandom for most things DC. Marvel's success with its interconnected cinematic universe (most of the Infinity Saga, great, but very much hit and miss since) led Warner Bros. to make a league of their own with the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), also hit and miss. I do believe if they had stuck with Zack Snyder's vision for the main line films and not made so many side films, it might have found its audience and eventual better appreciation for films such as Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice. A film announced early on and went through quite a bit of change before the final product was The Flash. [Huge Spoiler Alerts ahead.]

Directed by Andy Muschietti from a screenplay by Christina Hodson, The Flash is heavily influenced by the Flashpoint (which was in fact its title for a bit) storyline, which has The Flash traveling back into the past and inadvertently creating an alternate reality. It stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash (and a younger alternate Barry), with Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot and Jeremy Irons also reprising their respective DCEU roles of Batman, Wonder Woman and Alfred Pennyworth for the prologue. Other DCEU actors play alternate versions of their previous characters, including Michael Shannon as General Zod, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West and Antje Traue as Faora-Ul. Michael Keaton returns to the role of Batman/Bruce Wayne, as well, albeit a different version than from Tim Burton's Batman and Batman Returns. Sasha Calle, Ron Livingston (replacing Billy Crudup from both cuts of Justice League) and Maribel Verdú round out the supporting cast as Kara Zor El/Supergirl, Henry Allen and Nora Allen, respectively. Other brief DCEU role reprisals are Temuera Morrison as an alternate Arthur Curry and Jason Momoa as Aquaman in a post-credit scene. After the prologue, Barry discovers he can time travel via a chronobowl through his power-giving Speed Force. He travels back to the day his mom died when he was a child and places a can of tomatoes in her shopping cart. This eliminates the need for his father to leave their home to purchase it, which in turn prevents both his mother's murder and his father's conviction for it. He is knocked out of the chronobowl by a mysterious speedster into 2013, before he can return to his own time. He determines many things are different from his 2013 and tries to set things right. The attempt ensues.

"I cannot help but like that stupid movie." I have said this phrase several times about The Flash. But those are not my true feelings. Not fully. Most of what was behind saying it was the legal troubles star Ezra Miller had ahead of its release. In the aftermath, it was publicized Miller had sought professional treatment for mental health issues, which was part of the effort to curtail the negative effect. But the damage was done. My personal primary reason for deciding to watch it is Michael Keaton's Batman, though Michael Shannon's Zod did not hurt, either. It actually turns out to be a well-told, emotional story, with a message about the far-reaching consequences of failure to accept things as they are. In addition to this, it treats the multiverse with much more care than one of the MCU's main misfires, Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which among many other things overpromises the concept based on title alone. How The Flash handles it is more along the lines of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The result is establishing high stakes for each universe while honoring the legacy of DC past. It does this through cameos by various means of George Reeves' Superman, Adam West's Batman, Cesar Romero's The Joker, Eartha Kitt's The Catwoman, Christopher Reeve's Superman and Helen Slater's Supergirl. Perhaps one of the neatest, a de-aged Nicolas Cage also cameos his version of Superman from Tim Burton's Superman Lives, which went unproduced. It ends with one last nod and somewhat humorous. In the end, Barry mostly fixes things to how they were, but even that alteration has caused a change to his reality. It is no longer Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne, but George Clooney's (it's not clear if this version currently operates as Batman). I would like to hope that had it not been for his health, this would have been Val Kilmer, whose only offense is playing Batman in a less than stellar film, not the portrayal itself.

Released after the announcement that James Gunn and Peter Safran's DC Universe films and series would be the new continuity, confirming the DCEU was nearing its end, any and all films' tease of the future became pointless. It is my belief this announcement hurt the box office potential of Black Adam, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, as well, and potentially, Blue Beetle. The one thing The Flash has going for it is it leaves room for that new continuity. But who knows what might have been had these films been allowed to perform on their own merit? They deserved better.

Bonus blurb: I was also excited for the other film with Keaton reprising Batman, Batgirl. It was reported to have a Batman Beyond vibe in the relationship between Barbara and Bruce, not sure if that was true. It was canceled after it did not test well. The Flash did do well with test audiences and look how it turned out, so what do they know? Batgirl deserved better.

Next up...Retro Review: Ghostbusters!