Film Review – The Flash (2023)

The discourse around The Flash has been deafening. Even when it’s been quiet, the noise around the film has been thunderous, for the most part, in the worst possible way. If you’ve been living under a rock for the past year or two you might not know what has transpired but the details are easy enough to find with a quick Google search about the quite extraordinary recent behaviour of star Ezra Miller. We don’t need to say too much more, here, except that such things were truly unacceptable and we don’t condone them but for the much-beleaguered Warner Bros and their DC Comics Expanded Universe, it seemed that it would be the final nail in the coffin that has been a while in coming. But, then, word on the film started to seep through and, despite the tumultuous side story to it all, it seemed that not all was lost. Of course, in the grand scheme of the multiverse, anything is possible.

Picking up almost immediately from where Justice League finished off, Barry Allen (Miller) is now back at his day job as a criminal and forensic evidence scientist for Central City Police when he soon discovers that his super-speed allows him to reverse the flow of time much more potently than he previously knew. With his father’s (Ron Livingston) parole hearing the following day, he wonders: could he go back and save his mother (Maribel Verdu) from dying in the first place? His actions, however, create a fulcrum paradox that sees him transposed from his reality to a new one, one that forces him to not only encounter his own self but bring about the return of General Zod (Michael Shannon) to this Earth and the complete erasure of the Justice League from existence. But this Earth does have a couple of heroes buried deep beneath snow and wealth that might be able to help…

The biggest strength of the film is director Muschietti who brilliantly handles the madness of the story which, in lesser hands, may have never worked. You may not have necessarily picked out the filmmaker for this particular breed of superhero, given his background in horror but both of his IT films, as well as the underrated film Mama, were steeped in similar themes of motherhood, coming-of-age, facing your demons, the yearning for reconciliation and catharsis and childhood traumas, many of which he brings to the fore beautifully here. Wrestling all of that emotional pull with the big, grandiose action you’d expect from such an endeavour could have caused everything to feel lacking, but Muschietti’s composure and talents manage to keep it grounded enough while still giving the set-pieces a real comic-book feel to them, as well as a cool 80s vibe with nods to Back to the Future, Flash Gordon, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure and, of course, Batman.

And what of the giant bat in Gotham City? Well, you get a quick final dose of Affleck’s brilliant portrayal that now feels like such a wasted opportunity as a whole, but the big lure is undoubtedly Keaton’s return to his signature role and for those afraid of nostalgia or the ramifications of time might overshadow it, fears can be allayed. Keaton, as ever, IS Batman, bringing his brooding confidence to the fore again with a little extra lean into his ever-superb comic sensibilities that help keep it on the right side of spoofery. Relative newcomer Sasha Calle as Supergirl is a welcome addition when she arrives, and while we’d love to see her take on the mantle in her own film, she and the returning Michael Shannon feel hugely undercooked and superfluous on the whole in amongst the craziness towards the finale.

As for Miller, well they perform pretty well throughout and hold the film together brilliantly but it’s so, so hard to shake off their history whenever you see them on the screen which is almost 100% of the film’s runtime. There’s the argument of separating the performer from the real-life person and while it is possible to enjoy the film that way, a dark cloud still remains over it that is hard to dislodge. Had they not had all of their issues and problems, we might be talking about the film in a similar realm to last year’s Top Gun: Maverick in of all the crowd-pleasing qualities it has going for it, and while that might still be the case for this one – namely thanks to Keaton and some other fan nuggets nestled delicately in and around the film – it’s hard to shake the indiscretions which, sadly, undermine all the brilliant work on show. A recommend, for sure, but with a big caveat.

★★★ 1/2

Comic-Book, Action, Comedy | 2023 | Warner Bros Pictures | 12A | In UK cinemas June 14th | Dir: Andy Muschietti | Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Kiersey Clemmons, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdu, Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck