The Snyderverse of DC has disbanded, and James Gunn, director of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, has been brought in to hopefully revive D.C movies, but before that fully happens, three more movies need to come out. The Flash, Blue Beetle, and Aquaman 2, and this week The Flash came out. In the lead up to The Flash James Gunn said that it was one of the best superhero movies ever made, which is incredibly high praise. He was not the only one creating these lofty expectations for this film. There were many others who were also calling this great, and these are hard expectations to live up to for any movie. Although The Flash did not live up to these expectations, it was a solid and enjoyable superhero movie.
The Flash is the story of Barry Alan. It goes back in time, before the Justice League to explain how his mom died, and how this resulted in the wrongful incarceration of Barry's dad, and it also explained how Barry became the Flash (being struck by lightning and being exposed to chemicals at the same time). The modern-day story line starts with Flash teaming up with Batman to prevent bad guys from stealing a virus that would cause a pandemic, and they have to get the help of Wonder Woman to save the world.
After that Barry is trying to get the evidence, he needs to free his dad from prison, and he ends up getting really upset. He starts to run, and he ends up going so fast that he enters an interdimensional time travel portal. He talks to Batman about this finding, but he gets discouraged from going back, but of course being young and reckless, Barry goes back and intervenes. This changes so much in the world, and not only does it free his dad, but it brings back his mom. This seems great, but other things have changed, and now the heroes are missing or old, and Zod has come back to wreak havoc on Earth. Barry runs into the alternate version of himself, and while he is helping himself get his speed powers, he accidentally loses his own. They also need to find Batman because Superman is missing. Once Batman is found, who is much older than expected, they travel to Russia to find Superman, who did not land in Kansas this time, and as it turns out, not only did Superman not land in Kansas, he did not land at all, but Supergirl did, and so the crew ends up rescuing Supergirl instead, and they go to take on Zod.
One of the weirdest things about super speed is that it is almost always portrayed as slowing everything down. There is not enough creation of the perception that these heroes are actually moving at super speed, which I know is not the easiest of things to portray. The funniest way they portrayed this was at the very beginning of the movie. There was a hospital that had just been under attack, and everything was starting to fall apart. While this was happening, the natal ward started to fall out of the sky. So five babies were free falling to the ground with other perils all around them, and Flash has to save them. He uses his speed to climb objects into the air, and he manages to save the babies, while putting one in a microwave, and he also saves the nurse, and a therapy dog. The one thing I don't understand is how he is able to climb the objects into the sky. (I know it's a fictional movie, but bear with me.) The Flash is climbing up random pieces of debris as he gets up to the level of the babies, and I know he is fast, but he is still a full-grown adult. If he is pushing on things while climbing, his force, especially at that speed, is not going to allow him to continue to climb. There is no way. I digress.
The other funny thing about super speed is the danger that it presents to the user. Again, this is still a human, and he may have some super healing powers, but as shown in the movie, a serious injury could still end the Flash's life. Think about it this way. He crosses the U.S in less than a minute, and if he takes the slightest of missteps, or if a car changes lanes unexpectedly, then he would literally explode. The distance the Flash would cover if he blinked is miles! This means that his processing skills and vision would have to be beyond impeccable, and this is never mentioned. The Boys also showed what this could look like if it went poorly.
I am not going to go into the whole Ezra Miller aspect of this, but he did do some bad things, and some of those things specifically involving messing with the mental well-being of minors. So in the movie, after the Flash saves the nurse, and he says something about going to see a therapist, and that the Justice League besides him are not at that level of mental health awareness, I could not help but laugh at the absurdity. Of all the people they had to make that joke, it was Ezra Miller, and they were well-aware of the accusations on him at that point, but they still decided to use the joke. So bad.
One of the best parts of this movie was bringing back Michael Keaton as Batman. Although he is much older than the average superhero now, and the surprise of him being in the movie was ruined by the commercials, it still rules that he was in there. I could not help myself but smile every time he appeared on the screen and did something. Also when the Barrys got into the Bat Lair, I got so excited. They had the old Batmobile, and they had something even better, the Batwing! This led to one of the best shots of the movie. While going into Russia to try and get Supergirl, they parachuted out, and this left the Batwing in the night sky, and it was perfectly over the bright full moon to create a bat signal in the sky. An incredible still to take from the movie. This Batman may have been old, but it did not stop him from whooping up on other henchmen in the movie, and since Batman does not have any special powers, this was incredible. His stretching routine must be amazing, because the Christian Bale Batman was much younger, and he was so beat up, that he could not handle being Batman anymore.
When the team went to Russia, they were looking for Superman, and what they found was Supergirl, a relative of Superman, that was sent after him. In this universe however, Superman did not make it to Earth. Zod captured his pod and murdered the child within it. This meant that the fate of this universe was in the hands of Supergirl. This is not where I thought the story was going, when I heard that they were going to Russia. There is an alternate comic story where Superman lands in Russia called Red Son. This Superman wears a gray suit with red accents, and instead of the S in the diamond, or the Kryptonian symbol for hope, on his suit, he has the hammer and sickle of Soviet era Russia. I really thought that this was the Superman we were going to get, and this really would have subverted expectations and thrown things on its head. Instead, we got Supergirl, who was good. She was a delightful addition to the unit, but I really wanted Soviet Superman! Maybe one day.
As a runner, it is easy to relate to the Flash. He had a problem with his dad, and he did not have enough evidence to free him, so he went on a mental health run. He ended up going so fast that he broke the space time continuum, and although I have not done that, I can relate to the idea of a stress run. Also there were multiple times in this film, where the Flash was stuffing his face, either because he needed energy to run, or because he had used so much energy that he needed to refuel. This is something that all runners feel deeply. It is not easy to adequately fuel up pre and post run, especially if you are running high milage. It takes a ton of calories out of a person, and to adequately recover, they need to be taken back in, and they need to be healthy(ish). Also since I have started training for an ultra-marathon coming up this fall, during the run nutrition has definitely become a focus. So when the new universe Barry first gets his powers and starts to eat pizza while running at super speed, I related on a personal level. I can say that it is not easy to eat while running if you pick the wrong food. A couple of weeks ago, while running 30 miles, I had a pb&j waffle, and it was too dry, and I accidentally inhaled a piece, which led to me starting to choke on it. Not a great experience. Also I feel like the Flash has a Coros watch, because I started to receive advertisements for them, and they tell you when you need to refuel on a run, and so did his watch.
This movie also used food to explain the multiverse. When the Flashes finds old Batman, Batman uses spaghetti to explain it. Initially it starts out as raw straight spaghetti noodles, and they break apart a little, but if it is messed with too much, it turns into a plate of cooked spaghetti. A mess that is tangled all over the place. Then alternate reality Flash begins to shovel said spaghetti into his face, which is also very relatable. Flash bringing back his mom reminded me of Across the Spiderverse. They talk about canon events. These are events that must occur for a hero to become a hero. So in Spiderman's case, he loses his uncle, and he loses a beloved police captain, but Miles is trying to break this norm. In this case, Barry is trying to prevent his mom from being killed and his dad from going to jail. This messes with the fabric of reality in ways that he does not initially realize. Then when they are fighting with Zod, he remembers the idea of an inevitable intersection, which is basically the same as breaking Canon, it does not matter what is done, an event will happen.
It is hard not to compare this movie to the other multiverse stories that have come out recently. Last year, Everything Everywhere All at Once won best picture as a multiverse story, which is incredibly hard to beat. Then two weeks ago, the second Spiderverse movie came out, and both of those movies have been 5-star level movies. So this movie did not come out at a good time to be a multiversal tale, especially after receiving such high praise before its release. It would literally have to of been best picture level quality to live up to the standards that were set for it, and it was not that, which is not to say that it was a bad movie. It was a really enjoyable movie. Especially the first two acts. They flew by, and they were fun, but when I looked down at my watch, and there was less than an hour to go, and I had no idea what the end goal was, I knew it was in a bad place. There was no clear villain, which is odd in a hero film. There was a nebulous purple dude that was pictured for like five seconds earlier in the film, but he did not come into play again till the very end. So the ending felt rushed and less earned. With that being said, at the end it still made me tear up. Barry goes back in time again to revert the change that he made to prevent his mom from being killed, but this time he stops to talk to her as a stranger, and she gives him a hug. As someone who has lost their mom at a young age like the Flash, I was jealous of the chance he had to go back and give her one last hug. 3.5 stars worth seeing in the theaters.
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