Review of The Flash (2023) by Dzonikejdzzz — 29 Jun 2023

Ezra Miller's, ahem, "situation" most definitely had an impact on The Flash's box office. DC hasn't had much luck ever since the (mostly) undeserved backlash against Man of Steel, while I'm not the biggest fan of Zack Snyder, his take on Superman (and Batman in BvS) was fine, minus the excessively action packed third act and the way Jonathan Kent dies.

WB has faced with six flops in a row: Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, The Suicide Squad, Black Adam, Shazam FotG and now The Flash, The Batman barely made any money, its budget ballooned thanks to all the delays, since Aquaman, their only undeniable hit was Joker.

Constant need for "course correction" has turned a solid start to a Superman trilogy into a mess more convoluted than Fox's X-Men franchise.

Miller's Barry Allen walks a fine line between endearing and annoying, Barry's quest to save his mother (and father) should've been the only focus of the story, the consequences for his noble deed become devastating to the reality itself.

Superman doesn't exist in this timeline and Earth is defenseless against the Kryptonian invasion, but there's Supergirl, oh, and Michael Shannon is back as Zod to duke it out with her. This a superhero flick, folks, we gotta have a big action set piece.

Sasha Calle was really good as Supergirl/Kara Zor-El, I wasn't sold on her when I saw the trailers, however, she is introduced very late into the movie and is more of a plot device (btw, so is Keaton, just with extra screen-time) for the two Barrys to accept that sometimes they have to let go.

Regardless of my love for Batman 89 and Batman Returns, I was very sceptical of Keaton reprising his role and unfortunately I was right to be doubtful. This is not Tim Burton's Batman (of course it isn't, how could it be). BUT! you might say: Danny Elfman's iconic theme is there, memberberry quotes (out of context) are there, the suit, Batcave, Batwing, Batmobile, Joker's laughing bag and the Wayne Manor are all there.

So, how is this not Burton's Batman? BurtonBat doesn't fight in zoom-in/zoom-out slo-mo and battle superpowered Kryptonians, in spite of all the fantastical elements Burton added to the mythos, BurtonBat is still very much human, also, he's a loner, no other heroes exist in his two movies. Michael Keaton is basically playing Ben Affleck's Batman, even though Affleck is right there and his burly Batman is far more suitable for such action scenes.

In other words, the filmmakers threw in some surface-level references to Burton's Batman without much care of how they (don't) fit in with the style of this movie and the overall pseudo-realism of the DCEU, for nostalgia baiting.

You might read or hear that WB killed off the "Burtonverse". Those people must have watched a different movie. The only thing they killed off is a DCEU version of Keaton's Batman.

Now comes the worst part. We are treated with cameos of the DC roaster, played by real and CG actors. Helen Slater and the late Christopher Reeve, both CG, the not-so-late CG Nicolas Cage recreating a scene from a Superman movie that doesn't even exist (for the memes. GIANT ROBOT SPIDER!) and to top it all off, (a real) George Clooney appears as Bruce Wayne for the lulz. I was surprised Christian Bale didn't make a cameo, I mean, he isn't above starring in crappy superhero movies *cough*ThorLoveandThunder*cough*. So, Christian, why no cameo? You think you're too good for The Flash?

This movie, once again, proves that WB is no better than Marvel in how they treat their creatives.