The review of The Flash, the penultimate film of the old DCEU course directed by Andy Muschietti, an action comedy with a strong script and exciting cameos, wrapped in some of the worst CGI of the last decade.
Survived the follies of Ezra Miller and escaped David Zaslav’s hatchet, The Lightning is more than one cinema comedy: He is a veteran. And also very lucky. We mean it cinematically, of course, because in a context where everything was against its release, between an external media war aimed at its protagonist’s legal and social struggles and another internal one that erupted instead to prevent the movie fades into oblivion, The Flash, he did it. He ran faster, fought vigorously and in the end managed to see the darkness of the room and present himself to the public ahead of schedule with the beauty of at least four previews between Las Vegas, Naples and various festivals or press screenings.
The Flash: an image from the trailer
A capillary cover and pounding promotion for a Movie which despite everything, due to its dualistic nature, continues to fascinate the public and frighten the executives, which together constitutes a first closure of the DCEU but also an opening to the new project of James Gunn. A theatrical film released five years ago would have been far more exciting and compelling, designed as great fan service for DC enthusiasts, but conceived with the same formula that the company has used in a decade of theatrical projects (except for Suicide Squad). It only succeeds when it’s no longer needed, and plunges into a race that’s exciting and quite amusing at times, but is only half solved.
face to face
The Flash: Ezra Miller in a scene
The Flash is not only a title dedicated in spirit to the multiverse, but above all a cinematic comedy full of discovery and education. The pen of Christine Hodson (Bumblebee, Birds of Prey) indeed describes a story capable of telling the now-known origins of Lightning Scarlet, while also outlining and deepening the protagonist’s maturity as he continues to strive to become the world’s best sprinter become . He does this alongside his mentor, the Batman of Ben Affleck (more muscular and intriguing than ever) and meanwhile constantly searching for evidence and clues to exonerate his jailed father who is accused of killing Barry’s mother. Shocked by the possibility of failure, The Flash begins to run faster than ever, lost in thought, with a heart filled with pain, at which point he gains the ability to travel through time and dimensions, convincing himself that he is the save the mother and free the father by changing just one small detail of his story.
The Flash: an image from the trailer
But the butterfly effect meets the domino effect and Barry finds himself in a dimension not his own, where he faces a young man himself and is forced to forge an unpredictable alliance with superheroes vastly different from his own knows. The main strength of the film lies in the screenplaywithout dramaturgical ambitions, but with an impactful concept based entirely on layered comedy plans, from the simplest and most physical slapstick to more intelligent and hilarious jokes and dialogues, but also situational and able to interact especially with the action sequences and to comply with them properly reasoning on the long and amusing introduction, which alone gives the perfect overview of the project and already contains the merits and demerits of the operation from the beginning.
The Flash: Ben Affleck’s Batman in an action sequence
With the required and necessary differences, “The Flash” is even close to surprising Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (here our review) desiring to affirm the pain of loss as one of the greatest, most canonical and inevitable pillars of personal growth and responsibility. It makes it the cornerstone of the narrative and builds the entire dramatic plot structure around this mainstay of the story in a thematic key that remains the heart of the film, however superficial. The more playful soul then returns to the comparison between the two Barrys, played with love and intensity by Ezra Miller, who subjectifies and personifies the theme of the multiverse, always and only playing in a comedic key with many similarities and differences up to a few steps from graduation.
The Flash 2: If the sequel is made, there will be no Ezra Miller rewrite
Team up and CGI
The Flash: an image from the trailer
The Flash is a fun, well-developed and entertaining film that’s also bolstered by some respectable team-ups and cameos. Apart from a Bat Affleck In formissima, which almost makes one regret the ruin of the Snyderverse – which unfortunately only has a running time of just 5 minutes -, attention in this sense is entirely focused on Michael Keaton’s Batman, for many still the only and original (if we forget that). the legendary Adam West). The actor’s physical prowess and interpretive skills are unquestionable, but it really impacts, astounds, and captures Keaton in one of the roles that made him a legend, albeit reworked to ditch the Burton appeal and bring it into the present cinema comics. He fights with the same moves as recent versions of the character, with strength and suppleness, still as charismatic as he once was and wise for the two Barrys, while also gaining some interesting nuances of irony unseen in the 1989 and 1992 films .
The Flash: an image from the trailer
Then the complete reconstruction of Wayne Manor and the original Bat Cave movements, a real caress for the die-hard fans of these unforgettable set pieces. I also applaud the stage presence of Sasha Calle in the role of super girl, which unfortunately neither in the narrative structure nor – and this is perhaps more serious – in the action sequences is properly exploited. The problem of The Flash is the last act, which lasts about 40 minutes, in which the film completely loses its bearings and seems to forget all the good that has been done up to that point, undecided in tone and direction, in its entirety artificial and false and with unconvincing ideas. It’s probably bad CGI too and doesn’t aim to bury the project in the last hundred yards from the end, and unfortunately given the 200M budget, the turnaround times and the promises of the production, it’s really unspeakable. It seems to be a title from the late nineties, with totally flattened textures and a plastic look and a graphic optimization that doesn’t allow a good exploitation of the cinema comic.
The Flash: an image from the trailer
The choice of setting final fight In the desert, that doesn’t help given that there’s a distinct lack of background and contrasts, and the brightness is overdone, further accentuating the already obvious shortcomings of the VFX and computer graphics. It’s a problem that’s already evident in the joke and prologue, but it only gets worse, culminating in some sequences in Barry’s “Time Machine” and managing to ruin even some much-anticipated cameos. All of this in the face of a good but uninspired direction from Andy Pussettiwith a virtually untraceable signature in what we would graciously define – paraphrasing the Keatonic Batman – a lovely “spaghettata” to devour without even thinking about it.
Conclusions
In summary, The Flash is fortunately not the disaster we expected, thanks to a simple and direct writing style that makes comedy its most effective weapon, fitting teams and situations into the project’s plot context. Unfortunately, the insurmountable problem of cinematic comedy lies hidden in the direction and special effects, in this web of a few persuasive ideas from theowl and a few sequences where CGI and VFX are acceptable. In principle, however, the post-production work for a 200-million-dollar project with a not too complex showdown is unspeakable, one of those shortcomings that inevitably make it difficult to enjoy a reasonably entertaining film.
Because we like it
- Ezra Miller’s physical and heart interpretation.
- Michael Keaton’s Batman has aged beautifully.
- Immediate, fun and fast writing from Christina Hodson.
- The many cameo appearances that populate the film…
What is wrong
- … some of them are ruined by bad CGI that destroys the technical level of the product.
- Mussetti’s signature cannot be found.
- The third act is a disaster.