In October 2022, James Gunn and Peter Safran were tasked with putting the DC Universe back on track, which had seemed haphazard and aimless at least since the failure of Justice League.
The director of Guardians of the Galaxy and the producer of The Conjuring are currently developing an eight to ten year plan to better coordinate future films, series and video games produced under the DC banner.
Before the work of the new management can slowly bear fruit from the 2024/25 season, there are still a few projects in 2023 that were commissioned as part of the old DCEU (DC Extended Universe): In addition to “Blue Beetle” (08.17. ) ) and Aquaman 2: Lost Kingdom (December 21), The Flash is now the start of this farewell tour and a bittersweet feeling that IT mastermind Andy Muschietti has just released the best DC movie since Christopher’s The Dark Knight: Nolan.
Gunn and Safran have already announced that they don’t necessarily want to throw everything away, but can only hope to salvage as much of The Flash as possible in the new DC Universe (DCU) era: a beautifully dry story, yet with a genuine sense of humour; creative and varied action scenes that, when necessary, convey the pure and contagious joy of being a superhero that the second Barry Allen, aka The Flash in particular; a clever and playful use of time travel and multiverse, while always paying full attention to the story’s strong emotional core; plus heaps of meta elements to make fans of DC’s past 100 years laugh without feeling like a forced laugh.
Somehow, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) never has time to rest.
When he’s not busy saving the world as speed hero The Flash, he’s trying to do his best.
What worries him most at the moment is the upcoming hearing of his father Henry (Ron Livingston), who has been in prison for many years for killing his wife Nora (Maribel Verdú) and whom he says he did not murder.
THE FLASH Trailer 2 Spanish Latin (2023)
For many years, Barry struggled in vain to prove his father’s innocence. If
One day, when he accidentally discovers that his special ability allows him to travel through time, he has an idea: he wants to prevent his mother’s murder and thus save the lives of both parents.
He has no idea what he’s going to do because suddenly everything is different.
Even his best friend Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (Ben Affleck), is no longer recognizable.
A movie based on DC Comics superhero The Flash had been in the works for a long time, and actor Ezra Miller didn’t bring much to the table.
After all, he had already played him in other films, most notably Justice League, where the character became part of the hero team.
Somehow the project seemed ill-fated, with numerous directors in talks after Rick Famuyiwa, who was initially considered for the film, dropped out of the film.
Other commitments from the lead actor caused massive delays. And even now, when everything is ready despite all doubts, the timing could hardly be worse. Miller has not only caused a stir with numerous questionable actions in recent months, which was a nightmare for the PR department.
It’s also well known that the DC Comics cinematic universe is in the midst of turmoil, so no one knows if The Flash’s story still has a future.
This is not a good prerequisite for a proven blockbuster, all the more so in a film environment that is currently being flooded with large-scale productions.
The Flash doesn’t shy away from very dark moments, but it starts off wonderfully light-footed: What kryptonite is to Superman, Barry Allen is to a lack of calories.
This time, the entire wing of Gotham General Hospital is about to collapse, and among all the glass and concrete, a dozen babies from the upstairs maternity ward are also falling to the ground.
In one shot in particular, this is reminiscent of Hieronymus Bosch’s apocalyptic hidden object pictures, only with newborns in pink and light blue onesie outfits.
Everything happens in super slow motion for The Flash, and yet the setting proves to be a tricky puzzle for Flash, as he can’t easily get the babies to safety (they couldn’t even survive a short distance at his speed). ).
Instead, you have to come up with other creative solutions: This is where temporarily putting a baby in the microwave comes into play, so the kitchen appliance should also be used for an air-assisted calorie refill with burritos.
This is a lot more creative and entertaining than the comparable Quicksilver sequences from the Marvel competition, and the usually wonderfully dry and often pleasantly unobtrusive punchlines are consistently perfectly timed.
Flash, like most DC characters, bears the heavy burden of being a superhero.
In contrast, the still-hilarious 18-year-old college student version of Barry Allen exudes an infectious delight in superhuman powers. Even if it may seem so up until now.
Not only is The Flash a fun, self-deprecating grenade, because unlike last time, say Thor 4: Love And Thunder, The Flash manages to veer into more serious realms: in addition to Ezra Miller’s grandiose one Double performance, the “The Flash”. benefits greatly from the strong emotional core of the story, from which the entire story of the multiverse unfolds in the first place.
Michael Keaton’s Batman returns in DC superhero epic The Flash
Batman can explain the whole time travel mess with homemade spaghetti, but in the end it’s always about that small, almost mundane moment that you’d give anything to change later…
And even as the consequences of past interventions become more and more massive, The Flash never loses sight of the true core of its story: Andy Muschietti and his screenwriter Christina Hodson (“Birds Of Prey”) are always aware that the central conflict of The Flash one thing Barry can only solve on his own in the end, even if it briefly looks like a massive desert battle would be a classic blockbuster ending. could be advertised. So The Flash ends on a suitably personal and intimate note, even as it unleashes a powerful and visually stunning firework of nostalgia around the torn protagonist, in which a hundred years of DC history literally collide in the form of pop culture.
One of them is particularly problematic: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Just two weeks before The Flash premieres, a story is told that is in parts strikingly similar.
Both films are based on the current trend topic of the multiverse, the concept speaks of the existence of numerous parallel worlds that always differ in detail.
While the animated film took this as an opportunity to bring together the most diverse versions of the title hero and thus unite the most diverse styles, one is much more modest here: Barry is currently traveling in a parallel world. And it really doesn’t look any different.
We took the opportunity to play a bit somewhere else.
It was made public early on that decades after Batman (1989) and The Return of Batman (1992), Michael Keaton would reprise his role as the Dark Knight in hopes that the nostalgia would generate good numbers.
Unlike Spider-Man: No Way Home, the multiverse isn’t just for the nostalgia factor.
Rather, The Flash connects this motif with that of time travel and the associated chaos. “Back to the Future” is directly quoted there more than once.
Also, the tone is much more humorous. In addition, Barry despairs over the various changes in the world and also finds himself confronted with an alternate version of himself who doesn’t behave the way he sees fit.
None of this is original, which could spell the film’s downfall. This is a story that has been broken down in a similar way too many times lately.
It is well implemented, the entertainment factor is high.
Ezra Miller, from left, Ezra Miller and Sasha Calle can be seen in this image released by Warner Bros. Pictures in a scene from The Flash. (Warner Bros. Pictures via AP)
You can think what you want of Miller because of his psychologically caused escalations and failures, here he creates the balance between humor and action, between nerd and superhero.
His acting talent pays off towards the end.
Now it looks like the grand finale will be very simple once again, following the usual conventions of these comic book adaptations, instead The Flash is a film that gets very emotional.
With all the hustle and bustle, the numerous guest appearances and allusions as well as the endless thunderstorm of effects, director Andy Muschietti is not out of sight for the main actor. Then there are scenes where you have to hold back a sob.
Even if the film isn’t the super work that one would have expected after the first voices and in some places more courage would have been nice, it still belongs to the best heroic performances of recent times. And I wish it had the success it deserved and that the partially open ending wasn’t everything.