This is by far the most amusing paradox of the superhero universe, The Flash, who is none other than the fastest man in the world, will have taken all his time before arriving at the cinema. It must be said that the start of the project was somewhat turned upside down by the collapse of the Snyderverse, the arrival of COVID, all the escapades of its main actor Ezra Miller. We are obviously not here to talk about what he did, but rather to judge his performance in his own film, since he is finally at the heart of this blockbuster which cost a whopping $220 million, is better than Wonder Woman 1984 and Black Adam. Why so much money? Simply because it’s the most ambitious movie in the DC Universe, since at least Batman v Superman, and despite its obvious flaws, the movie is a pretty good achievement. Yes, we rather liked it, whereas we hated Black Adam and found Shazam 2 quite anecdotal. But for The Flash, apart from the disgusting visual effects (the term is adequate), and we’ll come back to this, the film convinced us enough.
We are going to start by talking about the problems and the annoying subjects in this film The Flash, namely the visual effects, the famous VFX of which you could see a small preview in the various trailers. Yes, the film is quite ugly in many sequences, we’re not going to lie to each other and it’s quite problematic. For what ? Quite simply because the special effects in superhero films are not only super important to give credibility to these imagined universes that do not exist in our reality, but above all it gives the viewer an identity and immersion. So inevitably, when it’s badly done, it’s hard to believe what they want to show us on the screen. And it is true that from the start, it is complicated for The Flash. The chase scene between Batman and thugs is doing pretty well, with a pretty cool Batcycle in its design and some nice gadgets. It’s a pity that the scene was largely produced in computer-generated images or on green screens, especially since The Flash arrives 10/15 years after Nolan’s trilogy, who is a fan of filming in practical and which offered us quite dantesque sequences with the machines of Batman.
“IT’S RAINING MEN, ALLELUIA!”
It is then that things go wrong with The Flash, with the famous “baby shower” scene where Barry Allen must prevent a dozen babies from crashing to the ground when a building collapses. The scene draws heavily from Quicksilver’s cult footage in X-Men’s Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, but sadly without the artistry and direction. The visual rendering of babies (but also of the dog and falling objects) in computer graphics is quite dramatic. It feels like stepping back 20 years in CGI, with a rather incomprehensible Uncanny Valley rendering. At the time of Avatar 2, how can a film like The Flash with such a colossal budget offer us such mediocre quality? It’s obviously a question that will find an answer when tongues loosen, because for me, it’s obviously not a question of money, given all the dough the film cost, but more of an artistic choice, which is I grant you it is really questionable. Moreover, this Uncanny Valley rendering, we will also find it during time travel when Barry finds himself locked in this amphitheater sphere where he is able to see all the consequences of his return to the past. Here too, the faces but also the bodies of the characters give such a surreal rubber character aspect that one has the impression of seeing the awful fight scenes of Matrix 2 where Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Agent Smith were already men chewing gum before time. So, 20 years later, we ask ourselves a lot of questions.
On the other hand, we would like to come back to a major element of films that highlight super-sonic heroes. Can we stop filming superspeed in slow motion? We are in 2023 and we are still slowing down the action to make us understand that the character is faster than light. Stop! Let’s stop that, it’s a human heritage worth 3 billion, it dates back to the 70s, when computer graphics didn’t exist, so we used staging subterfuges. But today in 2023 and after what Marvel managed to do with the character of Makkari, this has to be stopped. Despite this, the film manages to hold its own in other aspects. Especially in the treatment of his Multiverse which I found much more interesting than that of Spider-Man No Way Home. We can not praise the multiverse of No Way Home (and the simplicity of its scenario), while denigrating that of The Flash. You have to be at least consistent. In Spider-Man No Way Home, the idea of creating portals to make other Spider-Man and enemies from other universes appear was cool, it tickled the nostalgic fiber, but it was insufficient. Do we have to remember that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield landed in the universe of Tom Holland in a kitchen? A fucking kitchen! You probably can’t get cheaper as a starter…
For The Flash, the justification for the death of Barry Allen’s mother and the fact that his father ends up unjustly in prison are much more interesting, especially since there is a real share of emotions that is added. And yet, we were never amazed by Ezra Miller’s performance in Justice League, also because the other superheroes took up a lot of space, and he was only a comic spring, but in The Flash , the actor is rather convincing. In particular because he plays two roles, two Barry Allens at different ages and he manages to transcribe well this 18-year-old Barry Allen, fiery, naive too and super annoying, but also the Barry Allen of around thirty years, more calm, more thoughtful. The performance is convincing and the emotional moments with his mother, and even his father, work rather well.
Another element that I really liked in the film is the character of Batman in the Michael Keaton version. Yeah, that’s fan-service, but when it comes to the Multiverse, it was obvious to see him back in Batou’s costume and his treatment is very genuinely cool. We have otherwise read and heard many people complaining that Michale Keaton’s Batman was not developed enough, but we want to answer them only fortunately! We are on a film The Flash and not a Batman Multiverse version. If the writers had developed the character of Batman too much, we would have lost in narration for Barry Allen’s story. The focus of the plot is The Flash and not Batman, let alone Supergirl.
There too, the reproaches made on the character of Supergirl, I found them unjustified. Yes, his screen time is quite low, but again, it’s to leave the red carpet to Barry Allen, it’s his movie. When you have supporting characters as strong as Batman and Supergirl, it was difficult to have a balance to prevent them from overwhelming Flash with their presence. Besides, I found that the actress Sasha Calle plays a very good Kara Zor-El, charismatic, powerful and it was not easy to go after Henry Cavill. Clearly, I want to see her again in James Gunn’s DCU. Ditto for the multiple cameos in the film, I think it works well too. We don’t press too hard on it, but we talk about it a little to obviously melt our fan hearts. It’s not for more than fan-service, like it was with Spider-Man No Way Home and yet some of you screamed and stripped your chests in theaters for it, and there, it’s the same. Seeing Christopher Reeves, Helen Slater in Supergirl, Adam West in Batman of the 60s, Henry Cavill and even Nicolas Cage (and his project with Tim Burton which did not come to fruition) has a small effect, even with this really CGI rendering not pretty. No, the only character who is disappointing in the film is General Zod, who unfortunately has not been sufficiently developed, although he was still the big threat of Man of Steel 10 years ago. We would have liked the story to dwell a little on his return, to develop his character a little more, like the Thanos of Endgame, which was also disappointing compared to Infinity Wars, but which had moments of glory in some scenes. Besides, actor Michael Shannon expressed his disappointment recently, and I can understand that. But hey, he took his check huh, easy to spit after the fact…
So no, The Flash is not the worst superhero film that has been produced, we’ll have to dose a little. Ant-Man 3, Thor Love & Thunder, Black Adam, you have short memories people. The Flash has apparent and obvious flaws, but it does the job, with I find an interesting treatment of the Multiverse, even if it is far from the Flashpoint of comics. The action scenes are obviously ugly, but the show is there. Ezra Miller is convincing in the two Barry Allens he plays, Michael Keaton back in the Batman costume, it’s a real candy, Supergirl from whom we could fear the worst after Henry Cavill does not have to be ashamed of his performance and the cameos have their small effect. Even the more emotional moments with Barry Allen’s parents hit the mark. It’s only the special effects that drag the film down, and I’m sure tomorrow Warner comes back with high-end visual effects, people will all turn around. Our hand to cut…
OUR RATING: 6.5/10