This Flash has no legs. We’re getting pretty tired of superhero franchises messing with time lines and trying to explain the multi-verse. In this iteration, the filmmakers use a bowl of limp spaghetti as a metaphor for the multi-verse. We don’t think it works very well, even though a can of crushed tomatoes plays a big part of the story.
The first action set-piece comes out of nowhere and fails to deliver.The city is under attack. The Flash springs into action when he sees new borns thrust out of the high floor of a hospital. As the infants rain down to certain death in a harrowing tense scene, The Flash speeds to scoop them up just in time to create a life-saving visual that once again establishes his superhero reputation.
Ezra Miller gives an uneven performance playing a dual role as dual Barry Allens and The Flash. None of roles were written as very engaging. They’re all kind of nebby, somewhat blank-faced, clueless and even whiny. His facial expressions range from confused and quizzical to just plain flat.
Barry’s father is on trial for killing his mother, Nora (Maribel Verdú) and he’s worried about Dad, Henry, (Ron Livingston) being unjustly convicted and sent to prison. There are touching scenes of Barry’s childhood and his well-acted emotional bond with his Mom. Beside himself with grief, Barry decides to try and save his family by using the Speed Force to go back in time before the murder. That’s when this film goes haywire.
Director Andy Muschietti (Both It! movies) and Writer Christina Hudson (“Birds of Prey and The Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Transformers) have Barry meet himself in another dimension. As Barry goes back in time he teams up with Batman Michael Keaton in great form delivering his iconic identifying line. But there are other iterations of Batman who show up to delight the DC fanbase and more superheroes surface including Sasha Calle (the first Latina to portray SuperGirl), Ben Affleck and more unexpected, but surprisingly satisfying cameos that help make a not so great unfinished story more interesting.
Michael Shannon reappears as a not so memorable General Zod. He was killed by Superman in Man of Steel, but of course, no character ever needs to be written out of a script since they can conveniently reappear in another, different timeline in the multi-verse.
The story of what actually happened to Mom feels unfinished. The tears are there, but other than his relationship with his mother, Barry’s other relationships aren’t flushed out or emotional enough. Even the scenes with Barry’s supposed love interest, Iris West, (Kiersey Clemons), get lost in the shuffle. And does the father/son relationship pull at your heart strings? Ron Livingston is a good actor, but he wasn’t really given enough to hang his heart on.
There’s been some messiness with how this film was going to come together, and it still is kind of messy. Plus it feels even longer than the 2 hour and 20 minute run time. Meant to have a strong emotional family component, it’s so cluttered with quick cuts of CG animation and constant loud blasts of crashing sounds, it’s hard to digest what you’re looking at. Go for the fun cameos, but for a film all about speed, this time line feels like forever.
Warner Bros. Pictures/DC Studios 2 hours 20 minutes PG-13
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