‘The Flash’ Review: A Film Best Left in the Past

The central theme of The Flash revolves around going back in time to fix the past and rewrite a better future. For Barry Allen, that means traveling back to his mother’s death and saving her so that he can be reunited with her in his own timeline. Changing the past however, no matter how insignificant it might seem, could have disastrous implications across any number of multiverse futures. The Flash itself has had its own troubled past, from multiple development issues and delays to star Ezra Miller’s own personal legal issues, of which there have been a lot. And yet despite a big overhaul at Warner Bros. Discovery that saw the shelving of Batgirl and restructuring of the entire DC film universe, The Flash has been the studio’s golden child. Now that the film is finally here, has it been worth all the wait and trouble? Unfortunately not. The Flash is another standard DC superhero film. While the story is better than many of the other DCEU films, the film quickly devolves into another soulless CGI eyesore. It’s a film that is best left in the past as we move on to a new and hopefully better era for DC.

Still haunted by the death of his mother, Barry Allen aka the Flash discovers that he can time travel back into the past using the Speed Force if he runs fast enough. He knows the risks of time travel but still decides it’s worth saving his mom if it means he can finally have a relationship with her. How bad could it be, right? Turns out pretty bad as his time travel shenanigans end up creating new timelines in which the superheroes of the Justice League are nowhere to be found. Even worse, Barry finds himself trapped at the point of General Zod’s invasion on earth without his powers. Now he must figure out a way to save this alternate universe and his own without making things worse than they already are.

The superhero genre is all about the multiverse these days, and The Flash is no exception. Whereas the recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse handled its multiple threads wonderfully, The Flash is a bit more messy in its alternate timeline depictions. The film borrows heavily from the Flashpoint arc in the comics, but only opts for a few minor changes. The Batman of this universe is no longer Ben Affleck but an aged Michael Keaton who has long since retired. Superman is now Supergirl, played by Sasha Calle. Barry Allen is still played by Ezra Miller in both universes so audiences now get two of them.

With the exception of Michael Keaton’s Batman, the film doesn’t do much to explore this alternate timeline. We get to see General Zod’s invasion from a slightly different perspective with Supergirl instead of Superman, but it’s still pretty much the same plot. Sasha Calle has some exciting and brutal action scenes, but we barely get to learn who Kara Zor-El is. The Flash becomes wrapped up in re-enacting Man of Steel more than anything else.

The beginning of the film sets the tone for an emotional journey of Barry Allen willing to do whatever it takes to save his mother. Unfortunately any substantial weight that carries is thrown out the window when Barry is forced to deal with the new universe he has crashed landed in. His ultimate goal is still to save his mom, but the focus shifts and the film becomes another action-oriented CGI slugfest with plenty of fan service sprinkled throughout.

The CGI is by far the worst aspect of The Flash. Action scenes carry no weight to any of the characters as they zip around the screen in disturbingly rubbery fashion. Scenes look like paper doll cutouts where you can see the various layers of visual effects piled on top of each other. Faces are de-aged and haphazardly plastered on bodies creating noticeable uncanny valley appearances. It’s difficult to get excited about anything you’re watching on screen when the awful visual effects remove any immersion you might have had. Man of Steel, a film that came out a decade ago, has aged better than The Flash.

There are moments of brilliance in the film, but like the Flash himself they are quick to come and go. The humor is much better than much of DC’s recent film attempts, and Ezra Miller actually does a decent job at playing two very different versions of Barry Allen, as much as I hate to say it. The promising first half of the film is quickly brought down by a lackluster back half that falls in line with the majority of other superhero genre films. I wasn’t expecting The Flash to save the entire DC Extended Universe, but I had hopes that it would send the old guard out on a high note. Instead it simply limps towards an unforeseen future. It’s time to accept the past, as painful as it might be, and move on.