Vertigo

Vertigo
Vertigo

Sunday, June 18, 2023

Playing with Fate in THE FLASH

 

The DC Extended Universe has had occasional hits (Wonder Woman) and misses (Suicide Squad), and with The Flash, a long gestating project, it has one of the better films that also resets all of DC.   

As a member of The Justice League, Barry Allen AKA The Flash (Ezra Miller), who continues to fight crime and save people from disaster, is haunted and traumatized by the death of his mom and the imprisonment of his dad when he was a child. He contemplates using The Speed Force to travel back in time through multiverses to initiate a minor act to save his parents, but as Bruce Wayne AKA Batman (Ben Affleck shines) warns, there can be potentially, enormous consequences. Sure enough, Barry ends up in a world where people and events are completely changed or even absent.  General Zod (Michael Shannon from Man of Steel) makes an appearance, ready to decimate Earth, but there is no Superman to save it or even a Flash! However, there is a Bruce Wayne AKA Batman (Michael Keaton), who is the last hope. Can Barry and Wayne save humanity and even help restore his timeline?

While it doesn’t quite stick its landing, what does come across are Miller’s heart, Sasha Calle’s effective debut (as Supergirl) and Keaton reminding us he is a great Batman.  Hopefully movies take a break from multiverse themes, as featured in recent, popular hits (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and Oscar winners (Everything Everywhere All at Once), but enough already!   Well-paced at 144 minutes, it’s a wildly ambitious adventure, full of surprises and humor, and despite a couple of plot holes, for those that are true fans, this one is good fun complete with numerous cameos (some obscure) and Easter Eggs (with one end credit scene). 

**** of ***** (for hard core fans)     Going forward the rating system will be based on ***** stars




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