By Elias Savada.
The never-ending humor, miracle casting, excellent action sequences, bright script, and spot-on direction offer its audience a wonderful undertaking at the multi-plex.”
The continuing rebirth of Warner Bros.’ DC Universe, and the “true beginning of the DCU” announced by James Gunn, the DC Studios co-CEO and mastermind behind the Guardians of the Galaxy brand within the competing Marvel comic entertainment cabinet, is still a coming-very-soon attraction. Yet, boy-oh-boy, does The Flash deliver a rousing, rollicking transition. Even with star Ezra Miller’s off-screen life offering a smattering of controversial travails that can often cripple any venture, big or small, I smell a tremendous hit that demands repeats viewings. I’ve watched it twice — and the film is days away from general release at this part of my commentary.
And Miller delivers. Twice. His Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash, is blazingly funny, especially when his somewhat light-headed, thirty-something man-boy, the self-proclaimed joker in the Justice League, finds himself in cahoots with his adolescent, immature 18-year-old self, the result of a bad decision to correct the world’s timescape and prevent the death of his mother (Maribel Verdú) and free his falsely accused father (Ron Livingston).
In the present that bookends the film, Barry lives a harried, upbeat, but generally friendless life working in the Central City forensics department. He foolishly pines for Wonder Woman and may find a relationship brewing (no thanks to over-phased, wildly effervescent bottles of Stella Artois) with former schoolmate now reporter Iris West (Kiersey Clemons).
The film’s opening moments will immediately reveal that the dour angst that has enveloped many a DC film in the past has been pleasantly jettisoned for popcorn pleasing action and fun. Barry is called away to Gotham while a long-winded sandwich guy makes his beloved peanut butter, cheese, banana, raisins, and honey, served on white bread. Superman is busy saving the world, Wonder Woman is not returning Alfred’s calls, and Batman is busy chasing some crooks. Barry is all alone to rescue folks caught in the partial collapse of Gotham General Hospital. This intensely built, slo-mo, mid-air sequence involves a (thankfully spot clean) bedpan, a breakfast burrito, a small microwave oven, a rescue dog, and a dozen smiling babies oblivious to the danger afoot. And some energy-building junk food in a vending machine. The chaotic choreography is beautifully orchestrated by Muschietti and his technicians.
Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) is Allen’s father figure. On at least one occasion, Bruce’s parental advice has been ignored, and that allows the DCU to blast back in time, replace a can of organic tomato sauce, change history, then stumble forward into a time-traveling multiverse tale. The film offers up not only multiple variants of DC superheroes — real and wannabe — but retells such cultural staples as Back to the Future, now with Eric Stoltz (the original lead famously replaced by Michael J. Fox) as Marty McFly. Cameos fly in and out with abandon.
The writing crew pops steroids into the script. Christina Hodson’s screenplay (based on a screen story by John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein and Joby Harold) nails the two versions of Flash. Director Andy Muschietti’s firm hand plays out the fun and logic of this multiverse against the older Barry Allen’s escalating befuddlement and the menacing arrival of General Zod (reprised by Michael Shannon), very much not dead, seeking out a particular survivor from Krypton, and hell-bent on terraforming Earth. Some things don’t change.
There’s more bad news, as efforts to locate the Justice League on this Earth where both Barry Allen’s co-exist proves mostly futile. Superman’s m.i.a., Arthur Curry (Aquaman) isn’t human, and Wonder Woman is an act in Las Vegas. Flash, Flash, Batman (now played by Michael Keaton with a “I’m game” gung-ho charisma), and Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Sasha Calle) are the bare-bones quartet left to battle Zod and his minions. It’s a hoot to see Keaton relishing his lines, cooking spaghetti, and taking charge of a desperate situation.
While the nearly 2 1/2-hour excursion could have used a minor trim, I think the never-ending humor, miracle casting, excellent action sequences, bright script, and spot-on direction offer its audience a wonderful undertaking at the multi-plex. I’m not a DC fanboy (so I missed some of the in-jokes), but this is an enthralling effort that sits high on my best films of the year.
There is a post end-credit scene, so stick around. Consider yourself warned.
Elias Savada is a movie copyright researcher, critic, craft beer geek, and avid genealogist based in Bethesda, Maryland. He helps program the Spooky Movie International Movie Film Festival, and previously reviewed for Film Threat and Nitrate Online. He is an executive producer of the horror film German Angst and the documentary Nuts! He co-authored, with David J. Skal, Dark Carnival: the Secret World of Tod Browning (a revised edition will be published by Centipede Press).