"The Flash” light, speedy fun in spite of too-muchness

The Flash (2023)

For a not-so-fast trip from development to screen (and we won’t even get into the off-screen Ezra Miller of it all), “The Flash” works really hard to be a crowd-pleaser. It’s zippy and playful and works in plenty of (too much?) fan service, if sometimes to the detriment of the core story it wants to tell. In a “damned if you do/damned if you don’t” scenario, this is on the lighter side of the DC Extended Universe superhero movies to the point of putting its dramatic stakes on the back burner and not allowing us to feel more. And yet—and yet!—director Andy Muschietti’s “The Flash” is refreshing by being what a lot of DCEU movies have not been: fun with a capital F. 

When he isn't Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) the criminal forensics investigator, he's The Flash, the self-proclaime janitor of the Justice League. He's always cleaning up Gotham’s messes while Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) gets to chase after the bad guys. Going against the advice of Bruce (who knows a thing or two about murdered parents), Barry decides to travel, nay, run back in time to save his mother (Maribel Verdú) before she’s murdered and prove the innocence of his wrongfully accused, imprisoned father (now played by Rob Livingston instead of Billy Crudup). (Truth: a can of tomatoes is the real murderer here because solving the crime is never a priority.) But, of course, Barry enters an alternate timeline instead and meets his 18-year-old self (Ezra Miller again). In inevitable time-travel/butterfly effect fashion, whatever Barry tries to change from the past will affect the future, and he just can’t save everyone. 

For the better part of its overstuffed 144 minutes, “The Flash” is best when it's a speedy, zany time-travel adventure to save a family member. The film peaks early with an early set-piece in which carb-loaded Barry has a lot of plates spinning and enters the Speed Force, making multiple slo-mo rescues from a collapsing hospital. It’s fluidly staged, thrilling, and darkly hilarious (somebody small enough gets safely placed in an unplugged microwave). A lot of the action is clean and slickly constructed, like another sequence, involving 18-year-old Barry, his newfound powers, and a truck full of band instruments, that plays like beautifully choreographed chaos. Known for both “It” movies, director Andy Muschietti’s horror background comes into play in a few weird, imaginative visual-pizzazz moments, like the effect of Barry’s “phasing” through walls and a cartoonish, sandcastle-style look for Barry’s colosseum of memories in the “Chrono Bowl.” The only real exception to the arguably seamless VFX is the occasional uncanny-valley look when both Barrys are standing next to each other (it’s the mouth region that looks odd). The third act, too, while mostly exciting, gets clobbered in CG too-muchness and makes its characters, including General Zod (a contractually obligated Michael Shannon), look like video game avatars. 

In separating the art from the artist, Ezra Miller is quite good as Barry Allen/The Flash/Barry Allen 2.0. To a very knowing degree, Miller brings twitchy, hyperactive energy to the part that slides past obnoxious and remains charming, and they are able to make the 18-year-old Barry distinctly more immature yet endearing. An alternate timeline then means a certain blast from the past: Michael Keaton as a weary, much-more-reclusive Bruce Wayne/Batman, and pieces from Danny Elfman’s original score. Looking glad to be back in the bat suit, Keaton is a sight for sore eyes. Even if his role in the story doesn't amount to a lot, allowing Keaton to say and do the things we want from him again since 1989’s “Batman” and 1992’s “Batman Returns” as if that will be enough, it's nonetheless rewarding for those who grew up with Keaton as their Batman. Sasha Calle (TV's "The Young and the Restless") also makes a solid impression as Kara Zor-El/Supergirl, even if she’s mainly here to be introduced. The lovely Maribel Verdú at least has a handful of scenes to bring an innate warmth as Barry’s mother; if the emotional stakes can be felt, it’s all through Verdú’s performance, and a final scene with Barry in a grocery store is bittersweet and affecting. Unfortunately, the film has no time for the offensively underused Kiersey Clemons, who still isn’t given an actual character to play as journalist Iris West, Barry’s crush from Econ whom he rescued in one of the “Justice League” cuts. 

Writer Christina Hudson (2020’s “Birds of Prey”) has her work cut for her, concocting another multiverse story, but it’s all in the details that make it fresher than not (and there’s a very funny running joke involving “Back to the Future” and Eric Stoltz). While the film never quite rises to the emotional level that it’s aiming for to make it more meaningful, a goofy smile gets planted on the viewer’s face and never really leaves. There is also a cavalcade of cameos—most of them there for nostalgia and one that will only be understood by the geekiest of comic geeks—but the best of all serves as a punchline right before the director's credit. With no lack of personality or moments of visual inspiration, “The Flash” is eager to please and a lot of fun — while you’re in the theater.

Grade: B -

Warner Bros. is releasing “The Flash” (144 min.) in theaters on June 9, 2023.