By Jake Wilson
The Flash ★★½
144 minutes, rated M
It would be too hopeful to announce the collapse of superhero cinema just yet, but the genre has at least entered its decadent phase. The Marvel Cinematic Universe and the rival DC Extended Universe (backed by Warner Bros) are now busily converting themselves into ″multiverses″, which allow them to comment on their own conventions, retell old stories from new perspectives and pay tribute to their past – in short, employ all the stock techniques to make up for a lack of fresh ideas.
One effect of such telegraphed self-awareness is to suggest that the real drama may lie behind the scenes. That has its downside in the case of the much-delayed DC production The Flash, directed by Andy Muschietti (It) and starring the talented but troubled Ezra Miller, who has recently been charged with disorderly conduct and harassment, second-degree assault, and felony burglary, and has moved out of the spotlight to address their apparent mental health issues.
The talented but troubled Ezra Miller stars in DC’s The Flash.Credit: Warner Bros
As all this played out in late 2022, the bosses at Warner announced their plan to wipe the slate clean and start all over again with new stories for Superman, Green Lantern and the rest, to be overseen by former Marvel enfant terrible James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy).
The Flash, meanwhile, is just a guy in a red suit who moves fast. That in itself sounds like a formula for fun, although his gift for speed – acquired through the unusual double means of a chemical accident and a lightning strike – hasn’t proved especially liberating for his alter ego Barry Allen, previously played by Miller in Justice League as the wisecracking millennial offsider to Ben Affleck’s Generation X Batman.
In the present day of The Flash, Barry is stuck in a lowly day job at a forensic laboratory, constantly scoffing junk food – a necessity given his rapid metabolism – and performing his occasional superhero duties without much joy. No longer really credible as an emblem of youth, he’s a buttoned-up, snarky clown whose motor-mouthed disaffection suggests middle-period John Cusack with a touch of David Sedaris.
Miller, I suspect, would have more fun playing villains, and hopefully won’t be denied the chance. The in-universe explanation for Barry’s glumness lies in the other half of his backstory, which is rather too traumatic to feel like an apt starting point for a fun caper: his mother (Maribel Verdu) was murdered by a random intruder, and his falsely accused father (Ron Livingston) has been in prison ever since.
You can’t change the past, of course, except that in comic-book movies sometimes you can. By outrunning the speed of light, Barry calculates he can travel back in time to save his parents and ultimately himself – although what he enters proves to be more like a separate branch of the multiverse, letting him up the solipsism stakes by spending most of the movie bantering with a slack-jawed stoner version of his younger self.
In another sense, the history he’s revising is that of the genre (at least, the part of it owned by Warner). To stave off global catastrophe, the two Barrys must seek the aid of their reality’s grizzled Batman, played not by Affleck but by Michael Keaton, who last had the role in Tim Burton’s 1992 Batman Returns (still a high-water-mark of superhero cinema in general, although my own generational bias may be showing).
Michael Keaton reprises the role of Batman, a role he first played in 1989.Credit: Warner Bros
Keaton, like the character he’s playing, has had several decades to think about what being Batman might really mean – and his prickly, complicated presence has a gravity the movie otherwise strives for but seldom achieves. It’s too bad that better use isn’t made of the other guest stars, especially one who gets a split-second surprise cameo but could easily have stolen the entire show.
The question that lingers is how consciously Muschietti and writer Christina Hodson intend the plot as a metaphor for Hollywood’s constant reworking of old material, and more specifically for Warner’s never fully satisfactory efforts to create an extended universe to rival Marvel’s. “We can try a million times and we’re not going to be able to fix this,” one character opines at the climax. Somewhere, James Gunn and his overseers are crossing their fingers.
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