The Flash — DC’s latest attempt at reviving their franchise — has been in development for so long that for a while, given the messiness of the DC universe and all of its lead Ezra Miller’s crimes, I wasn’t sure this film would ever see the light of day. Somehow, though, it managed to finally come out. Is it the best comic book movie ever made? Absolutely not; it’s not even the best comic book movie of the year. That being said, The Flash is a surreal, jarring, but admittedly effective film. 

This film finally sees Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash as the main character on the silver screen. His father is facing prison for the crime of murdering Barry’s mother, a crime he did not commit. In his anger and grief, Barry decides to go back in time to stop his mother from ever dying. By doing so, he finds himself caught in the past, having to work with an 18-year-old version of himself and several other superheroes to save this timeline from a threat he inadvertently created. 

Director Andy Muschetti jolts you into Barry Allen’s daily world from the very beginning, and it is honestly a blast. I really enjoyed the look of the speed force, Flash’s antics throughout the film, and most of the comedy dealing with little changes he has caused in this universe. This movie’s greatest strength is how entertaining it is, and what adds to this is the energy brought by its lead. As much as I despise their actions outside of the film, Ezra Miller nails this character. They give Barry a great sense of fun but also a lot of nuance, which pairs well with the great character writing from Christina Hodson and makes for a fascinating subject for the film to center on. Thanks to all of these factors, this movie is generally a very funny and enjoyable film initially. 

After a highly energetic blast of a start, we are introduced to the 18-year-old Barry Allen. I was very nervous that this variant of Barry would end up being annoying and I would be suffering whenever he was on screen. While he is definitely annoying, it is fully intentional and he is a great comic relief character while also having his own solid arc. Despite my concerns, this film was consistently a blast for the first hour or so. Unfortunately, it loses a bit of its spark afterwards. As was very hyped up in the trailers, Michael Keaton returns as Batman in this film, and this is where the film starts to drop off for me. Don’t get me wrong: Keaton is having a great time and is game for anything thrown at him. I also do appreciate that the film fully remains a Flash movie and never becomes “Tim Burton’s Batman 3 with special guest The Flash”. My problem with this part of the film lies in his characterization. It just feels like Keaton has been awkwardly placed into the film as a nostalgia pull. For instance, the Danny Elfman 1989 theme gets played every time he does anything. It gets pretty obnoxious and comical. It treats the audience as though they’re stupid and force-feeds them off-putting nostalgia.

Then the final battle came along, and at that point I was close to giving up on the film. I love Sasha Calle here as a new version of Supergirl, as she perfectly conveys the power and humbleness of the character, and I would’ve loved to see much more from her than what we got. The needle drops and soundtrack remain very enjoyable throughout. They never feel on the nose or unearned (unlike a certain movie this year also about a man in red). It features a lot of 90s/2000s pop punk music that Barry Allen would listen to, and it always felt fitting. That is the extent of my positives to this part of the film. This final battle ticks off every box of the “sky portal battle” that I had hoped was a thing of the past. It brings back General Zod, the villain from Man of Steel, because of some time travel multiverse BS I couldn’t explain to you if I tried. I normally love Michael Shannon, but he just does not care about this film and you can tell he doesn’t want to be there. He just delivers generic villain lines in a flat uninspired manner. One of the biggest issues with this chunk of the film (and with the film in general) is its visual effects. I can generally forgive bad VFX if it is a clear style I enjoy (like in the films of Robert Rodriguez), but here I just cannot. Everything looks muddled, ugly, and completely unappealing to look at. I also feel that the effect used to have the two Barrys looks pretty off at times. There are also some character appearances that I got nothing out of and the visual effects certainly did it no favors.

By the last fifteen minutes, my opinion of the film has mostly been set in stone: something that was very fun in the beginning but then fell apart. As I thought that though, there was an emotional moment that struck me way more than I thought this film was capable of. I genuinely found this scene incredibly beautiful and emotionally resonant. Then, right after that, it is followed up with an incredible comedic punchline that juxtaposes it brilliantly.

Overall, The Flash is very flawed and messy. However, I got a lot of enjoyment from it when it focused on the comedy and heart, which is brought to the table brilliantly by the writing and elevated by fun directing and committed acting. It is also scored beautifully by Benjamin Wallfisch, and I think it might be one of my favorite scores of the year. I didn’t care too much for Andy Muschetti’s It movies, and I clearly am not over the moon thrilled with this movie, but I do think he is a very talented director who deserves to helm a great film. The Flash falls short of great, but it is an effectively enjoyable and speedy watch when looking past some of the slumps it has in the middle. I would recommend this film, but with a caveat: please wait until it’s on streaming so you do not support Ezra Miller.

6/10