So here it is, the end to the high concept, but ultimately failed DCEU cinematic universe, resetting the timeline for a new cinematic universe, which will undoubtedly be much worse.
The Flash starts horribly. We get a random and very silly opening action scene with Ben Afflecks Batman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman appearing for one final phoned in appearance and a lot of extremely bad CGI hijinks. Admittedly, I did chuckle at the baby in the microwave, but the tone is just all over the place.
Once Flash moves back in time and meets his younger self, the film goes completely off the rails, with the younger Flash being unbearably annoying. While there is a purpose and a character arc to this, it still grates ones nerves. Ezra Miller overactings, trying his best to do the wide eyed clumsy-fasttalking-annoyingly-likeable thing that Tom Holland does. In some scenes he succeeds, in others he misses the beat. However, he does show some range, with the older Flash generally being a pretty good audience avatar and the one voice of reason.
The film miraculously gets back on track once Keaton's Batman shows up. He steals the show in his scenes, but the inclusion of Danny Elfman's musical themes doesn't fit the mood of the film at all and just serves as a reminder of what a beautiful gothic opera the 1989 original was, whereas the Flash is a tonal mess from start to finish.
As if the two styles of score weren't bad enough, they place some rock / pop song over a major action scene in a cheap attempt to imitate James Gunn's overuse of pop music in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The story of the Flash actually turns pretty good as it moves towards the finale. The character arcs are brilliant, the teambuilding with Supergirl is good, and in her brief screentime she is excellent.
During the finale, there are moments of real tragedy, and especially when Barry meets his mother again, the film is legitimately moving and quite sad. If it had taken itself more seriously, this would have been an incredibly powerful finale.
One more note on Michael Keaton: Seeing his performance made me realize what a damn tragedy it was that Warner messed up the Batman IP this badly over the years. We could have had decades of Keaton as Batman, taking on a rogue gallery of interesting villains in Burton's wonderful gothic nightmare city. While Nolan's Dark Knight films were fantastic, Keaton just embodied Batman like no one else.
Instead, they wasted time and money on the awful Schumacher films with Kilmer and Clooney (who's cameo here is actually fun), Snyder's failed take on Batman and the watchable but sterile and unnecessary recent series with Robert Pattinson. Warner were sitting on pure cinematic, iconographic gold and didn't realize it.
The Flash flopped horribly at the box office. Was it deserved? Yes and no. The film is a tonal mess graverobbing past DC movies while unceremoniously killing off Zack Snyder's high concept cinematic universe. On the other hand, it has a good plot, strong performances and is still leagues above any of the junk Marvel belches out every few months.
What does the future hold now? As the superhero genre goes the way of the Western (meaning it's dead in the water), DC will reboot and give us misanthropic garbage from James Gunn, which will undoubtedly be far worse than the past DC films, as it undermines every remotely emotional moment with a joke, be filled with popsongs, random family guy style humor, and probably fail within 5 years. Good job Warner.
After the Flash bombed so badly, and with superhero movies on the way out, I doubt DC will ever get back on its feet in the near term. Batman will still be a success if they don't ruin the brand.
Who knows, maybe they could do one more Keaton / Burton Batman or bring Nolan and Bale back. Anything other than Batman, and they will lose a lot of money.
The Flash starts horribly. We get a random and very silly opening action scene with Ben Afflecks Batman and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman appearing for one final phoned in appearance and a lot of extremely bad CGI hijinks. Admittedly, I did chuckle at the baby in the microwave, but the tone is just all over the place.
Once Flash moves back in time and meets his younger self, the film goes completely off the rails, with the younger Flash being unbearably annoying. While there is a purpose and a character arc to this, it still grates ones nerves. Ezra Miller overactings, trying his best to do the wide eyed clumsy-fasttalking-annoyingly-likeable thing that Tom Holland does. In some scenes he succeeds, in others he misses the beat. However, he does show some range, with the older Flash generally being a pretty good audience avatar and the one voice of reason.
The film miraculously gets back on track once Keaton's Batman shows up. He steals the show in his scenes, but the inclusion of Danny Elfman's musical themes doesn't fit the mood of the film at all and just serves as a reminder of what a beautiful gothic opera the 1989 original was, whereas the Flash is a tonal mess from start to finish.
As if the two styles of score weren't bad enough, they place some rock / pop song over a major action scene in a cheap attempt to imitate James Gunn's overuse of pop music in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The story of the Flash actually turns pretty good as it moves towards the finale. The character arcs are brilliant, the teambuilding with Supergirl is good, and in her brief screentime she is excellent.
During the finale, there are moments of real tragedy, and especially when Barry meets his mother again, the film is legitimately moving and quite sad. If it had taken itself more seriously, this would have been an incredibly powerful finale.
One more note on Michael Keaton: Seeing his performance made me realize what a damn tragedy it was that Warner messed up the Batman IP this badly over the years. We could have had decades of Keaton as Batman, taking on a rogue gallery of interesting villains in Burton's wonderful gothic nightmare city. While Nolan's Dark Knight films were fantastic, Keaton just embodied Batman like no one else.
Instead, they wasted time and money on the awful Schumacher films with Kilmer and Clooney (who's cameo here is actually fun), Snyder's failed take on Batman and the watchable but sterile and unnecessary recent series with Robert Pattinson. Warner were sitting on pure cinematic, iconographic gold and didn't realize it.
The Flash flopped horribly at the box office. Was it deserved? Yes and no. The film is a tonal mess graverobbing past DC movies while unceremoniously killing off Zack Snyder's high concept cinematic universe. On the other hand, it has a good plot, strong performances and is still leagues above any of the junk Marvel belches out every few months.
What does the future hold now? As the superhero genre goes the way of the Western (meaning it's dead in the water), DC will reboot and give us misanthropic garbage from James Gunn, which will undoubtedly be far worse than the past DC films, as it undermines every remotely emotional moment with a joke, be filled with popsongs, random family guy style humor, and probably fail within 5 years. Good job Warner.
After the Flash bombed so badly, and with superhero movies on the way out, I doubt DC will ever get back on its feet in the near term. Batman will still be a success if they don't ruin the brand.
Who knows, maybe they could do one more Keaton / Burton Batman or bring Nolan and Bale back. Anything other than Batman, and they will lose a lot of money.