tawandamusarurwa
Film Review
Tinashe Kusema
DC’s “Flash” movie is one of those projects that were always doomed to fail from the word go.
This is not necessarily due to the flick’s star Ezra Miller’s erratic and somewhat controversial life away from the camera.
I would be remiss, however, if I do not, at the very least, admit that movie fans, myself included, feel some type of way about Miller’s numerous brushes with the law.
The issues range from marijuana possession charges, allegations of choking a woman outside of a bar in 2020 and, more recently, disorderly conduct and harassment charges.
There is even a burglary charge and restraining order. Of all the cases, I think what has irked fans the most are the apparent double standards by Warner Brothers, in which they supposedly threw “Pirates of the Caribbean” star Johnny Depp under the bus when he was going through a messy divorce with his ex-wife Amber Heard but decided to stick by Miller.
Depp was later proven innocent of all the charges Heard levelled against him.
However, Heard did not suffer any consequences for her action.
The huge shadow cast by Marvel on their nearest competitor, DC Comics, and the complex storyline “The Flash” movie tries to address are other fears I had.
In the time since the movie’s release, it has not done so well at the box office, raking in just US$268 million from a budget of about US$200 million.
However, rather than clearly stating the obvious and many reasons for this movie’s failure, I will try to be as objective as possible.
“The Flash” has a rather simple plot, in which our favourite speedster, Barry Allen (Miller), accidentally finds out that he can time-travel and decides to go back into the past and rescue his mother, Nora Allen (Maribel Verdu), from being murdered.
However, as every film has taught us, once you play around with time, it tends to bite back. Rather than just save his parents, Allen creates another timeline in which metahumans (Aquaman, Cyborg, Superman and Wonder Woman) do not exist.
An old enemy of the Justice League, General Zod (Michael Shannon), returns and sets out to conquer Earth. Allen also meets an alternate version of himself, a variant of Batman (Michael Keaton) and Supergirl (Sasha Calle).
He recruits them to try to fight General Zod and his army. The biggest surprise of the movie is Miller’s performance.
He pulls double duty as the two versions of Barry Allen. Miller scores high marks here for doing a great job.
Aside from the visible hairstyle differences, Miller manages to differentiate the two characters portraying both a sombre, more grounded Barry Allen and the more erratic and childlike version of the same character.
It is a sight to behold when the two characters interact. The sight of Keaton donning the bat suit again, already spoiled in the trailer, is another high mark the movie deserves.
The computer-generated imagery, humour and action set-pieces — cringeworthy at times — are all solid. Unfortunately for the movie, the cons outweigh the pros.
I still remember how I felt when Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield made their grand entrance in last year’s “Spiderman: No Way Home”, and Keaton could have had the same effect. Another glaring mistake this movie makes are all the wasted characters and performances, chief among them being Shannon’s Zod, Calle’s Supergirl and Kiersey Clemons’ Iris West.
Despite being portrayed as the film’s main antagonist, Zod plays virtually no role in the movie, apart from his grand entrance, a couple of references and fleeting appearances.
The same goes for both Calle and Clemons.
Iris West is an important part of the Barry Allen story and their destined romance deserved more attention, other than a couple of muted interactions and the apparent lack of chemistry between the two actors.
Online Reporter