The much delayed 'The Flash' movie has finally come out to underwhelming box office and critical notices. I frankly attribute this less to star Ezra Miller's rather public personal scandals and more to a growing public fatigue with superhero/multiverse movies. I share this fatigue but kind of grandfathered this particular film in large part because I wanted to see Micheal Keaton's Batman again. It was nice to see Keaton reprise the role, I also liked Sashe Callie as the new Supergirl and thought Miller did a surprisingly good job, he plays two versions of the same character and spends a lot of screen time playing against himself quite effectively.
Had this film come out 2 or more years ago it might really have been something, but now it feels backward looking for a number of reasons. There is something of a stitched together feel to the piece, though it's kind of appropriate given the nature of the stories being told. The special effects are noticeably weakly rendered, especially given how much extra time release delays gave Warner Brothers to work on them.
Still I was mostly with it, mostly engaged, the film had some moments and the performances were generally better then the material. The fan service IP maximization got really painful towards the end and there was so much happening on screen that it was overwhelming, I shut my eyes a few time because I just needed it to stop for a moment. On the whole a mixed bag, probably the last superhero film I'll see on the big screen for a long time.
**1/2
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