movie reviews for flash

One of the most spectacular and frustrating mixed bags of the superhero blockbuster era, “The Flash” is simultaneously thoughtful and clueless, challenging and pandering. It features some of the best digital FX work I’ve seen and some of the worst. Like its sincere but often hapless hero, it keeps exceeding every expectation we might have for its competence only to instantly face-plant into the nearest wall. 

Then it hits the reset button and starts again—which, come to think of it, is what “The Flash” keeps doing over and over again narratively, with time, parallel universes, and the question of whether “canonical” events in the life of a person or a whole dimension can be altered. From start to finish, it suffers the double misfortune of being its own worst enemy, despite real thoughtfulness and an intriguingly unstable cocktail of genres (slapstick comedy, family drama, heavy metal action flick, philosophically driven science fiction adventure); and also arriving on screens right after the release of “Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse,” a high watermark for both superhero movies and major studio animated features that explores most of the same concepts as “The Flash” in a more aesthetically innovative way. 

Ezra Miller , whose  offscreen brushes with the law  make some of the film’s raunchier comedy land poorly, stars as twentysomething forensic scientist and secret superhero Barry Allen, who feels like the “janitor” of the Justice League and is still grappling with the impact of his mother’s murder and his father’s wrongful imprisonment for the crime. Here, again, in this very review, we encounter a double bind characteristic of “The Flash”: it’s poor form to discuss the meatier parts of the movie because you can’t do that without describing the plot in detail, and yet at the same time, a lot of it has already been “spoiled,” not just on social media and online forums but in the film’s own trailers and marketing material (Warner Bros. supplied the photo at the top of this review) and on Wikipedia. If you read all that, you know whether to keep going or put the rest of this piece aside for later.  

For those still reading: Remember the ending of the original 1978 “Superman: The Movie,” where Christopher Reeve’s Superman has to choose between stopping a nuclear missile headed for Miss Tesmacher’s home state and preventing his great love Lois Lane from getting killed by an earthquake, tries to do both, loses Lois, then turns back time to resurrect her? Well, that sequence has been expanded into an entire film and merged with the “ Back to the Future ” series, courtesy of Barry’s decision to try to go back in time and change one detail on the day his family was destroyed. Mom ( Maribel Verdú ) sent Dad ( Ron Livingston ) to the local supermarket to fetch a can of tomatoes she needed for a recipe. When little Barry hears a commotion and comes downstairs, he finds Mom on the kitchen floor with a knife jammed into her bloody chest and Dad weeping over her corpse with one hand on the hilt. Barry surmises that he can use his Flash powers to return to that fateful day, add a can of tomatoes to Mom’s supermarket basket, and save both parents. Anybody who’s seen a time travel movie (or read Ray Bradbury’s short story The Sound of Thunder ) knows it’s not that simple.

Directed by Andy Muschietti (“ Mama ,” both “ It ” movies), from a script by ace genre screenwriter  Christina Hodson (“Birds of Prey,” “ Bumblebee “), “The Flash” deserves credit for taking its ideas and the pain of its characters seriously without devolving into glum, colorless machismo. When Miller enters what he believes is “the past” (it’s actually an alternate timeline), he not only encounters another version of himself with an intact, happy family but befriends and mentors the other Barry, discovering along the way how annoying he can be to others. 

Muschietti over-directs the pre-time-travel version of Barry, emphasizing his anxiety, clumsiness, and facial tics to the point where he seems like one of those schlemiels that Jerry Lewis used to play. But once the original Barry teams up with the other Barry, Miller keeps the schlemiel energy high for the second Barry while dialing it down for the original. This lets the first Barry mature in increments, part of the traditional arc of a young hero. The film showcases its finest effects in these mirror-image duets. The result is the most convincing instance of a leading man playing opposite himself since Michael Fassbender in “ Alien: Covenant .” The shots of both Barrys even have a smidge of handheld shakiness that’s visual shorthand for “authenticity.” Within a scene or two, you’ll likely forget that it’s one actor playing the same part and instead focus on what Miller does with both incarnations of the character. 

The master narrative of the DCEU defines Superman’s city-leveling battle with General Zod in “ Man of Steel ” as a character- and team-defining canonical event for every interlinked feature film in the series. The aftermath of that contest figured into the plots and dialogue of more than one film, most notably “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” When it’s referenced again in the film’s first act, you know Barry and Barry will have to deal with it again in another universe. Sure enough, here comes Zod with his villainous teammates, scarab starships, armored shock troopers, and terraforming World Engine. 

The problem is, there’s no Justice League to team up against him, and only one superhero: the Caped Crusader. Not Ben Affleck’s grizzled, Frank Miller-y Batman, but the one played by Michael Keaton in the 1980s Tim Burton films. Only he’s older, more haggard, and even more alienated from the society he monitors. As the time-ripened version of Burton’s Batman, essentially Bruce Wayne fused with the long-haired hermit incarnation of Howard Hughes, Keaton gives the movie’s subtlest performance. He underplays and reacts in a way that adds freshness to a story that’s probably too dependent on recycled situations and makes Miller’s jumpy, abrasive tendencies easier to take. He’s the acting version of a shock absorber, smoothing the ride without slowing it down. 

Barry, Barry, and Bruce become convinced that this universe’s Superman is trapped in a Siberian prison run by Russian mercenaries and fly there to bust him out. Turns out he’s a she: Kara Zor-El, Kal-El’s cousin, aka Supergirl ( Sasha Calle , rocking a modified pixie cut and a killer stare). Superman, we’re told, might still be out there somewhere, but his cousin (who was sent to protect him) is a powerful ally who can stand up to Zod. When the modified four-person Justice League substitute confronts Zod’s invading army, the movie proves that its obsessive referencing of the “Back to the Future” films was not just a running gag.

The reimagining of Zod’s attack is this movie’s equivalent of the end of the second “BTTF” movie, where time-traveling adolescent Marty McFly (played by Michael J. Fox in our world, and in Barry’s by Eric Stoltz , the actor Fox replaced!) had to attend the same prom that ended the original “BTTF” while avoiding a potentially time/space disruptive encounter with himself. (This movie’s decisions about what to save and what to delete from real world history are weird; I’d love to hear the logic behind erasing a lot of the DCEU superheroes from the second Barry’s universe while determining that “Back to the Future,” “Footloose,” and “ Top Gun ” and the first Chicago album were immutable occurrences.)

The film’s big battle is its least convincing sequence (parts of it look like cutscenes from an early-aughts game). It’s too bad, because it’s the most thought-provoking: as Batman and the Flashes and Supergirl battle Zod, the two Barrys disagree on whether traveling back and forth along dimensional pathways will solve problems or add new ones. Like most science fiction with even the thinnest veneer of seriousness, “The Flash” connects back to the godmother of science fiction, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, or, The Modern Prometheus . Shelley warned readers that using science to mimic God or defy nature has bad consequences, and it’s better for the story’s Prometheus figure to give up his illusions than continue traveling a ruinous path. Is this the sort of film that will heed Shelley’s warning, or ignore it to give the hero what he wants and the audience the wish-fulfillment fantasies it craves and that superhero films nearly always endorse? Even the first two Reeve Superman films erred on the side of audience wish-fulfillment; the first film lets him turn back time, while the second has him erase Lois’ knowledge of his secret identity with a super-kiss. “The Flash” deserves credit for threading the eye of that needle, giving audiences a somewhat hopeful ending without negating the philosophical and scientific issues it raises elsewhere. 

Unfortunately, “The Flash” also has a countervailing tendency that undermines its best self. Even as it cleverly translates Shelley’s worries into contemporary comic book terms, it serves up callback after fan-wanking callback to other versions of heroes and villains from film and TV, seemingly with no other purpose than to burnish Warner Bros’ properties and make the audience point to the screen and whisper the names of actors, characters, films, TV shows, and comic books that they recognize. Batman, Batman, Batman, Batman, Superman, Superman, Superman, Superman, Flash, Flash, Flash, etc., keep popping up scenes set in the “Chrono-Bowl,” a cosmic switching station with a design that alludes to clockwork gears, the concentric rings of chopped-down trees, theater-in-the-round, and a tribunal. 

And rather than find an artful, modest way to repurpose library footage from earlier adaptations of DC comics—as, say, “In the Line of Fire” did with footage of a younger Clint Eastwood from “ Dirty Harry “—the actors who originally played them, many of whom died long ago, have been scanned (or rebuilt) as vaguely three-dimensional but uncanny grotesques, like Madame Tussaud’s wax figures laid over audio-animatronic puppets. Remember the process that “reanimated” Peter Cushing in “Star Wars: Rogue One,” and later served up an even more unsettling “young Carrie Fisher ” in the climax, paving the way for a nearly expressionless “young Mark Hamill ” on “The Mandalorian,” and de-aged ’70s movie stars for various legacy sequels? It gets trotted out and multiplied ad nauseam here, even though the technology hasn’t improved much. 

The film’s principal cast also gets the zombie CGI treatment in the Chrono-Bowl, to visualize alternate realities. Some of the versions of these real, living actors with SAG cards and regularly updated IMDb pages look faintly demonic. The torsos and hands aren’t anatomically credible. One has eyes that point in opposite directions like a gecko. Were the deadlines rushed and the digital effects artists exploited until quality control disappeared— a problem throughout the entertainment industry —or is the technology just not there yet? And even if it ever does “get there,” will it ever not seem one (digital) step removed from wrapping a mannequin in corpse-flesh? Doing this sort of thing in a purely animated format moots such concerns. Everything in an animated comics adaptation is a drawing inspired by other drawings, and therefore a representation of a thing that is not meant to seem “real.” Not so in live-action. “Hey, that’s Actor X!” gives way to, “He looks kinda creepy and unreal,” and the spell is broken.

What a mess. And what a shame, because what’s good about “The Flash” is very good. The movie puts a lot of thought into what it wants to say and not enough into how it says it. It avidly warns against a thing while at the same time doing a version of that same thing. Barry, driven by a desire to resurrect the dead, grapples with the ethics and advisability of actions that the film constantly performs, in small ways and large, without breaking a sweat.  

Opens Friday, June 16th.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash
• Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl
• Michael Shannon as General Zod
• Ron Livingston as Henry Allen
• Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen
• Kiersey Clemons as Iris West
• Antje Traue as Faora-Ul
• Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman
• Ian Loh as Young Barry Allen
• Saoirse-Monica Jackson as Patty Spivot
• Rudy Mancuso as Albert Desmond
• Andy Muschietti
• Benjamin Wallfisch
• Christina Hodson

Cinematographer

• Henry Braham
• Jason Ballantine
• Paul Machliss

Writer (story by)

• Joby Harold

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Batman aside, 'The Flash' is far from one of the best superhero movies ever made

• Warning: Mild spoilers ahead for "The Flash."
• The Andy Muschietti-directed superhero movie has been overhyped by early critics.
• Michael Keaton's long-awaited return as Batman/Bruce Wayne is the film's best asset.

Early critics heralded "The Flash" as one of the best superhero movies ever made . That couldn't be further from the truth.

There's a scene early in Warner Bros.' latest DC outing where the titular hero (Ezra Miller) saves a group of babies and a nurse from falling to their deaths.

The dragged out, slowed-down scene involves a baby getting closed inside an unplugged microwave to save its life. Then, Miller's Barry Allen/The Flash offers mental health advice to a screaming nurse who's in shock. 

It's supposed to elicit laughter. Yet the fact that these scenes made the film's final cut given Miller's legal troubles , " complex mental health issues ," and accusations of grooming children make it difficult to separate the actor from his superhero facade. 

It gets better from there, but "The Flash" isn't the spectacle some critics and celebrities promised months ago.

The Andy Muschietti-directed movie, which has been in development as far back as the '80s, loosely follows the popular DC story "Flashpoint," in which the speedster travels back in time to prevent the death of his mother (Maribel Verdú) during his childhood. Unfortunately, changing the past alters the present. 

The Flash finds himself trapped in an alternate timeline where the Justice League doesn't exist and Superman villain Zod (Michael Shannon from 2013's "Man of Steel") threatens to once again take over Earth and transform it into a new home for his nearly extinct Kryptonian race.

Barry runs into his past self, a doe-eyed dingbat sans superpowers, and together they need to stop Zod and send the hero home. Help comes in the form of Supergirl (Sasha Calle) and a blast from the past — Michael Keaton's Batman, a cameo that's strategically been used in marketing, likely to take some of the attention off the film's troubled star.

Stuffed with unnecessary cameos seemingly for the sake of it, "The Flash" contains glimpses of fun, but is tonally uneven. It's often in conflict with itself over whether it wants to be a Batman nostalgia fest or about the fastest man alive.  

Michael Keaton's Batman is the best thing about 'The Flash' 

Let's be real. Despite being called "The Flash," audiences are likely venturing to theaters to see Keaton's reprisal as the Dark Knight. And Keaton doesn't disappoint. 

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"The Flash" meanders and relies on cringey and juvenile jokes for much of its first hour. (The film lingers on an unfunny gag that will go over young viewers' heads about Eric Stoltz playing Marty McFly in "Back to the Future" in a different timeline for far too long.) 

It's not until Keaton shows up to fight two versions of the Flash with a broom on a table in nothing but sweats and one flip flop that the movie livens up. 

Every moment with Keaton on screen makes this movie worth watching. The actor gets the film's best fight sequence while effortlessly taking down Russians to Danny Elfman's familiar theme. 

Keaton reminds us his Batman can do anything efficiently, including delivering the most straightforward explanation of the multiverse in any comic-book movie to date using nothing more than a bowl of spaghetti. 

Every other hero outshines The Flash in this movie.

Miller gets overshadowed in their own film any time a version of Batman shows up (I won't spoil them all here). Affleck's latest and likely last outing as the Caped Crusader delivers an exciting chase scene through Gotham, while Keaton and one other Batman received the majority of the cheers in my early June screening filled with fans and journalists.

At times, it feels like you're watching a follow-up to Tim Burton's "Batman Returns" instead of a standalone about the speedster. Throughout the film, Flash relies on Bats to formulate plans to get them out of trouble, help him restore his powers, and take down Zod.

The result is that The Flash feels more like a sidekick in his own film — even the movie poster has an identity crisis over which hero should be featured more prominently in a film titled "The Flash."

It's not just the Batmen who steal scenes.

Sasha Calle's Supergirl is another bright spot, featured in an adaptation of the popular "Red Son" Superman comic that explores what would've happened if Supes crash landed in Russia instead of a farm in Kansas. Though the film barely scratches the surface of the Eisner-winning Mark Millar story , Calle taps into a darker, more vengeful version of the hero than we've previously seen. 

Unfortunately, without giving away spoilers, the way the film wraps up Keaton and Calle's storylines makes it seem likely this will be the last time we see them in live-action.

The film is riddled with awful CGI

Noticeably wonky CGI makes "The Flash" tough to fully enjoy.

The babies Flash saves near the film's start look nightmarish . Any time the hero enters the Speed Force to try and turn back time, viewers see humans who look strangely animated, as if editors didn't have time to complete the film's effects. 

Apparently, it was intended to look " a little weird. " Muschietti and his sister, Barbara, who serves as a film's producer, told io9's Germain Lussier the CGI isn't a mistake . The visuals look the way they do on purpose to showcase those moments from Barry's point of view. 

Such an explanation would be fine; however, viewers have seen scenes from Barry's POV in previous DC films where his surroundings look well-defined. This jarring new take doesn't match with what's been introduced in the past. 

There's a better adaptation of 'Flashpoint' you can watch on Max.

"The Flash" is very good when it's a Batman movie and mediocre when it's about Barry Allen. 

The film fails to answer its biggest question: Who killed Barry's mom? Any fan familiar with The CW's nine-season "Flash" series — a show that debuted after WB's 2014 movie announcement and concluded weeks before its release — knows the culprit as Reverse Flash. Here, the question is ignored despite being at the heart of the film.

A Flash baddie could've naturally tied into the film's main story. 

Instead, "The Flash" bizarrely reintroduces Zod, a stale but familiar villain from one of DC's most divisive films, 2013's "Man of Steel," with a cliché goal of overtaking the planet. 

In doing so, the studio oddly revisits the Snyderverse era of DC that WB refused to continue . (As a reminder, Henry Cavill reprised his role as Superman in October's "Black Adam" only to be kicked to the curb two months later .)

By the film's end, Barry doesn't learn his lesson about fiddling with the past as his selfish actions result in another (less life-threatening) shift to the multiverse. It feels like a rushed sunset and solution to cleanly reset the DC universe moving forward, likely without Miller.

WB already made a more enjoyable Flashpoint adaptation in 2013 called " Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox ," currently streaming on Max . After you get your Keaton fix, watch that.

"The Flash," also starring Kiersey Clemons and Ron Livingston, is now in theaters.

Watch: How superhero costumes have evolved over 80 years in TV and movies

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The Flash First Reviews: Packed with Nostalgia and a Scene-Stealing Michael Keaton

Critics say the latest dc superhero flick is a satisfying time travel movie and a multiverse smorgasbord of nostalgia and cameos, even if it does lose steam towards the end..

TAGGED AS: DC Universe , First Reviews , movies , Superheroes

Here’s what critics are saying about The Flash :

Does it live up to expectations?

“ The Flash may not be the greatest comic book movie ever made, but it comes damn close.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“ The Flash doesn’t reinvent the superhero genre by any means, but it’s still one of the most consistently entertaining entries in the genre in years.” – Daniel Howat, Next Best Picture

“It’s certainly an above-average entry.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“The good barely outweighs the bad here, at least enough for me to give The Flash a marginal recommendation.” – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

“One of the most spectacular and frustrating mixed bags of the superhero blockbuster era, The Flash is simultaneously thoughtful and clueless, challenging and pandering.” – Matt Zoller-Seitz, RogerEbert.com

(Photo by ©Warner Bros.)

How does it rank among DC movies?

“One of the best DC Comics movies out there.” – Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics

“At its core, The Flash is a film that exudes the aura of the past, channeling its predecessors, Superman ’78 and Batman ’89.” – David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

“One of the best DC Extended Universe films.” – Brandon Zachary, CBR.com

“The Flash is, by far, the best movie to come out of this modern, post-Nolan Warners/DC collaboration.” – David Fear, Rolling Stone

“ The Flash is the first DC movie to somewhat emulate the early films from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, something DC has been chasing for a very long time.” – Daniel Howat, Next Best Picture

“I would hesitate to even put this film on the same level as others in the increasingly-tired genre that both Marvel and DC have run into the ground.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“It does not work as a pseudo-finale to the DCEU, which it seemed to have been pigeonholed into becoming pending the upcoming reboot.” – Sheraz Farooqi, CinemaDebate

How is Ezra Miller’s performance?

“Miller excels in their performance as the dual Barry Allen/The Flash.” – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

“Miller, putting a spin of effrontery on every line, is the perfect actor to play this corkscrew superhero.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“Miller does an impressive job making the two Barrys into distinct people; the illusion is so convincing that you sometimes forget that a lot of this movie is just one actor talking to themselves.” – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

“The troubled star turns out to be the film’s chief asset, bringing humor, heart, and a vulnerability not often seen in big-screen superheroes.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“Simply put, better casting you could not imagine. Whatever the well-publicized personal-life troubles the actor has had simply do not matter here; Miller is the real deal and a superhero superstar is born.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

What about Michael Keaton?

“The highlight is Michael Keaton, who fully embraces a tired and almost stir-crazy Dark Knight to deliver a performance that’s impossible to not appreciate.” – Brandon Zachary, CBR.com

“He very much steals the show at times, proving that he has still got it.” – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

“It’s a performance to go nuts for.” – David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

“Keaton still has that old Batman joie de vivre ; even belatedly, it’s really fun to see him back in another adventure.” – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

“Keaton has never been better in the role. It is a terrific reinvention of the character for the actor, and for Batman himself.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“Keaton gives the movie’s subtlest performance. He underplays and reacts in a way that adds freshness to a story that’s probably too dependent on recycled situations and makes Miller’s jumpy, abrasive tendencies easier to take. He’s the acting version of a shock absorber, smoothing the ride without slowing it down.” – Matt Zoller-Seitz, RogerEbert.com

How is Michael Shannon’s return as the villain?

“He is a scary and powerful villain. Always has been. Likely always will be.” – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

“It is fun to see Shannon taking on more weight as Zod.” – Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily

“Shannon is wasted in generic snarling supervillain mode.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“The final showdown with Zod does feel a bit redundant.” – Mike Ryan, Uproxx

“Michael Shannon returns as General Zod again in the Man Of Steel timeline, but the real conflict is internal as Barry must resolve the cracks in the timeline and learn to let go of his tortured past.” – Daniel Howat, Next Best Picture

Does anyone else stand out?

“The absolute bright spot for the film is Sasha Calle’s Supergirl.” – Sheraz Farooqi, CinemaDebate

“Sasha Calle is sensational as Kara as she evokes the fierceness of Supergirl and offers an intense persona that gives individuality to her Supergirl while removing comparisons from other iterations.” – David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

How is the action?

“When the action kicks into gear it’s damned impressive.” – Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics

“Director Muschietti handles the action with confidence.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“Muschietti has a great handle on superhero action. Especially considering the film’s creative uses of the Flash’s abilities, the flow of action could have become difficult to follow — but it remains clear and (more importantly) very fun throughout.” – Brandon Zachary, CBR.com

“Muschietti’s direction is a perfect tonal balancing act that makes the action gripping and appropriately silly when necessary.” – Daniel Howat, Next Best Picture

What about the special effects?

“The effects when Flash is speeding through the city or into battle are an explosion for the senses, capturing the fun and freedom of moving faster than the speed of thought.” – Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics

“It features some of the best digital FX work I’ve seen and some of the worst.” – Matt Zoller-Seitz, RogerEbert.com

“The movie’s visual effects fall a little short… It’s a little distracting, but it doesn’t ruin the movie.” – Carla Hay, Culture Mix

“The CGI/VFX is a detriment to the film’s third act.” – David Gonzalez, The Cinematic Reel

“There are a few times where the CGI is downright laughable.” – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

And the script?

“A lot of the jokes, scripted by Christina Hodson (from a story credited to John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein, and Joby Harold) are clever, as are the winking homages to the long history of DC movies and other famous cinematic time travel stories like Back to the Future .” – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

“Even despite being saddled with the baggage of the DCU’s failures, that the story that works in The Flash manages to shine through the noise is no small feat.” – Justin Clark, Slant Magazine

“The fact that the movie can withstand all of [its] diversions and still maintain a strong emotional core is a testament to the power of the script by Christina Hodson, John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein, and Joby Harold.” – Ben Pearson, Slashfilm

Is the movie too nostalgic for the past?

“While the nostalgia often threatens to marginalize the central plotline, those scenes do yield pathos as the older Barry explains the futility of all that exertion to his teenage self, forcing them both to make the most painful sacrifice in order to set the world right.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“It’s surrounded by so much fat, damaged by all the mistakes of DCU films past, which makes all of its appeals to nostalgia come across stilted and awkward.” – Justin Clark, Slant Magazine

Does the movie have any major issues?

“Like far too many superhero movies, The Flash gradually bogs down, devolving into rote mayhem as the protagonists go up against their mighty enemy in a chaotic clash where busy CG excess takes over from human — or humanoid — engagement.” – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

“It gets bogged down… There are so many twists and turns, and such a large cast, that even with two Barrys onscreen in a lot of scenes, the title character(s) and their motivations occasionally get lost.” – Matt Singer, ScreenCrush

“The trouble with The Flash is that as the film moves forward, it exudes less of that Back to the Future playfulness and more of that mythological but arbitrary blockbuster self-importance.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“The final battle overpowers you with fan-service nonsense that many casual moviegoers won’t come close to understanding.” – Travis Hopson, Punch Drunk Critics

The Flash opens in theaters everywhere on June 16, 2023.

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Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future. Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future. Barry Allen uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without super heroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future.

• Andy Muschietti
• Christina Hodson
• John Francis Daley
• Jonathan Goldstein
• Ezra Miller
• Michael Keaton
• Sasha Calle
• 1.6K User reviews
• 315 Critic reviews
• 55 Metascore
• 5 wins & 6 nominations

Top cast 87

• Barry Allen …

• Bruce Wayne …

• Kara Zor-El …

• General Zod

• Henry Allen

• Alfred Pennyworth

• Thomas Curry

• David Singh

• Sandwich Guy

• Henry's Lawyer
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Michael Keaton 's original Batman suit was infamously restrictive, forcing him to move his entire body to look around. For this movie, the costume designers created a more flexible suit that allowed for greater range of motion, but when Keaton first tried it on, he insisted it be made stiffer.
• Goofs Even though Kara Zor-El has been a prisoner of the Soviets since she arrived on Earth, she loses her Russian accent after her first few lines of dialogue.

Teenage Barry : Oh. You're... You are, you're...

Batman : Yeah. I'm Batman.

• Crazy credits Part of the closing credits are set in a slow-motion sequence of the Flash rescuing the falling dog and babies.
• Connections Edited from Batman (1966)
• Soundtracks If You Leave Me Now Written by Peter Cetera Performed by Chicago Licensed courtesy of Warner Music UK Ltd

User reviews 1.6K

• slightlymad22
• Jun 13, 2023
• How long is The Flash? Powered by Alexa
• How Many Directors have been attached to this movie?
• Will Archive Footage From Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) appear on the movie Since Michael Keaton´s Character is the Same from those Movies
• Will Grant Gustin's Flash from the CW series be in this?
• June 16, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• New Zealand
• Official Flash
• 130 St Vincent Street, Glasgow, Scotland, UK (Batman chases Falcone through Gotham)
• DC Entertainment
• New Zealand Film Commission
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $200,000,000 (estimated)
• $108,133,313
• $55,043,679
• Jun 18, 2023
• $271,433,313

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 24 minutes
• Dolby Digital
• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Atmos

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The Flash Reviews

The film’s convoluted parallel plot adds almost nothing to the impact of the storytelling, other than to make it feel muddled.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 18, 2024

For a film about a very fast man, the narrative is slow at times. The tacky CGI and video game artistry make the experience less immersive too.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2024

Michael Keaton is the main reason to see “The Flash” (2023), the 13th film in the DC Extended Universe. Feel free to arrive at the theater under one hour late to see a decent Batman sequel otherwise you will be peeking at your watch

Full Review | May 25, 2024

For 2/3 of The Flash -- and it's too long -- it's kind of fun... in the last sections it becomes slightly video game-ish.

Full Review | Jan 9, 2024

Despite having fun throughout, The Flashisn't flawless, especially in its final act. But Miller as the eponymous superhero is clearly having fun, and so are the other key characters that wouldn't think twice.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 28, 2023

Simply put, this movie is way fun and worth a watch in the theaters, put it on your list of to-do's this weekend.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Nov 13, 2023

Given that seemingly every piece of media is unleashing its perception of whatever the multiverse may be, it’s refreshing that The Flash treats it as more of an existential test.

Full Review | Nov 10, 2023

... fun, generous, and entertaining. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2023

The Flash may be the most underrated, most underappreciated movie of the year.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 27, 2023

Are multiverses just an excuse for not picking a tone or choosing a story? Our cinema’s flavor of the last few years may just be the child of channel-surfing... The Flash makes you feel simultaneously overserved and underserved.

Full Review | Sep 29, 2023

The Flash creates not just an origin story but lays the foundation for an emotional and layered performance few expect from superhero movies. He can see how things could have been, allowing him to question how he became the man and hero he believes he is.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 23, 2023

The result of literally decades of unsuccessful development, culminating in something that – if not borderline unwatchable – is certainly the most pronounced death throe of Warner Bros’ DC Extended Universe to date.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Sep 18, 2023

Color me shocked.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 8, 2023

Overall, The Flash is one of the better DCEU entries, but that’s not saying much for a universe of films often found thin or clunky. Muschietti focuses on the human side of meta-human Barry and that leads to a solid emotional journey.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2023

Perhaps the main problem with The Flash is there is too much of everything packed into its not short runtime. By the time we get to the final crisis of universes colliding it seems so inevitable that it’s tiring.

Full Review | Sep 6, 2023

With eighty percent of The Flash devoted to other DC heroes and underwhelming visual effects, the result seems like a foregone conclusion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Aug 30, 2023

The Flash has about two-thirds of a decent storyline, utilizing a much better characterization of the beloved superhero than we saw previously in the DC cinematic universe, but sadly the film is let down by a final act that unravels into a muddled mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 28, 2023

Ezra Miller’s superhero outing has an affecting storyline, fan service aplenty, and an easy-way-out anticlimax; maybe this is a befitting conclusion to the DCEU storyline.

Full Review | Aug 25, 2023

Ultimately, what you want to know, dear reader, is whether or not the film is worth your time? The best answer I can offer is: sorta.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 25, 2023

The characters are so driven that the film’s most earth-shattering moments don’t come during an epic battle, but in quiet moments of reflection and recognition of one’s responsibility. If you can get beyond multiverse overkill, this one is worth watching.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2023

The Flash Review

Flashback to the future..

The Flash premieres in theaters on June 16, 2023.

Fresh, funny, and fast – The Flash is a good time at the movies. Director Andy Muschietti’s clear love of the character anchors the many refreshingly unique action scenes and twisty time-travel plot, never losing sight of Barry Allen’s powerful emotional journey. Though the story doesn’t necessarily justify its excessive fan service and the third act is a bit unwieldy, that doesn’t stop The Flash from being an earnest and entertaining superhero film – and one of the better efforts from DC in recent memory.

In a loose adaptation of the Flashpoint comic event that feels like a more focused version and worthy update to the 2011 source material, Barry rushes to use his newfound time-travel ability to undo the most traumatic event of his life: the murder of his mother when he was a child. Using Back to the Future-esque time travel rules, The Flash becomes a tale of two Barry Allens, two Batmans, and two versions of DC movie continuities colliding. What follows is a sincere and surprisingly humorous morality play where Barry must reconcile what his selfish, grief-stricken actions have wrought. It’s especially effective in telling a story that includes the Flash’s full origin without actually being a typical origin story movie.

It’s impressive that it still manages to get all of that across, because for a film called The Flash, there sure is a lot of Batman in it. Even though it indulges in unnecessarily long Batman action sequences and numerous overt references to the Tim Burton Batman films, they never overshadow Barry’s story. The two Batmans are contrasted to excellent effect to accent Barry’s plight, with Ben Affleck’s Dark Knight lamenting that scars shouldn’t be undone because they make us who we are, and Michael Keaton’s Caped Crusader admitting there is an allure to the idea of being able to undo all that pain. As men orphaned by violence as children they have a lot in common and thus provide Barry with juicy philosophical food for thought. For his part, Affleck seems more at home as Batman and Bruce Wayne than ever with a ( very likely final ) performance that’s all business and sadness with a perfectly measured dash of dry humor.

Keaton, on the other hand, portrays an aged Bruce with an understated performance – too understated, at some points, almost as if he’s reluctant to rattle off his character’s most memorable lines (and some not-so-memorable ones seemingly just for the heck of it) for the nostalgia-hungry crowd. Keaton’s action scenes are the exact opposite, as we watch his Batman fight like never before thanks to modern special effects. On one hand, it’s cool to see him fling Batarangs and glide around like a bat out of Hell, but it’s also overly cartoonish when we all know that Keaton is in his 70s. It's enough to make you question why we'd ever need Batman Beyond when Senior Citizen Batman can kick that much ass. It feels like a missed opportunity to not acknowledge and explore how an older Bruce can still be Batman despite his age, especially because there's precious little substance to his character or motivation to begin with.

The Flash Trailer Images

Unfortunately, the Supergirl we meet in this mashed-up world feels more like a plot device than a fully fleshed-out character, and it’s sad to watch as her part in the story veers into cringey cliche territory. That said, actor Sasha Calle shines as much as she can given the thin nature of the role, and manages to make an impression with her disillusioned Kara Zor-El, who holds an understandable grudge against humanity.

All of those characters play major roles, but this is the first time we’ve seen Barry in a movie centered around him, and Muschietti takes care to showcase the hero’s signature powers in true blockbuster fashion. Whereas Zack Snyder rendered super speed in slow motion, Muschietti makes you feel the Gs from the the first time Flash strikes his admittedly dorky sprinting pose and takes off.

At times, there’s an uncomfortable (yet silly) intimacy in how the Flash’s powers are depicted. We quickly see that having that kind of speed isn’t as easy as it looks, and learning how Barry navigates things like friction heat and what happens to your clothes when you phase through solid matter gives you an appreciation for how clever and resourceful he is. The Quicksilver sequence in X-Men: Days of Future Past remains the king of slow-motion speedster sequences, but The Flash offers up a new one that certainly gets credit for its inventiveness. It’s a frankly ridiculous situation, but that doesn’t stop it from having genuine moments of horror among the humorous ones.

While a majority of the visual effects are superb, one in particular is not. Time travel is portrayed using a concept unlike anything we’ve seen before – and credit where it’s due for that originality – but when this “chrono bowl” (yes, that’s what they call it) depicts people, they look like eerie wax dolls with plastic hair, as if the CGI render was shut off halfway through. Given that a handful of important scenes take place there, and they ask for a lot of emotional investment from us, the distracting look ends up robbing certain big moments of their intended impact. Let's just say it didn’t bowl me over.

It’s obvious going in that The Flash deals with time travel, but nothing can quite prepare you for the blast from the past that is returning to the era of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel from 2013. It feels strange revisiting these events 10 years later, yet that ends up working to The Flash’s advantage as Barry begins to notice how things have changed in this timeline. In ways big and small, this story feels like a parting love letter to the Snyderverse, as it plays with the many toys the DCEU has introduced over the years and adds a new layer to that foundational film, and in doing so expands on Barry’s superhero journey in a profound way. Only James Gunn and Peter Safran know what’s in store for the future of the DC Universe, but if this is truly the last in-universe chapter of the Snyderverse as we know it then it’s a fitting swan song because it brings things full circle. (Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is technically part of the Snyderverse but comes after what Gunn described as a “reset” of the DC Universe in The Flash .)

Who is your favorite speedster?

All of this leads up to one of the most ambitious and unwieldy third acts we’ve seen in a superhero movie in quite some time. The amount of chaos – both in action and storytelling – that unfolds threatens to overwhelm and confuse, and at times it does, but it ultimately succeeds because it manages to keep Barry’s arc at the heart of it all.

That’s owed to the fact that Barry Allen is the most impressive part of The Flash, and why it all works so well. By having Barry meet his younger self, a version of him who was never traumatized the way he was, it helps us better understand what makes him tick and where his peculiar personality comes from. Barry doesn’t start off as the most likable character, but by the end it’s hard not to root for him. We see the ways in which grief affected his life, from his non-existent social life to the way he defies the system at his forensics job to ensure proper justice is carried out.

Actor Ezra Miller excels in this double role, offering two dramatically different looks at the same character. One of the most affecting scenes of the film is just Barry having a passionate argument with his younger self. Muschietti brings in a delightful, off-beat sense of humor and Miller proves they have the comedic chops to deliver it, taking all-too-familiar superhero story ideas and upending them into laugh-out-loud moments or creative action scenes. Yet the superhero theatrics are all in service of an intimate story about the pain of grief and the strength it takes to find acceptance, and in those moments of vulnerability Miller shines just as bright.

The Flash is an ambitious superhero movie that largely pulls off its tale of two worlds, two Flashes, and two Batmans. The superhero fan service is strong with this one – perhaps too strong at times – but it never fully overshadows Barry Allen’s genuinely tragic and heartfelt story of grief. Though the visual effects aren’t always the best and the third act is a bit overwhelming, strong performances and a refreshing earnestness keep The Flash on track and running circles around many of the recent DC Universe movies. If this is the truly last stop on the Snyderverse express, then it’s a respectable way to go out.

More Reviews by Joshua Yehl

Ign recommends.

‘The Flash’ Review: Ezra Miller Is on a Bender of High Anxiety in a Movie That Starts Strong and Grows Overwrought

Miller's the Flash goes back in time to change the future and connects with Michael Keaton's Batman. But the movie, after a smart and playful first half, gives itself over to comic-book bombast.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

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In comic-book movies, when it comes to a hero’s superpowers — flying, lifting objects, repelling bullets, the indomitability of a shield or a hammer — the audience is almost always on the outside looking in. But in “ The Flash ,” when the title character throttles forward at the speed of the hot-singe lightning streaks at his back, or floats through the air in slowed-down motion so that a mere second appears to last forever, the movie makes us part of the experience. We know just what he’s going through, which is why the scene gives you a jolt.    

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Suddenly, there are two Barrys: the one who traveled back in time, and the one who’s an 18-year-old college freshman, with longer hair, an even bitchier attitude, and no superpowers; he has yet to have that fateful accident where a lightning bolt strikes a lab shelf of beakers, electrocuting Barry in a baptism of chemicals. And suddenly the world is a different place too, with criss-crossed pop-culture wires, so that the star of “Back to the Future” is now…Eric Stoltz. (Okay, that’s a serious disturbance in the universe.) Barry tries to make the accident occur and succeeds, sort of. Young Barry becomes the Flash; older Barry loses his powers completely. Did I mention that General Zod (Michael Shannon), the glowering heavy from Krypton, has just landed on Earth?

There’s a lot going on in “The Flash,” and for a while it’s an entertainingly heady comic-book caper of time-warp heroism and identity. Miller, putting a spin of effrontery on every line, is the perfect actor to play this corkscrew superhero. When the two Barrys, who are now a team (even though they’re the same person), break into Wayne Manor, only to find that Bruce Wayne, played in the multiverse strand they’re in now by Michael Keaton , is a hairy hermit in flip-flops, the film seems ripe with possibility. Keaton is a more suave Bruce now than he was in 1989, and when he suits up and says, “I’m Batman,” audiences will feel a ripe tingle of nostalgia.

The trouble with “The Flash” is that as the film moves forward, it exudes less of that “Back to the Future” playfulness and more of that mythological but arbitrary blockbuster self-importance. Directed by Andy Muschietti (the “It” films), from a script by Christina Hodson (“Bumblebee”), the film turns into a top-heavy noisy-busy picaresque, gathering up characters and themes along the way. Look, it’s Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle), a.k.a. Supergirl! Look, it’s older Barry regaining his superpowers, and now Zod needs Supergirl’s DNA to reconstitute Krypton. And what about, you know, the space-time continuum? By the climax of the movie, that’s become a globule of grandiosity, with room for crowd-pleasing cameos by everyone from TV’s old Batman and Superman to a slightly more recent Batman. This is the “Spider-Man: No Way Home” strategy: gather a bunch of iconic actors onscreen and let the audience whoop with pleasure at the referentiality.

Reviewed at Regal Union Square, June 5, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 144 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. Pictures release of a Double Dream/A Disco Factory production. Producers: Barbara Muschietti, Michael Disco. Executive producers: Toby Emmerich, Walter Hamada, Galen Vaisman, Marianne Jenkins.
• Crew: Director: Anthony Muschietti. Screenplay: Christina Hodson. Camera: Henry Braham. Editors: Jason Ballantine, Paul Machliss. Music: Benjamin Wallfisch.
• With: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Jeremy Irons, Antje Traue.

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The Flash Review

14 Jun 2023

It’s taken – in a supreme act of Alanis-ing – so long for The Flash to get his own movie that the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe has changed on several occasions. Now that it has arrived, we should address the elephant in the room: yes, Barry Allen does enter the Speed Force.

There’s another elephant in the room, of course: the off-screen behaviour of the film’s star, Ezra Miller, which has often threatened to overshadow the movie. On the thorny issue of separating art from the artist, your mileage may vary, but purely on a performance level, Miller is excellent here. There was a tendency for the actor in  Justice League , particularly the Joss Whedon version, to mug relentlessly as the film’s appointed comic relief. Here, Miller benefits from the decision to have not one, but two Barry Allens, which allows the role of jester to go to the younger, more carefree Barry, while the Alpha-Barry gets to learn and grow and glare contemptuously at his idiotic younger self. We spend much of the movie with this dynamic duo, and they’re a joy together, as Beta-Barry gets to grips with entering the Speed Force, phasing through walls, and running around in the nud.

There’s been a lot of focus on the return of Michael Keaton as Batman, but director Andy Muschietti — stepping away from horror after  Mama  and both chapters of  It  — makes sure that this is a Flash movie. The breathless first 20 minutes serve as a mini-sequel to  Justice League , bringing Barry and Ben Affleck’s Batman together, before Barry — still hurting from the loss of his murdered mother — hurtles back through time.

Keaton fits right back into the Batsuit again, providing a pleasingly cranky contrast to both Barrys.

Naturally, as Batfleck warns, the cure is worse than the condition, stranding Barry in the past with the dawning realisation that fings ain’t wot they used to be. This includes the morphing of Affleck into Keaton, and much talk of Multiverses (aided by a helpful demonstration involving spaghetti, although they could have just bunged on  Spider-Man: No Way Home  instead). It’s been over 30 years since  Batman Returns , and while there is a tendency to use Keaton to dispense a quick nostalgia hit (Danny Elfman’s  Batman  theme plays seemingly on a loop), he fits right back into the Batsuit again, providing a pleasingly cranky contrast to both Barrys. That can’t really be said, sadly, for the third superhero in the mix, who is introduced far too late to make much impact.

Interestingly, there isn’t really an antagonist. Although Michael Shannon’s General Zod does appear, Muschietti keeps him at arm’s length, recognising that he has all the conflict he could ever need in his guilt-ridden hero. It’s a blockbuster, of course, and by the end there’s CG carnage aplenty, but refreshingly the emphasis remains on Barry, a boy who has been running from the moment his mum was murdered, and who finally starts to realise that it might be time to stop.

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