I won’t go into all the crazy stuff actor Ezra Miller has gotten into in his personal life. I remember when Robert Downey Jr. was addicted to heroin and went to jail, I thought he threw his career away. He came back eventually, and got to play Iron Man and make over $100 million on the last film. Who knows if Miller will be able to pull that off (people are less forgiving of kidnapping and sex crime charges than drug addiction). I thought he was great in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and the criminally underseen “City Island” (Andy Garcia). He plays Barry Allen very well in “The Flash.”
Early on in the movie, we see him saving some people while waiting for his Starbucks order. It was a bit of fun. He then meets up with Batman. When that Batman is Ben Affleck, we’re a bit confused, because all the big talk was about Michael Keaton reprising the role. Oh yeah, Keaton comes back, and he’s a lot of fun to watch, too. He’s a bearded hippie who’s retired, and just rockin’ out to Chicago albums (not sure why that band was the one chosen for this, I think Meatloaf’s “Bat out of Hell” would’ve been better, but I digress).
Flash lost his mother at a young age, and his dad Henry (Ron Livingston) is being charged with the murder, even though he’s innocent. Barry finds out the newly discovered camera footage isn’t clear, and isn’t going to clear pops. So the Flash runs so fast, he goes back in time, hoping he can change the events and save his mom (Maribel Verdu). He’s warned of the butterfly effect and all the disruption it can cause in the present, but he does this anyway (although that also means that what he does at the very end of the story makes little sense, but I can’t spoil that).
Flash ends up in a timeline right before the other teenage version of himself is about to get his powers. He also meets up with Supergirl (Sasha Calle), that would be Superman’s cousin for those not in the know. They have to battle Zod (Michael Shannon). Unfortunately, she’s not given as much to do as I would’ve liked. Neither is Zod.
The time travel story ends up working. It’s all goofy and fun. It has a lot of jokes thrown in. Some work, some don’t. That’s all subjective, though. While I thought the joke about Eric Stoltz being the star of “Back to the Future” was funny, my wife also liked hearing all the other actors that were in different movies then we remember. I thought that was going too far with the joke and ruining it.
I’m also so tired of fight scenes in superhero movies. They exhaust me, they’re not interesting, and can get confusing.
There was a barf scene, because as I’ve been documenting for years now, 91% of all movies have them.
There are a few things that don’t make sense (there always are in time travel movies), but it’s not that. It’s the fact that they’re saying the video evidence from the store doesn’t clear the father of murdering the mother, because you can’t see his face, since he never looks up at the camera. Well, he’s wearing a T-shirt with a flannel shirt over it. Surely when the police arrived at their house, he was wearing those same clothes. Is that not enough to prove he was at the store at that time? And the fact that they can prove he bought the tomato sauce at the store at that time? Not to mention the fact that, when they show us the murder taking place, the father is pulling up into the driveway. So, having him be at the store buying tomato sauce at that time, doesn’t really clear him anyway.
Miller does well with the emotional scenes, and his younger version is a bit annoying, especially with the laugh; but that works, too. The CGI is weak and the special effects are bad, which is bizarre, considering this movie cost over $200 million.
The fanboys are going to go nuts over this. At the screening I attended, there was lots of applause during various scenes.
The movie was a mixed bag, but the ending was a blast.
3 stars out of 5.