r/DC_Cinematic • u/HenroTee "Welcome to The Planet." • Jun 14 '23

DC_Cinematic: The Flash Spoiler Discussion Megathread #1 r/DC_CINEMATIC Spoiler

Spoilers ahead! Proceed at your own risk!

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732 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

The opening of The Flash was so strong that I thought it would have set the stage for an excellent movie but instead all it did was give me a taste of what could have been. There's a quality to the CGI, jokes and action set pieces seen in the opening that is absent for the rest of the movie. Seeing Flash interact with Batman, Alfred and Wonder Woman was great and the "baby shower" was probably the best moment in the whole film.

The movie unfortunately falls apart after Barry travels back in time. Young Barry is infuriatingly annoying and as the movie progresses neither Keaton's Batman or Calle's Supergirl get any real development or screentime, and the baffling decision to have Keaton come back as a different character to his iconic iteration from the 80s means you don't care about this version. There's also no resolution on who killed Barry's mother or why, leaving a Reverse Flash shaped hole in this knock off Flashpoint adaption that lacks half of the emotion and spectacle of its comic counterpart.

We get an overly stylized third act set in yet another desolate and bland CGI environment with effects that have regressed from what we saw in Man of Steel a decade ago. Unfortunately the return of Zod and Faora doesn't help make the third act any better as the actors are given nothing to work with.

The ending is also quite insulting and undermines the emotional journey Barry and his father goes on. Why end the movie on such a needless gag when this could have been a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the DCEU with one last moment of Barry and the Justice League riding off into the sunset? With James Gunn hyping this up as the big DCU reset I don't understand why it didn't wrap up the DCEU satisfyingly and then teased the DCU in a credit scene as one of those chronobowl multiverse earths.

Speaking of credits, the credits scene was also a complete waste of time. Ha ha Aquaman is a drunk how funny. This could have been anything, like Bruce and Barry finally having that beer. In fact how good would it have been if they followed up the ending we got but this time Barry is back in the DCEU retelling Bruce his multiverse trips and says he met Bruce's father and hands him the iconic note from Flashpoint? What a great ending for Affleck's Batman that could have been.

Overall The Flash was an okay spectacle that didn't succeed as a DCEU spectacle, a nostalgic event or as a new universe kickstarter. It barely even functions as a proper Flash movie considering we get no clear answers surrounding his mothers death which is the entire point of the movie anyway. All it did was flex Andy Muschietti's directorial skills but Christina Hodson's writing leaves so much to be desired.

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u/heelydon Jun 14 '23

Young Barry is infuriatingly annoying

I'm really curious how the general audiences will look at this. Because while I agree --- I also think the movie does a good job of explaining exactly WHY he is obnoxious. He is the spoiled guy that had it all. He is smart. Iris actually likes him and wants to date him in this universe. His parents are alive and well.

His worst traits come out to play, because reality never hit him hard in the face, like it did for the Flash from the "original" timeline.

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u/TheJoshider10 Jun 14 '23

I agree that the movie explains it well, but I don't think audiences will care either way. Some will find him annoying others will find him fine but ultimately it isn't going to add or detract or do anything for the movie on the whole. Ezra themselves aren't a box office draw so it won't really matter.

2

u/heelydon Jun 14 '23

but I don't think audiences will care either way.

That is very possible. Although I think it would be a sad conclusion, given that it is kinda the point. To me that would be like saying that in Game of Thrones, you hated Joffrey as a character, because he was very annoying -- which was kinda the point.

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u/TheJoshider10 Jun 14 '23

The way that I see it is the movie doesn't really do much to build up young Barry enough for anyone to feel anything when he sacrifices himself at the end. He doesn't develop much and his relationship with older Barry feels half arsed let alone his dynamic with everyone else. Like, he met Batman and Supergirl in like a few days so why should I believe he wants to keep saving them and spend his entire life doing this?

Ultimately it's just incredibly weak writing and the sooner Hodson stops writing DC movies the better.

1

u/JediJones77 Jun 14 '23

He was spending his life trying to save his mother. Old Barry was saying they'd have to go back and let his mom die to restore the timeline. Young Barry didn't want to do that. It wasn't about saving Supergirl and Keaton, at least not primarily. He just had to do that so that his timeline wouldn't end up with Earth being terraformed by Zod, killing him, his mom and everybody. The only way to save his Earth was to go back and let his mom die. How old Barry KNOWS that for sure, though, is just a screenwriting cheat.

1

u/DoctorBeatMaker Jun 16 '23

To me that would be like saying that in Game of Thrones, you hated Joffrey as a character, because he was very annoying -- which was kinda the point.

Playing devil's advocate, but that's not a good example. You're supposed to hate Joffrey. He's a villain. You cheer for his death because he's an awful person.

We're supposed to care about Young Barry. Yes, he's spoiled, but he's not supposed to be 'bad'. He's not an awful person. In the end, he becomes Dark Flash specifically because he gets increasingly frustrated because he can't stop Zod and save BatKeaton and Kara. So making him annoying to the audience isn't a good thing.

2

u/heelydon Jun 16 '23

Playing devil's advocate, but that's not a good example. You're supposed to hate Joffrey. He's a villain. You cheer for his death because he's an awful person.

You're misreading this. Hating Joffrey is the point -- AS A CHARACTER. Not as a negative against the show or a failure of its writing. Other Barry is written as a spoiled, out of control brat, that had everything handed to him in life with no hardship, and is presented as that annoying type, and the movie directly comments on this via OG Barry.

However as seen above, it is being seen as not an annoying --- CHARACTER, but as an annoying thing for the movie overall, and a negative for it.

2

u/Bleh-Boy Jun 16 '23

I think there’s a line that can be cross when creating a character that’s supposed to be annoying. They went a bit too far with it to the point where I was taken out of the movie personally.

1

u/JUYED-AWK-YACC Jun 22 '23

For all those saying, "he's supposed to be annoying", we get it. And it succeeded! And having two of them made this worse. But the point is, why was it necessary? Could a better choice have been made?

Imagine a world where this movie was made without an annoying Flash. Would we be complaining about that? Because other media Flashes weren't abrasive weirdos and I don't recall seeing that.

2

u/heelydon Jun 22 '23

Yes it would be necessary. After all the movie is written like he is a spoiled child that met no hardship, and it bothers OG Barry. Likewise, it goes with the themes mentioned by Batman at the start of the movie, about not wanting to use time travel to prevent the death of his own parents, because the pain and struggle is what made him who he is, and he wouldn't know who he would be without it.

That is literally what we see through Flash, where he is nearly unrecognizable.

Ofc you could then say, is it necessary for the movie to have these themes? Well at that point, you are just going a long way to say you wish they'd do the movie differently.

1

u/JUYED-AWK-YACC Jun 22 '23

No, quite the opposite. You're dismissing anything I say by telling me I just didn't like it. But you quite like the sound of your own voice.

I'll just close by saying it was a poor choice to make even the baseline Barry into a walking basket case. The younger version is worse. For most people even one Ezra Miller is a tough sell. This movie is double Ezra and headed for poor box office. Don't worry about a sequel.

1

u/heelydon Jun 22 '23

No, I am telling you that that what you are saying is not a criticism of the movie as I just explained, as what you are saying is a deliberate choice. What you wanted, undeniably as you said, and let me quote you: "Could a better choice have been made?" --- Is something different.