The Flash
2023
**½
Director: Andy Muschietti
Cast: Ezra Miller, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Antje Traue, Michael Keaton, Ben Affleck
Justice League (2017) introduced the DCEU version of Barry Allen, aka The Flash. His own movie tells a personal backstory rather than a character origin story. As Barry's father has been wrongfully imprisoned for killing Barry's mother, he uses the Speed Force to travel back in time to save his parents, but ends up in an alternate 2013. The concept of multiverse provides a fun and clever way to explore multiple versions of the same character and to play around with the past releases in the DC roster. If only Marvel hadn't done the exact same thing much better in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022). There doesn't appear to be a single (action) scene that does not employ weightless and absolutely awful-looking CGI, so in essence this is a 2½-hour animation. On the plus side, Andy Muschietti's movie is light and brisk, and Ezra Miller gives a likeable but occasionally exhausting double performance.
