The Flash (2023)

The Plot of The Flash: A bit of a challenge. The Flash, Barry Allen, finds that he can go back in time if he runs faster than light and returns to a past when his mother was alive. We have learnt that his mum had been fatally stabbed in her kitchen and that his father is in jail accused of the crime, although he claims that he had been in a supermarket buying a tin of tomatoes. In the past Barry alters the timeline by putting a tin of tomatoes in his mum’s shopping thereby preventing the killing from taking place. However everything changes. Barry with his 18 year old self (to be known here as Barry2) go to the laboratory where he gained his powers, and sure enough Barry2 gains to powers but Barry loses them. They learn that Krypton’s General Zod is invading the earth, and so Barry suggests that the only way to save the planet is to get the Justice League together. They go to Bruce Wayne’s manor and get together with the former Batman, but Barry’s efforts to find the rest of the team are unsuccessful. However they go to Siberia to rescue Superman, only to find Supergirl and then after Barry has got his powers back go to the desert to take on General Zod and his forces. But this is an alternative reality.

Content: No sex or nudity, but Barry2’s house mates seem to be on something. We see Barry in the “Mum Dead Reality” rescuing a bunch of babies from a collapsing hospital while a sandwich is being prepared for him. Meanwhile Batman (Ben Affleck) on his motor bike is eliminating some villains in a Humvee. Barry realises he can alter the past and ensures his mum has the tin of tomatoes, and hence we are in the “Mum Alive Reality”, where he meets his younger self, after which they are more or less welded at the hip. Threatened by General Zod’s space ship they team up with Batman (Michael Keaton) who has all that original Batman stuff. There is a confrontation in Russia when they rescue Supergirl, all the Russian soldiers being disposed of. Then they go to the site of Zod’s invasion and take on the invaders, not very successfully. Supergirl is killed by General Zod. Barry is prompted to attempt to reset the past. There is more but that’s the bones of it.

A View: I am not a fan of the whole Justice League thing, Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Superman and Barry but even so it works pretty well here as the writers make a really wonderful joke about the various Batmen. The Michael Keaton Batman still has the great Batmobile from the first films, although it does not move. Some of the special effects are quite difficult to understand, so while they are going on we are waiting to see how they influence events, and the third act was generally criticized. It was not a big earner. I don’t think you can kill Supergirl and get away with it, and Barry2 was very irritating. Maybe in the end too complex for its own good, but a watch if you can tolerate its failings.

Fun Fact: The failure of the film at the box office is attributed by some to Ezra Miller’s personal problems which more or less prevented him (them) from being involved in any promotion.