The Flash (2023) (1 Viewer)

[Malcolm R]

Special effects are quite "weak" in many scenes, but apparently that was the intention

Paraphrasing Dolly Parton's famous reference to herself:

"It costs a lot of money to look this cheap."

 

[Tino]

The CGI was iffy tho. Especially certain faces that looked more cartoonish than real. Unless that was deliberate.

Apparently it was intentional

From the articje

“The idea, of course, is… we are in the perspective of The Flash,” Muschietti said. “Everything is distorted in terms of lights and textures. We enter this ‘waterworld’ which is basically being in Barry’s POV. It was part of the design, so if it looks a little weird to you that was intended.”

 

[Sam Favate]

“The idea, of course, is… we are in the perspective of The Flash,” Muschietti said. “Everything is distorted in terms of lights and textures. We enter this ‘waterworld’ which is basically being in Barry’s POV. It was part of the design, so if it looks a little weird to you that was intended.”

I’m calling bullshit on that. Their renderings didn’t look lifelike. The end. They want to explain it away because… something something. Not buying it. The babies didn’t look lifelike either.

 

[Tino]

I’m calling bullshit on that. Their renderings didn’t look lifelike. The end. They want to explain it away because… something something. Not buying it. The babies didn’t look lifelike either.

But isn’t that what they are saying? That they look weird and distorted because that’s how the Flash sees them in that environment and it’s an intentional decision.

 

[Joe Wong]

I’m calling bullshit on that. Their renderings didn’t look lifelike. The end. They want to explain it away because… something something. Not buying it. The babies didn’t look lifelike either.

Agreed.

You can make the imagery look different/weird/someone's POV, but it should look top-notch.

The VFX just looked unfinished, poor, unconvincing.

 

[Sam Favate]

Ok, it was… okay. Pretty good, even, but a long way from great. First of all, I never read the comics when they changed Barry’s origin to include a murdered mother (when the heck did they do that anyway?) but I’ve seen this story a number of times already. It was the central focus of The Flash TV show (with Grant Gustin) for a good while, and all the same beats are there. It was also a Justice League animated movie some years ago, an especially violent one, as I recall. It turned me off.

But here we are again. Ezra Miller is very effective as Barry, even if the character is very different from other depictions. Whatever Miller’s personal issues are (and they appear to be legion), they showed up for work and did their job. Their comedic timing is amazing.

Michael Keaton seemed to be having a good time back in the role. I enjoyed seeing him. It was at least plausible that this was the same person from the 1989-1992 films. Sasha Calle was a strong presence as Supergirl but she fit in better with Zack Snyder’s dystopian Superman than the one we’re used to or the mood of this film. She was Grim.

Same goes for Michael Shannon as Zod, a performance I never warmed to, either in 2013 or 2023. And the end result is… what?

Spoiler

Zod wins? The world is destroyed?

Not very heroic.

And then here we are, back in the goddamn multiverse, a-gain. I’ve seen all these beats before. Ironically, I know every possible outcome to this story. I grew tired of multiverse stories a long time ago, when they were the stuff of too many Star Trek and Arrowverse episodes. This movie commits every cardinal sin of multiverse storytelling:

Spoiler

Everyone dies. Everyone. But it doesn’t matter, right? Because it’s the freaking multiverse!

This is bad storytelling. Worse, there’s nothing new here.

I guess (I hope?) this is the end of the DC film universe that started with Man of Steel ten years ago. This movie played like a greatest hits version of every DC film ever made. Let’s start fresh with James Gunn’s Superman.

 

[Tino]

I guess (I hope?) this is the end of the DC film universe that started with Man of Steel ten years ago

I for one am going to miss the Snyderverse. I’ve pretty much loved all the films starting with MOS. I hope Gunn and his films can live up to their excellence.

 

[Tino]

And I can’t stress how great Ezra Miller is in this. Whatever his troubles were off screen he didn’t let them intrude on his performances. I hope we see more of him and his Flash.

 

[Sam Favate]

So, the person who

Spoiler

murdered Barry’s mother is never found, never identified?

The movie just leaves us hanging.

And, did Barry set things

Spoiler

right or not? Why isn’t his Bruce the one he remembers? Just for the cheap joke of having George Clooney in the movie? Does anyone want to be reminded of that movie?

Lastly, why can’t Barry’s mother

Spoiler

be saved? Because some comic book writer’s storytelling says so? Who came up with these immutable laws of time travel? Theoretically, you should be able to change history if you figured out a way to travel back in time. Save JFK? Check. Save Lincoln? Check. Why not?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Whatever his troubles were off screen he didn’t let them intrude on his performances.

I'm not sure of the timeline here. But it seems like the majority of headlines around them happened last year. (Miller uses they/them pronouns.) As far as I know, this film wrapped principal photography in 2021. The issues started spilling out (at least publicly) after they were already finished filming the movie. I never heard anyone say anything about them being unprofessional on the actual set of the movie.

Not the gamechanger it could have been, especially now that the DCEU is wrapping up.

To be fair to this film, no one knew the DCEU would be wrapping up when this was being filmed. James Gunn and Peter Safran weren't hired until last October or so. This movie was likely in post-production at that time. I don't think it was written with the idea that it would be one of the last projects for the current continuity. It just sort of became that by default.

Spoiler

If Gunn and Safran choose to claim that Barry created their universe by messing with the timeline, I guess they can do that retroactively. But nothing in this film suggests to me that it was originally meant to reset everything.

Obviously, the Aquaman sequel is still to come from this universe, and I think there was a time when it was supposed to come out first. So that corner of the world basically has to be unchanged so that movie can happen.

I thought it was pretty good in and of itself, but maybe the high early praise ("greatest superhero movie ever", etc.) raised my expectations so much that the film wasn't able to meet them.

I said the same thing when I saw it last week. I'm not sure why David Zazlav and James Gunn felt like proclaiming it as the greatest ever would be a good marketing strategy. Simply saying that they really believe in the movie and think audiences will enjoy it would have been effective. it is better to allow the audiences to determine if something is "the best" or not.

Spoiler

Why isn’t his Bruce the one he remembers? Just for the cheap joke of having George Clooney in the movie? Does anyone want to be reminded of that movie?

Spoiler

I think it was pretty much to include Clooney, yes. The audience I saw it with absolutely roared with laughter when Clooney came on, so apparently they weren't annoyed at the reminder. It got the biggest reaction of anything in my screening.[

So, the person who

Spoiler

murdered Barry’s mother is never found, never identified?

The movie just leaves us hanging.

Spoiler

I don't think that's the point. The movie is trying to get Barry to a place where he makes peace with his mother's death. While I understand what you're saying here, I'm not sure that the identity of her killer is necessarily relevant to that emotional beat.

 

[Tino]

To be fair to this film, no one knew the DCEU would be wrapping up when this was being filmed. James Gunn and Peter Safran weren't hired until last October or so. This movie was likely in post-production at that time. I don't think it was written with the idea that it would be one of the last projects for the current continuity. It just sort of became that by default.

Spoiler

If Gunn and Safran choose to claim that Barry created their universe by messing with the timeline, I guess they can do that retroactively. But nothing in this film suggests to me that it was originally meant to reset everything.

Obviously, the Aquaman sequel is still to come from this universe, and I think there was a time when it was supposed to come out first. So that corner of the world basically has to be unchanged so that movie can happen.

I said the same thing when I saw it last week. I'm not sure why David Zazlav and James Gunn felt like proclaiming it as the greatest ever would be a good marketing strategy. Simply saying that they really believe in the movie and think audiences will enjoy it would have been effective. it is better to allow the audiences to determine if something is "the best" or not.

Spoiler

I think it was pretty much to include Clooney, yes. The audience I saw it with absolutely roared with laughter when Clooney came on, so apparently they weren't annoyed at the reminder. It got the biggest reaction of anything in my screening.[

Spoiler

I don't think that's the point. The movie is trying to get Barry to a place where he makes peace with his mother's death. While I understand what you're saying here, I'm not sure that the identity of her killer is necessarily relevant to that emotional beat.

Tino said:
Not the gamechanger it could have been, especially now that the DCEU is wrapping up.

I never said this.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I never said this.

I mixed up your quote with Joe's as a result of having different quotes in the same post. Sorry about that. The only quote I intended to credit to you is the one about Miller's performance. I'll go fix it.

Edit: It looks fixed to me now. What are you seeing when you refresh the page?

 

[Jake Lipson]

Sasha Calle was a strong presence as Supergirl but she fit in better with Zack Snyder’s dystopian Superman than the one we’re used to or the mood of this film. She was Grim.

That makes sense, though. Technically, this movie is happening at the same time, storywise, as Man of Steel did. So it tracks for her and Michael Shannon to be similar to Man of Steel. I don't like Man of Steel, but since they come from that world, it would have been odd if their performances were wildly different from it.

And the end result is… what?

Spoiler

Zod wins? The world is destroyed?

Not very heroic.

Spoiler

I didn't have a problem with how this was executed. We know Thanos wins in the MCU in 4,000,604 scenarios, except for the one depicted in Endgame. If you have a multiverse with however many different scenarios possible, it makes sense that in some of them the villain is going to win. I don't think a failure to stop Zod from winning here means the heroes weren't heroic. It was what needed to happen to teach Barry not to meddle with the past. For all of the other superheroes here, this is Barry's story and his arc, and I think this worked for this story. Besides, he *DID* ultimately stop Zod from destroying the world by sacrificing the personal gain of stopping his mother's murder. It doesn't really make sense why his mother being alive would cause a world where Zod wins, but I don't want to make my brain hurt that much. Emotionally, I think it works.

 

[Sam Favate]

Why can’t the audience have the visual reference of the Supergirl we’ve known for 60 years? I will never understand why film makers have to make characters look so radically different from what we’ve known.

This movie will, however, make me thank the fates for all time that we never, ever got a

Spoiler

Nic Cage Superman.

I didn’t need to see that.

 

[Tino]

Edit: It looks fixed to me now. What are you seeing when you refresh the page?

Nope. Still says me. No worries tho.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Nope. Still says me. No worries tho.

I just noticed there was a ] close quote missing from the portion of your message that I tried to quote, which for some reason made the quote disappear. I thought it was fixed because it appeared as you when I was editing the message. Joe's quote was under yours. Somehow, the board credited you with his quote because of the missing symbol. I didn't know the board could do that.

Anyway, I think it's fixed now and the portion of your actual post that I quoted is there. Joe's is credited correctly now too. Let me know what's on your end.

 

[Tino]

Anyway, I think it's fixed now and the portion of your actual post that I quoted is there. Joe's is credited correctly now too. Let me know what's on your end.

All good.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I hope we see more of him and his Flash.

James Gunn and Peter Safran just confirmed Andy Muschietti to direct their DC universe Batman reboot. This would suggest that any hypothetical Flash sequel involving Muschietti would have to be after that. I'm sure introducing Batman to the new shared universe is a big priority for the studio.

Of course, Batman wouldn't preclude DC from producing a sequel with a different director. But offering Muschietti the keys to the nw Batmobile is certainly proof of how highly the current regime thinks of his work on Flash.

 

[Alex...]

The 3 cameos that were cut are

Spoiler

 

[Joe Wong]

$24.5m opening day. Subtracting Thursday night, only about $15m on Friday?