My Review of "The Flash (2023)"

The Flash (2023) has finally come out after years of waiting. I wasn't too sure what to make of this movie because of the length of time that it took to come out. Usually these movies don't pan out too well when they're put on development hell. This movie definitely has its ups and downs.

This story starts off ambiguously but it feels like it's a few years after the events of Zack Snyder's Justice League. If you remember that movie you may have remembered how green Barry was. He was just learning his powers and learning who he was. In this movie he's a more mature Barry but still the sidekick of the Justice League.

There's a huge caper that Batman has asked Barry to help him with and well the action scene is full of ups and downs. The Batman scenes seem pretty cool whereas the Barry's scenes look quite out of place. He's there to clean up the mess left by the bad guys while Batman is chasing the main villain.

One of the big messes Barry has to clean up is saving a bunch of babies from a falling building. I think my standards for CGI is really high now because these scenes look really bad. This is a big budget blockbuster movie in 2023 and the visuals look very outdated. It kind of looked like stuff I would see from my PlayStation virtual reality unit from my PlayStation 4. This was probably one of the first times I felt taken out of the movie because the special effects were non-congruent to the rest of the movie. Yes I could never make special effects half as good on my own but we're talking about a big budget action movie. Standards are up and this was really bad.

Alas, when you get through this stage of the movie it gets much better. Barry soon discovers that he can control time through some vortex thing. He channels this power and pushes it to go way back in the past. His main storyline is based off the mysterious murder of his mother where his father is framed for the crime.

Batman being the wise one tells Barry not to do it because of the ripple effect it may have on the entire universe. After a series of events Barry eventually figures out a compromise that could potentially save his parents. Of course this sets off a very different universe and because of a mysterious character he's stuck in this universe.

This new universe is threatened again by General Zod and as a result Barry has to assemble the Justice League to save Earth from his tyranny. Due to the butterfly effect of Barry's tampering the world is very different and we get a pretty crazy movie full of fun fanfare.

They bring a ton of cameos from past films and TV shows of the DC brand. Anyone that has followed the DC movies from the past will completely nerd out at all the fanfare they add to this movie. In a way it feels like DC's version of Spiderman No way Home. It's fun and luckily the story kind of makes sense. Remember it's a comic book movie so there are tons of plot holes.

All of the characters were pretty fun and I loved how they interacted with one another. Surprisingly a lot of the jokes in this movie really work well. They're done in a different manner than the Marvel jokes. Here we have more jokes that depend on the interactions with one another whereas Marvel usually focuses on quick quips to jab at each other.

I think the most fun I had was during the last part of the movie when they have the big battle with Zod. They add a ton of powers and abilities to the Flash that weren't really explored in the previous movies. It was pretty cool but again you kind of have to shut off your brain a little because these powers come out of nowhere. Then again Barry is supposed to be more seasoned but then why is he sidekick of the Justice League? See! Don't think about it and you can have fun.

Overall, this is a fun romp at the theatres. Aside from the horrendous CGI there is a lot to like about this movie. The characters are pretty fleshed out and quite amiable. Barry's main storyline is intriguing and I love the fanfare that they included. Not everyone will understand all of the fanfare an the CGI will detract some but I think it's worth giving it a chance. I have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. I would definitely go back and watch this one again.