I faintly remember The Flash from my childhood, and even back then I could tell there wasn’t much to it. I mean, running ridiculously fast is, let’s face it, a pretty B-minus skill. One minute he’s here, then he’s there. That’s it.
But for some reason, The Flash proved to have legs, so to speak, so his writers had to come up with something to do with him. And they finally settled on – thank you, Albert Einstein – time travel.
The speed of light equals time travel, apparently, and when Barry Allen is already a geeky, neurotic kid whose problems all stem from the death of his mother, you can see why time travel might appeal.
Photo: DC
He confers with his partner in crime-fighting – another chap with dead parent issues, billionaire Bruce Wayne, aka Batman, aka in this iteration Ben Affleck.
Bruce’s advice, as always in comic books, is “don’t tamper”. The old butterfly effect, remember? One tiny change in your past and who knows what might happen?
But Barry won’t be told. He Flashes back, he sees Mum and Dad – and also Barry Mark 2. This version is a lovable idiot Barry. Time to set him straight.
It soon becomes clear that Barry 1 may have avoided the death of his mother, and subsequent arrest of his father, but there’s now a whole lot of other changes going on.
The only person who can help Barry now is his old buddy Bruce Wayne. Except Bruce has gone through a few changes himself.
In this dimension… time-line… whatever you want to call it… Batman’s pretty much given up crime-fighting.
But all it takes is two rival Flashes, one super-villain from a completely different movie and the possibility of a catchup with Superman himself to get him back in the Batmobile.
But which Superman, we wonder? Will we go back to the late Christopher Reeve, or the even later George Reeves from the rickety Fifties TV series? These days AI can seemingly do anything.
But it turns out to be neither of the above. In this time-line, meet Supergirl, Kara.
Now I’m on record for being multiverse-unfriendly – whether it’s the latest Spiderman hotch-potch, the aptly-named Multiverse of Madness, or even Oscar-winning video-game mashups like Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Too much stuff, not enough real people, to put my objections in a nutshell.
But The Flash manages to pull a surprising number of rabbits out of the hat. Star Ezra Miller was decidedly creepy in both We Need to Talk About Kevin and Fantastic Beasts.
And since then Ezra has not only fallen foul of just about everyone, but has gone non-binary too.
But of course the pronoun “they” works well here, with Ezra playing two distinct Barrys - often simultaneously and rather well.
Aside from the two Ezras, the two Bruce Waynes – Michael Keaton with a twinkle in the eye, Ben Affleck without one – are pretty good too, particularly Keaton.
And for the first three-quarters or so, The Flash works better than it should, probably because it’s got another movie blazing the trail.
It’s essentially a jazzed-up reboot of Back to the Future, with Barry and Batman filling in for Marty McFly and Doc, trying to save the future by putting Barry’s Mum and Dad on the right path.
Aside from plot details, the main influence is on the tone – family comedy meets drama, and just a hint of romance at the end.
Plus, countless popular culture references, including several in-jokes about Back to the Future itself.
At the end, the film yields to the fans, and bombards us with more subplots and gags than anyone could ever need, before finally getting back to Kansas. Don’t worry about it. Maybe the new CEO of DC Movies can sort it out.
All I can say is, if you’re going to have a stupid, time-travel movie, set in an infinite multiverse, starring at least one person you don’t like very much, this is a pretty good one.
