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The middle section of the film, with its references to Back to the Future (including one brilliant joke about that movie’s cast) is The Flash at its best, as Barry stumbles through this alternate universe and comes to grips with the gravity of what he’s done—all while engaging in an often hilarious yet poignant repartee with his younger self, who of course is unaware of the tragedy that has led the original Barry to this point.
Michael Keaton, who is famously returning to the Bat-cowl for the first time in over 30 years, is likewise excellent as a Bruce Wayne who needs to find his superhero mojo again (and what a thrill it is for those of us of a certain age to see the Batcave and Batmobile from 1989 in action alongside their owner). And this return is just the opening gambit in what eventually becomes a steady stream of DC cameos from the past, although they’re mostly confined to one extended climactic sequence. It’s Keaton, however, who gets to reprise his role in a meaningful way, providing him with the conclusion to his arc much as Spider-Man: No Way Home provided Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield with theirs.
Less impressive is the arrival of Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl. She is portrayed effectively and powerfully by Sasha Calle in a scintillating feature debut, but Kara doesn’t get the screentime she deserves. Meanwhile the even later emergence of another character might not be made clear enough for non-fans, especially since they arrive at the tail end of the film’s mind-exploding trip through the DC past and the lengthy climactic battle.
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Like so many superhero movies of the past few years, The Flash does get bogged down in its final act, with the heroes dangerously close to getting lost in the usual CG sludge, and the battle itself set against a literally featureless desert background with no one else around. The explosions and Barry’s reality-bending attempts to keep changing history pile up at an alarmingly fast rate, threatening to send the whole movie over a cliff of incoherency, but it’s pulled back from the brink by an exceptionally emotional coda—with Miller once again outdoing themselves—and the sense that the film is giving a heartfelt tip of the hat to all the DC permutations that have come before.
Heart, humor, genuinely likable characters, and a true affection for the source material from the director and screenwriter. These are elements that have surfaced only sporadically in the DCEU over the past decade or so, but are generated here with results that are immensely entertaining. Even if the MCU and Sony’s own recent Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse have beaten DC Films to the multiversal punch, the theme of coming to terms with the past and moving forward doesn’t come across as shopworn as it might have, and could be relevant to the real-life drama surrounding the film.
It’s a shame that Miller is not likely to reprise their performance in future DC endeavors, but the actor needs to repair their own life and make reparations to anyone whose lives they’ve damaged before even thinking about restarting their career. Nevertheless, the actor does get one final, perfect line, as the film ends on a joke that simply blew the audience at our screening right back in our seats. And yes, there is also a post-credits scene that hints that this version of the DC universe is not quite done yet. But even if it was, The Flash is one hell of a high note to speed into history on.
