Flash Facts

 Ever since I was a kid, I have been a big fan of the Flash. He's basically been my favorite superhero since I was three or so. I loved the Flash TV series that the CW did a few years back, but no so much the casting in the Justice League movie. Ezra Miller plays the Flash too twitchy and weird to really resemble the Barry Allen I grew up with. And when they announced that the Flash was getting his own movie, I was dubious.

I was right about that. It came out a few years ago, and I just re-watched it. So it's ironic that I'm very slow to write a review about the Fastest Man Alive.

In the movie, the Flash goes back in time to save his mother from a murder that happened when he was a child. This works out about as well as any time-travel movie, and he winds up stuck in the past with his younger self, during the events of a previous Superman movie, Man of Steel. If you're already confused, buckle up, because we've barely begun.

The Flash loses his powers and his past self gains them, and for help, they go to Batman. Except it's not the Batman from the previous Justice League movie, played by Ben Affleck. It's Michael Keaton, reprising his role as Batman after thirty years. Which is a nice little bit of nostalgia, but this is the wrong movie for it.

The two Flashes and Batman rescue Supergirl, because Superman doesn't exist in this new timeline. And all together, they fight the bad guys from the Superman movie.

You'll notice a lot of other superheroes. You'll notice a lot of action. What you won't notice is much about the Flash here.

Essentially, the Flash did not get his own movie.

The movie didn't have any Flash villains, and not much of his supporting cast. We see his girlfriend Iris West a bit, but that's basically it. He was fighting Superman's bad guys alongside Batman---Who, because of Michael Keaton, was pretty much the highlight of the movie. Audiences were more thrilled to see Keaton in the Bat-costume again than to watch the Flash. The Flash wasn't really the star of the Flash movie, Batman was.

Hell, the Flash didn't even get his own plot. Because of the time-travel thing, he wound up in the middle of Superman's movie, not starring in his own.

So what we had was essentially the Superman movie, starring Batman, with cameos by Wonder Woman and Supergirl. And the Flash as a minor player.

I'm hoping that, eventually, DC will try again with a different plot and different cast. The Flash deserved better than this. And if they can't make a new Flash movie, then maybe they can travel back in time and make sure this one never existed.