The DCEU: It Came, It Went, It Flashed Before Our Eyes (How Does The Flash Take Things To The Finish Line?)

It may not be a stellar entry for the DCEU.  But somehow it encapsulate the ups and downs and the best and worst of the not so long-standing franchise.  If nothing else, the Flash movie exists.  This is a movie that has been long expected and gone through multiple ideas and revisions as the future looked bright-ish for this latest cinematic universe and now it looks dead in the water. 

The hype going into it was unbelievable, fans and the entirety of the DCEU was counting on this movie with a troubled production history and everything else going on to either save the franchise and be the next step forward or to end thing arguably in the cleanest most concise way ever and wrap up a decade of plot threads.  Needless to say, that was a lot, maybe too much on this movie.

But as a super hero movie fan, I had to tackle this movie.  It has been far too many months since I last graced the podcast airwaves, so here we are to bring about the end of the DCEU (until Aquaman 2 that is) and talk about how this last entry wrapped things up and how it stands as a solo and final outing for the Flash.

Make sure to stop by all your favorite socials to find us at either @nicknackmovies or @nicknack_IC on Twitter, Instagram, Tik Tok, and Letterboxd.  Share all your thoughts on The Flash now that we have all had months to process it and maybe see it for the first time on Max.

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S4E5

-Intro/Jingle

-So, another episode and another super hero episode.  This time taking on, The Flash.  Now normally on Nick Nack Goes to the Movies, I am pretty excited, at least to start.  Eventually, I am normally fairly pleased with these, or they are good enough.  Maybe this super hero fan is biased, but outside of a few, I am pretty into these modern-day super hero movies.

-So here we come to a movie that was hyped beyond belief and now has the crazy responsibility to end the DCEU and potentially kick off the newly minted DCU.  There was a lot going on with the controversy with the lead actor, the up and down nature of the DCEU and Snyder and everything else that made this tough, we have seen that with all live action DC movies of late outside of The Suicide Squad and the Snyder Cut of the Justice League.

-So, with so much going on outside of this movie before it even aired, now we have to see what this all became at the end of it all.  Was it a proper swan song for what amazing nature we could have seen and had with the initial Zack Snyder vision for these movies, or was it just a super mess.

-Actors

-So, before we get into too much, yes, Barry Allen and the Flash is once again played and portrayed by Ezra Miller.  There was and still is controversy that had mired things with not only this movie, but potentially the last of the Fantastic Beasts movies.  So now, that we have made it clear, they are back in the role.  They are fine in the role, but the mind will always wander to Grant Gustin from the CW show a bit.  Especially after that TV show had a crossover event that included Miller.

-So, who else is here, we will go over the main actors and after talk cameos, even though a bunch of those were spoiled and teased prior.

-Billy Crudup was initially the father of Barry, and that makes sense.  He was a Snyder cast guy being Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen.  He only had a brief moment in Justice League, but I liked him when he was on camera.  And I was looking forward to seeing him in the role and having more to do.  Sadly, he was replaced after so much had gone with this movie.  And Ron Livingston, lead from Office Space, was cast into the more pronounced role.

-Having never seen her in this story, it was super important to have a strong actor and role for Barry’s mom.  She, in this flashpoint story and the life and trajectory of Barry Allen, is crucial.  And to her credit, Maribel Verdu is a really good Nora Allen.

-And while she didn’t have much to do in either movie, Kiersey Clemons does feel right for the role of Iris West, eventual wife of Barry Allen.  There is so much to get to here and a big problem sometimes is just that none of this had the time to breathe and develop.  A problem also placed on the DCEU overall since the getgo and jump of it’s inception.

-Outside of that, the big 3 were Michael Keaton reprising his Batman role from those first two 90’s movies, Sasha Calle, my first time seeing her in anything, as our first Super Girl in modern live-action movie times, and coming back after a long hiatus with that 2013 role, in was fun to see Michael Shannon reprise his role as General Zod.  Not sure if Calle as Supergirl had enough time to do anything to make a lasting impact, Zod was cool but gone quick, Keaton did the most for me here, and even that felt rushed.

-Outside of that, we have these quick moments with a ton of actors that are not quite cameos.  Gal Gadot thankfully has one more chance to shine, and it is better to have her at least wrap things up here as opposed to Shazam 2.  Gosh she was cast so well for the role.  

-And of course, we knew there was going to be some version of Batman appearing, and this world’s Batman, played by Ben Afleck along with his Alfred, Jeremy Irons.  There were more clear cameo versions of Temuera Morrison and Jason Momoa, but at least we know they should be in the Aquaman 2 movie, that hopefully will be less affected by the DCEU to DC switch up.  But I want to focus on Afleck for a moment, and Irons.  And honestly even go back to Justice League with a JK Simmons Commissioner Gordon.  

-There was so much untapped and unfulfilled potential to this grand plan, and I am pretty bummed after all these years still.  But for how quick Afleck was done in his role here, the him fighting goons in Gotham, the talks with Barry as a pretty good foil to the Robert Downey JR Tom Holland relationship, Afleck was good where I was pretty up and down on Miller.

-I just like some of you, saw so much potential for this cast and be it a solo Batman movie here or some culmination of this Justice League series, I am just bummed out.  This movie is very all over the place, some fun, some good, but the bittersweet nature of this movie can and will be felt always just because you know what could have been.  The same way with the Snyder Cut of Justice League, but that was just a more solid movie overall.

-Cameos are going to be super loose here, so many were archival footage clips used in a super weird method.  Some actors who are since deceased and some just much older now.  Christopher Reeve, George Reeves, Helen Slater, and Adam West.  I don’t even know what to think that with all the old Flash actors we could have had from that CW and the older one, not one could have been used here, that is messed up.

-Really the only exciting cameo of this sequence seeing other old footage or weird CGI things, what they did to Henry Cavill was unacceptable as far as I am concerned.  But it was fun and amazing to see a new scene shot with Nicholas Cage as Superman.  The history there is amazing to see the cancelled Tim Burton Superman come to life for a moment.  You can tell this is the best cameo out there with the length and newly made scene for it.  If you want more info on this, go watch the super fascinating documentary on that movie titled, The Death of Superman Lives: What Happened?  Sadly, at the moment of recording this, that does not seem to be on any streaming platforms.

-And lastly, George Clooney being back as Bruce Wayne, that was unexpected, but also super fun.  We will get into how we got 3 Batmen in this movie and somehow not one was Christian Bale.  They wanted him, but he I think said no.  Would have been neat to see him and Michael Caine back in the cowl and suit respectively.  But I think they both did the right thing staying away from this semi-mess of a movie.  Spoiler to my opinion here as I break it all down.

-The Flash

-I will start off with this, the humor that derived from any version of The Flash, was just, not it for me this time.  Subtly, and in the Snyder Cut of Justice League, it worked in small doses.  Did not really work in the Whedon stuff, and honestly, here in the solo outing for the character, the humor stuff just felt like there was too much and it never really sang like it needed to.  Grant Gustin was not perfect, but for what he had to work with, I think the balance of jokes, hope/optimism, and tortured nature of the character.  But the best Flash for me was Michael Rosenbaum from Justice League and Unlimited.  In the same way where the best Green Lantern for me is Phil LaMarr.  

-It is crazy how an animated show on Cartoon Network from the early 2000’s can have more depth and just have a better understanding of characters compared to big budget blockbuster live-action movies.  I know there is more time for development with the longevity of tv shows and with how in comparison this stuff felt rushed with the DCEU, but still.

-The amount of time we got to meet the new friends of Barry that don’t matter is a shame with how that and seemingly what their job is, also does not matter, like at all in this movie.  We really know very little about him before and during what we can call the present-day primary timeline.  Now thankfully we get some time of him interacting with Batfleck, his alter ego Bruce Wayne, and even a fun subtle Gal Gadot cameo.  Now there is a rumor she will get a third movie, which really confuses things even more, the time between starting to write and actually record and edit this episode, times are always a changing.  But as fun as it was to see those things happen between the characters; and more Jeremy Irons Alfred too.  The stuff before and around that with The Flash, just did not do it for me.  

-Their interactions about being awkward and quirky just don’t feel like what The Flash should be all about.  And the weird side quests he is on saving babies falling through the sky and putting one in a microwave, it just was so weird.  This stuff kind of sucked, but knowing Ben Afleck is probably done wearing the cape and cowl, seeing him fight crime, hearing him give that wise sage Batman advice, that is the stuff I am going to miss.  And even though the Wonder Woman stuff was a bit cringe, blame that more so on the interactions being with The Flash, kind of like the same way Shazam 2 used the character.

-Iris really never matters here either.  Which is sad because I was at least hopeful and curios to see what her role was going to be.  But like the friends from work, she never got a chance to really matter here.  She was at least touched on in Snyder League Cut, but man did we not get anything more from her character, just more super awkward scenes with Barry Allen and that humor that just, did not work for me.

-But this does lead to the big moment, the big incident to kick off Flashpoint, albeit a much more muted one compared to what we might have hoped and dreamed for.

-Barry is back in a timeline where their mom is alive, and that should be exciting and cool.  He has his whole family back, dad is out of prison too, albeit a recast actor which is all fine but a bit of a bummer for someone who hates recasting in franchises.  

-Now this moment on has a lot of just brutal humor, and part of that has to be to blame with multiple Ezra Miller Flashes.  

-There are neat moments like breaking into CCPD, had to remember it was not STAR Labs which is a place that somehow does not matter to this Flash at all, to recreate the moment of getting Flash powers, but it is worse with all the weird jokes of 2 Miller’s and it is less impactful having never seen it before.  I know a lot of people know the origin, but A, it should be accessible to those who do not, and I find myself saying, man, I wish there was a hybrid to this being all done the way the CW Flash show was able to do.  Man, the villain in this movie will really be a problem compared to how strong it all was in the CW show.

-And after the cameo on the CW show from Miller, you are telling me they could not find a way to get Gustin on there too?  Get out of here.  

-Pretty quickly we get one of the cooler moments of the movie, which would have been cooler as a surprise.  But it is the coming out party once again of the evil Kryptonians and General Zod invading earth once again.  So many cool things here like OG Flash having PTSD having been a part of this event the first time around.  Man, that was cool to have DCEU connections that did not feel forced or rushed.

-Now it does feel like this invasion takes forever with so much time between this moment introducing it and getting a team together.  

-So, there is no Justice League here, and I do not know what I would have wanted, a brief Temuera Morrison cameo was nice, but making that too much of a joke left a sour taste in my mouth.  I do not care what anyone says, I liked darker super heroes and darker DCEU.  My usual cry for the maybe will happen Ayer Cut can go here now.

-Same thing happened with the introduction of this version of Batman.  It should have been cool, part of it was, but the legend Michael Keaton coming back, something that could have gone longer with Bat-Girl and a proposed Batman Beyond, now all rubbish.  Probably to never happen again.  He came off as a hermit, a joke of a character we all saw and loved before.  What a bummer weird way to intro a super cool and good actor coming back for a role.

-I am happy Keaton was back, easily one of the best MCU villains of all-time and one of the best Batmen as well, and there were some classic Keaton Batman moments throughout thankfully.  It just took a moment to get to the cool normal non-hermit Keaton.  But eventually it is this small squad of two Flashes and an admittedly now cooler Keaton on the way to add just one more member to the Justice League lite.  Allegedly a super-person.

-This was the big trailer moment of the Barry’s and Batman Keaton going off to a snowy prison, somehow these in fiction are always in Siberia, to rescue an assumed superman, which you would think cool would it be Cavill as Superman, but trailers and more quickly squash that to show our first and probably last look at Super Girl.  This notion of holding an El in government holding so they don’t get all their sun powers until later, we have seen that in like in a flashpoint story, what this is all loosely based on.  And I mean, loosely.

-But thankfully this super girl gets her powers, some fun fights and Batman moments happen along the way, and we find a way to get 2 Barry’s to have their Flash powers.  

-After this, things get a bit weird.  We have a bit of a worse way to in comparison see the big fight between Man of Steel and now the lite version here.  I love that Michael Shannon is back as General Zod, I love that Barry was there for this first cataclysmic event, kind of like how the Snap is such a story beat in the MCU for a ton of characters.  But sadly, things with that Snyderverse are pretty much frozen in time, TBD on what this Aquaman 2 will look like as a most likely final true epilogue.

-The Codex thing is back of finding all the DNA from all Kryptonians, but unlike the first time, there is no huge buildup, and this big momentum moment in DCEU history feels like a shell of itself.  And soon enough Supergirl and Batman are both dead and Zod seemingly wins.  

-Being a time travel movie, you kind of know that this is not the end, and like Justice League, Barry goes back in time to save them both.  But no matter how many times, it just does not work at all, and while our main Barry does realize this is becoming a multiverseal problem while the other is all on board with breaking the fabric of reality to be a hero.

-But while that is fun to think this is the time to get all the cameos, some are done very, whatever.  We never did get a great Superman, and a lot of the old ones just feel worse comparted to the majesty of the crisis on infinite earths and all the deep cuts they got in there, including this version of the flash with their version of the flash.  At lease that Nicholas Cage moment for a long overdue Superman was a nice touch, just wish they could have found a way to use the cameos a little better comparted to the blink and you miss it parts.  

-And we never got a reverse flash moment, at all, showing who killed Barry’s parents, just an evil Barry being made from the one that the first Barry created.  With all of this confusion there are now 3 Barry’s, that is until evil Barry accidentally stabs young that Barry to kill them both, man does this stuff all get confusing.

-And while we are pretty much left with nothing much changed and no real future for the DCEU, there are some nice emotional family movies of the Allen family getting some moments together, especially Barry and Nora.  And in the present with Barry and his dad free from Jail at least.  I obviously like this, but I wish there was more build up to this moment as opposed to in essence a 2.5 at best mark for how long it took Barry to bring his family together.  All rushed, which is how a lot of things felt, boy was I feeling sassy working on this episode, but back after a long hiatus of podcasts so coming in hot.

-While there is not much to say in this very very up and down movie tonally and quality wise.  There is a nice resonance of having Bat Clooney to come back as a Bruce Wayne after his less than stellar review in his one movie under the cowl.  This review feels ages old by now, but I am happy it is out, so let’s get to the score and put this one to bed.

-Letterboxd ratings:

- The Flash – 2.5 stars

-wrap/call to action

-So that is the stance and a bit of a lackluster endcap to the DCEU, TBD on what Aquaman 2 does for a final point to end things.  This movie, the Flash tho, had the weight of the world on its shoulders.  It had to be a good DCEU movie, there have been some lackluster ones as of late.  It had to give a satisfying end to the DCEU and essentially the Snyder-Verse.  And it had to kind of answer how an end it possible with so many dangling plot threads and there is such a what if/what could have been now.  And no matter what, besides all that, there was and if of course something to be said about the polarizing nature of the lead actor.

-But what did you think of The Flash and honestly, what are you thinking about the future of what DC live action movies will be giving us in the near and down the road future?  Let me know on social at either @NickNackMovies or @NickNack_IC on Twitter, or I guess X now?  I will still call it Twitter.  Instagram, Tik Tok, and of course Letterboxd.  So, cheers and as always, until next time Cinephiles.