MovieChat Forums > The Flash (2023) Discussion > First Half Was Terrible, Second-Half Was...

First Half Was Terrible, Second-Half Was Awesome; Iris Was Miscast

posted 8 months ago by cyguration (3951)
4 replies | jump to latest

The first 15 minutes was an absolute nonsensical mess that never should have been in the film. I guess they wanted the whole Justice League thing in there so they contrived the most ridiculous, over-the-top, asinine "hero" sequence so they could toss Gal Gadot, Batfleck, and some Flash special effects in there?

Also, Iris was a fat black wench... like seriously? Funny that they had to keep making her ask out and pursue Barry, which kind of made sense given that even as a dorky, obnoxious, annoying dweeb he was still leagues above her.

All that being said, Ezra Miller really hammered in his role by the second half of the film. In fact, the entire second half of the film was really, really, really well done with the time paradox, Barry realising his mistakes, and trying to just let things go.

The best acted moment out of the entire film, though, was prime Barry berating the younger Barry about being immature. The other sequence where prime Barry is trying to reason with younger Barry about losing his mom and his world was also good, but they really should have gone a step further in talking about the moral juxtaposition of prime Barry getting to go home and younger Barry losing his world.

In some ways, this film could have been so much better than what it was, but it felt like there was so much studio meddling just ruining the flow of the film.

They should have extricated the entire first 15 minute action sequence, it was pointless and obnoxious and it wasn't even fun to watch. The Batman stuff with Michael Keaton was all on-point and well done. I don't think anything should have changed with that.

They should have done just a tad more about the paradox of one Barry getting to live out his life and the other not. The end "boss fight", so to speak, was really rushed when that is what should have been more of the focus. Also, it should have given younger Barry a bit more of an impetus to interfere so as not to become like the phantom zone Barry.

[–] bozo_500 (13147) 8 months ago

I enjoyed the film at the cinema, but it was mainly for the anticipation of seeing Keaton and the rumoured DC cameos (not knowing for sure who'd turn up from previous films and if the Nicolas cage as Superman rumour was true),

The opening JL reunion was ok (Batflecks action scenes feeling like Nolans Dark Knight trilogy ), but seeing Keaton back as Batman and the expanded Burton batcave with modern day 'Dark Knight' budget/FX and the 89 Batwing zooming into 'Man of Steel' and Keaton taking on DCEU Zod was all kinds of insanity that I could just not believe i were seeing, and then the crazy DC cameos as the walls of realities crashed including as rumoured Cage Superman and Christopher Reeve (with Helen Slater!).. although all were too CGI looking. and then the final WTF of the Clooney cameo!

I have it on bluray but I haven't been able to muster enough interest to watch it again mainly bc looking back I really didn't enjoy watching Ezra(s), his mom, gf, or the terrible baby saving FX sequence etc , also i don't want to dilute the awesome 'omg wtf is going on?!' experience of watching it in the cinema that one time (it was also my return to the cinema after pandemic, last film i saw before then was Star Wars IX in Dec 2019)

[–] cyguration (3951) 8 months ago

Yeah the baby stuff at the beginning was cringe-inducing, and the Batfleck thing tried to mirror Nolan hard, but it was so impractical and implausible. The gadgets and stuff were cool, but it made no sense how Batman couldn't just stop them... like wtf? If they had been in a tank or something, it could have made more sense, but they just needed something to draw out the scene so they could get Wonder Woman involved. It acted like some kind of last minute script change. Should have been cut altogether.

But yeah, the brief multi-verse glimpse with Nicholas Cage and Christopher Reeve with Helen Slater was awesome. You're right that they were waay too CGI looking, and it would have benefited from some AI deepfakes. Cage actually looked surprisingly good, and it would have been awesome had his Superman been the one in the film a bit more, would have been kind of mind-blowing.

Keaton really stole the show for the most part, as he looked and acted just like Burton's Batman but in the multi-verse. A shame how he was taken out but he still went out fighting and it's all we really could have asked for.

[–] bozo_500 (13147) 8 months ago

i get the feeling they did additional shooting to include more Affleck and Gadot when it was deemed the DCEU was going to go on at that point it looked like Cavill was coming back as Superman (thanks to The Rock/Black Adam), Gadot was doing WW3, and Affleck might even do his Batman movie , there was even talk of a JL2 (no doubt bring back Synder) , then it was decided Gunn taking over and so the DCEU to end (therefore scrap Cavill & Gadot end cameos bring in Clooney lol)

i had hoped that Cage Superman would burst out his universe to see wtf was going on and helped fix it all somehow e.g. imagine if he became a supporting player in the action and went back and helped Barry defeat Zod! the movie was so insane it wouldnt have been outside the realm of possibilty for something like that to happen!

[–] cyguration (3951) 8 months ago

I was actually hoping for the same thing! Having Cage's Superman help Barry defeat Zod would have been epic. And you're right, the movie was already over the top, so it wouldn't have changed anything, but definitely would have added to the entertainment factors.