This is a different sort of post today. I know that by posting this on the blog already spoils the fact that Nic Cage stars in this movie in some capacity, despite marketing materials omitting the scope of his role. I wanted to give a few weeks after the release of the movie to give people opportunity to watch the movie and experience his cameo themselves. I will follow my typical format - summarizing the premise of the movie and then providing some commentary about my experience with the movie - after which I will give a more in-depth spoiler experience.
I walked into The Flash on opening weekend being bombarded by mixed reviews, but the overall consensus was negative. Very quickly into the movie, I could start to understand the criticism of the VFX. The movie opens up in Gotham City where Flash reluctantly tries to help Batman (Ben Affleck) save a collapsing hospital and capture some terrorist agents that hold a biological weapon in their possession and tearing through the city. The VFX on Batman, the ensuing chase, and the rest of the Justice League is laughable terrible. There seems to be nothing practical and it all seems ingenuine, lowering the heightened stakes the movie starts on almost immediately. Media reports after the film from the director and others involved in the production tried to do damage control on the quality of the VFX, but focused on the scenes where Flash is outside of time - these scenes already seem otherworldly, so I never once found that the VFX in this location was jarring.
I was very intrigued by the direction that the story was going; knowing that the movie was based from the Flashpoint series of D.C. comics, I knew there were story beats that they were expected by the public to hit but couldn't due to time constraints. The two and a half hour runtime does not do justice to the plot the filmmakers were trying to stitch delicately together; I was thinking to myself, "This is interesting" or "Wow, they did that" throughout the movie - until it ended with a resounding "Thud". The portrayal of two Barry Allen's by Ezra Miller was wonderfully acted and edited, and showed a welcome increase in confidence of the "future Barry" in shoring up the abilities and talents of the naïve "past Barry" who was forced into the superhero lifestyle in order to fix the mistakes of his senior. This movie seemed like it was made to provide a sweeping sense of closure for the D.C. Extended Universe. The promotional material did not hide the fact that Michael Keaton reprises his role as Batman from the Tim Burton line of movies. Keaton's role in this movie is as nostalgic to the viewer as it seemed his character in the movie. Affleck's Bruce Wayne also leaves this movie on a very sentimental note, something that has never been explored in his string of appearances as the billionaire and caped crusader. The revelation that Kara Zor-El/Supergirl (Sasha Calle) survived the journey to Earth, instead of Kal-El/Superman crushes Barry as he realizes the extent of the damage that can happen when tampering with time. Ultimately, The Flash ends as a very plain superhero movie, adding to the general fatigue that I have watching and keeping up with these properties in order to enjoy other aspects of connected films.
SPOILER
The tampering of time and the consequences that come about is central to this movie, as described above. Barry eventually needs to confront his past self, who has grown close to the alternate timeline Batman and Supergirl, about the necessity of leaving the past in the past - this becomes especially clear as General Zod begins his assault on earth much like he does in Man of Steel and the two heroes perish in the ensuing battle, and "past Barry" feels that he needs to change reality so that they survive. Ultimately, they cannot. "Future Barry" realizes that there are some things that you can't change, that some events are destined to happen in alternate timelines. This leads to different timelines/universes becoming aware of the Flash's interruptions to the natural order and giving us brief glimpses into portrayals of characters in other worlds: Christopher Reeve & George Reeves' Supermen, Helen Slater's Supergirl, Adam West's Batman, Cesar Romero & Jack Nicholson's Jokers, and even the lost opportunity we had in the late 1990s for Superman, Nicolas Cage.
Yes, we get a brief portrayal of Nicolas Cage as his Superman Lives's Superman fighting a giant mechanical spider - an antagonist that has since been reused in idea in Will Smith's Wild Wild West. This portrayal was different from the rest, the movie filming the scene with Cage and de-aging him, gracing us with an actual performance of the character he longed to play nearly 25 years earlier. This short performance, no matter how cathartic and exciting it is for some viewers, does not tip my opinion of the movie. Just as cameos should be, it is a welcome addition to garner some goodwill in the people who understand the relevance but doesn't sway my general thoughts of the movie as another cog in the "Extended Universe" and "Multi-verse" genres that permeate superhero properties in popular film. If you can get your hands on a high quality version of this scene in particular, I highly suggest (when it is legally applicable) that you do. This scene in particular was very touching as someone who has always heard rumors of rumors of production of Tim Burton's ill-fated Superman Lives and is essential in consuming to understand the Nicolas Cage canon, much more so than the larger film. The Flash is... fine, serviceable, whatever adjective you want to use to convey mediocrity in the onslaught of the continued deluge of superhero properties from both Marvel and D.C.
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