Maha Yassin
Review
Super speeding past all the controversial news and the not-so-flattering image of its superstar, DC’s latest project, The Flash, got released on 16 June 2023. Many people expected Warner Brothers and DC to scrap the movie after Ezra Miller’s stunts in the past year. Still, they soldiered on and are adamant about releasing the film sooner rather than later. As they say: no press is bad press; now everyone knows about The Flash and is excited to see where DC takes our super-fast hero in his first solo adventure.
Ezra Miller is throttling forward in his skin-tight red suit for his first solo adventure since the audience met him for the first time in Justice League (2017). Despite recent events, DC fans have been excited to have Miller play their beloved Barry Allen. His quirkiness and nervous energy parallel what they expect to see in their beloved superhero. But DC didn’t stop here! A very well-managed marketing scheme for the movie has been announced to eager fans that their dear Michael Keaton will reprise his role as Batman.
If the excitement of having The Flash on the big silver screen weren’t enough to bring fans to the cinema, the nostalgia of having Michael Keaton’s Batman back would do.
The Past & The Future Collide
Time-travelling and multiverse mania have taken over superhero movies, and The Flash is no different. In this movie, Barry Allen, a forensic chemist in the Central City Police Department, has already been the superhero, Flash, for quite some time and is now considered part of the world-defending team: The Justice League, along with Batman, Superman, Wonder Women, and Cyborg.
After using his superpowers to save the universe, Barry decides that now, he needs to protect his own family. After his mother was murdered in mysterious circumstances and Barry’s father was accused of the murder and thrown in prison, Barry decided to travel back in time to save his mother and father from this horrible future. Inspired by Back to the Future, Barry uses his super speed to travel back in time and change the events of the past, the butterfly effect be damned.
Things will not go smoothly for Barry as changing the past affects his future in more ways than he expects, bad and good. In the new multiverse Barry creates, he must team up with Michael Keaton’s Batman and Sasha Calle’s Super Girl to defeat General Zod, who has just landed on Earth and is intent on destroying it. Is changing the past worth it, or will Barry decide that everything happens for a reason and he must bring things back to the way they were? That is what we will find out with The Flash.
The Superstar Cast
As the DCEU builds up its cinematic world, continuity is vital. Even though they are still struggling with this concept regarding their prominent superheroes: Batman and Superman, it looks like the DCEU found its Flash in Ezra Miller. Despite all the trouble the young actor has been getting himself into lately, DC is sticking with him. Having new young members on their team is not preventing DC from bringing back the old guns, aka Michael Keaton’s prevalent portrayal of Batman. Let’s take a deeper look into the cast of The Flash, their journey to this role and whether we should expect to see them in more DCEU projects.
Ezra Miller
Ezra Miller, a very talented but controversial actor, was born in 1992 in New Jersey, USA. He began his film career with Antonio Campos’ Afterschool (2008). He played the lead role in Beware the Gonzo (2010) alongside Zoe Kravitz. Miller played supporting roles in various movies, including We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) and The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) with Emma Watson and Logan Lerman. Their first blockbuster role has been in Harry Potter‘s spinoff, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016). They went on to reprise their role of Credence Barebone in the sequels of the movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore (2022).
In 2016, Ezra Miller debuted as DC’s The Flash in cameos in both Batman Vs. Superman and Suicide Squad. He cemented his role as The Flash in DC’s Justice League (2017). Starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavil, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher, The Justice League has made its mark on the DC universe and paved the way for Miller’s solo movie, The Flash (2023).
Now for the question on everyone’s mind: Will Ezra Miller continue to play The Flash after the 2023 movie? We have yet to know! Warner Brothers and DC have not officially announced whether Ezra Miller will be recast for the role. However, with the recent events surrounding the actor and his mental health issues, it is unlikely that DC will continue to have Miller as the Flash in upcoming projects. The Flash (2023) might be the last time we see Ezra Miller in the titular role.
Michael Keaton
Michael Keaton, born in 1951, is a prominent award-winning American actor and one of the many who had the honour of portraying DC’s number one superhero Batman. Micheal Keaton has had a strong career since the very beginning. His perfect comedic timing has landed him iconic roles in Mr Nome (1983) and Beetlejuice (1988). He was launched into stardom when he portrayed Batman in DC’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992).
Michael Keaton’s Batman has always been exceptional and untouched. Keaton and Batman (1989)’s director Tim Butron broke barriers and got creative in portraying the deep-voiced and stoic superhero. Since then, many actors praised Keaton’s Batman, including Mark Hamil, who said that Keaton’s Batman voice and how he portrays his psyche had inspired his own voice as the Joker.
Thirty-one years after the last time Michael Keaton drove the Batmobile, he reprised his role as Gotham’s vigilante in The Flash (2023). DC has been very proud to be able to bring Michale Keaton back as Batman, even for a short while. They have used this news to market The Flash since it was announced, and that has helped them get the attention of older and younger fans who saw Michael Keaton as one of the legends who played Batman.
Sasha Calle
The youngest member of the cast and the freshest face in The Flash, Sasha Calle, an American actress born in 1995, plays the one and only Supergirl. Sasha has played Lola Rosales in CBS’s soap opera The Young and the Restless, for which she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 2020.
Supergirl will be Sasha’s debut role in a feature film and the first time a Latina actress plays Supergirl! However, whether Sasha Calle will reprise her role as Supergirl in upcoming DCEU movies needs to be seen. Sasha has shown interest in continuing to play Supergirl. However, according to reports, James Gunn’s new plans for the DCEU will reboot the story for Supergirl with a different origin story than the one portrayed in The Flash. Does that mean the audience will see Sasha play Supergirl only once? We’ll wait and see!
Michael Shannon
Born in 1974, Michael Shannon is a double Academy Award nominee and the actor playing General Zod in The Flash. Shannon is a prominent actor who received many award nominations throughout his career. His film debut was in Groundhog Day (1993), then he went on to appear in Bad Boys II (2003), Elvis and Nixon (2016), The Shape of Water (2017), and Knives Out (2019). The Flash is not Micheal Shannon’s first time playing Superman’s adversary General Zod. He has portrayed the character in both Man of Steel (2013) as the main villain and in Batman Vs. Superman (2016).
Shannon will be reprising his role as the formidable General Zod, but this time against Barry Allen as he tries to protect Supergirl from getting captured by Zod.
What Are the Critics Saying about The Flash?
Critics have viewed The Flash, and the verdict is out. Rotten Tomatoes has certified the movie Fresh with 64% positive reviews from critics. Many have said the film starts very strong and promising, with Ezra Miller perfectly portraying Barry. Micheal Keaton has also received positive reviews for showing an old, tired Batman who has just had enough of this life. However, the movie’s second half gets out of hand with over-the-top storylines, effects and too many cameos.
The audience has had mixed reviews about The Flash so far. Many people agree that the movie is funny and has its strong points every now and then. However, the many cameos in the movies and the obvious uncertainty about Flash as a leading character make the movie quite weak in many ways. The plot line is all over the place, focusing more on big splash action sequences and nostalgic feels rather than building a Flash universe of its own.
We don’t know if The Flash will be getting a sequel any time soon, but we honestly doubt it will. With the mixed reviews, the below-expectation box office earnings and the troubles of their leading man, the road forward for The Flash looks a little too bumpy.
Superhero movies, The Flash included, usually have so much hype around them. That kind of pressure can make or break a film and, consequently, the stars. With The Flash, the hype was positive until recent events shifted the public opinion of Ezra Miller and gave the movie a less-than-stable ground to stand upon. However, the good thing is that DC fans will take advantage of every chance to see their beloved superheroes on the silver screen no matter what, and that might give The Flash the opportunity it needs to redeem itself.