The Flash. Oh boy. Finally bit the bullet and shipped off those 2.5 hours on (HBO) Max. First the good: Michael Keaton. He really enjoyed this and that really stands out. That's the only reason I watched this. His performance was the standout and it's a shame that they had him lined up for another 4-5 appearances in the DCU and flushed it. The hey, that's cool: Spoiler Nick Cage as Superman for 30 seconds. We've been wondering what that would look like for decades, now we know. Would've preferred that as they kept rewinding to repeat the final battle that it would've slowly created multi verse cracks and some of these characters would've actually joined the fight instead. 5 minutes of Cage next to Keaton, that would've been fun. Also. Clooney as Bruce at the end, that was cool and just enough of that character. Shame Val is in as bad of shape as he is, otherwise I'm sure they would've figured that cameo out too. The OK: Supergirl. She was fine, little underdeveloped and undeserved but it's passable. The bad: everything else. Flash is a s*** character in his own feature. He's comic relief in an ensemble. But in his own thing, the personality, whining, and complaining gets old after 5 minutes. Spoiler: Hospital and a microwave The saving the babies scene is one of the worst set pieces I've seen from a comic book film. It was then, at the 11 minute mark where I uttered to myself, oh f***! Spoiler: Cameo Wonder Woman's cameo. Listen, I'm always down to see Gal. She's laminated on the hall pass card (Friends joke about the lamination thing). But the scene was cheesy, pointless, and served zero purpose. The decisions of the characters were very uncharacteristic. Both Batmen, Ben and Keaton, were cavalier and reckless in scenarios where they weren't blinded by emotion. Spoiler Ben's Batman nearly let a virus get into the water supply and had to be saved by Wonder Woman. The way that happened is excusable for a rookie but not a gristled, tested Batman. Keaton's Batman flew into the final big ship so nonchalantly, even if you were OK with dying, that's not how that plays out. Also Keaton's fighting style was quite different, I don't think a retired, boozing Bruce is going to be redefining his fighting techniques. Ben raved about being in this one. How even though it's a 5 minute scene, he finally figured out how he wanted to play Batman and it was the most fun he's had as the character. I kept waiting for another Ben scene. The chase scene was meh. And for him to like it that much, I wonder if it got chopped to hell because through that scope, it's incredibly underwhelming. Two other cameos: Spoiler Reeve, it wasn't poor taste but it was close. Felt different with the 66 Batman inclusion, because it was a less visible inclusion. In the post credit, Aquaman suddenly not able to handle his alcohol intake? That's not on brand. Script was half baked. Touched on some of it above. Not sure how much of it is the troubled actor or how much was the fact that it's simply not a character worth their own starring role. The love interest storyline, albeit small, felt like a stretch. In summary: I was out on it by the 11 minute marker. Keaton was able to pull me back in when he was on the screen, the scenes without him I wanted to fast forward.
Yeah, I did not like it all. I was really glad I just watched it on streaming instead of heading to the theater. My biggest issue was also probably the Flash himself. I never liked Ezra Miller's version of the character and it was worse in this one. My wife, who isn't much into superhero movies at all, even commented on how much she liked Grant Gustin better as the Flash. Second big issue was the overall butchering of the Flashpoint storyline. One of the best stories in comics reduced to a sad shell of itself. I don't get these guys taking great comics and then stripping them of 99% of what made them so good. The fact that they hyped this one up so much made it worse. They need to just wrap up this version of the DC universe and start it over from scratch. No matter cameos or anything. Clean house.
Once again DC tells Marvel to hold my beer The fact that we didn't get a trailer until what?...a month ago, you knew this was going to be awful.
These corporations have also trained us to view their "movies" as a product and each product is made to set up the next product. Everyone knows this leads nowhere and the whole universe is being rebooted. And it's being rebooted into...ANOTHER connected cinematic universe. James Gunn is teasing so many DC characters showing up in this first Superman movie, it sounds like it will be like Amazing Spiderman 2. How about you make a single, well crafted Superman movie? Then if people like that, you add to that universe a little at a time? I actually like James Gunn a lot. But this new DCU is DOA.
I suppose BUT that is welcoming comparisons you don't want because of you're inviting the comp to the original who was the standard and face of the superhero franchise for decades. Newbie won't fit in those shoes.
I wonder how long from now it will be before people forget all Marvel and DC remakes and old superheroes Stan is gone. Star Wars as we know it is dead. A new generation of superhero is coming, and it will probably all be AI actors. (Get off my lawn)
I feel / fear we are entering the era of anime and anime-based adaptations, just wait and see. They were always there and have been more or less popular for a long tmie now, but it seems to be they will soon be the big thing.
I never really gravitated toward those, so if that happens, there’s probably a lot of stuff I’ll get done since I won’t be watching it
It's not all bad grumpy . I'm not a fan of the genre but some products are pretty good. Give the One piece show on netflix (not the animation!!!) a shot, it's pretty solid (even if directed at the younger audience)
Yes indeed. Sorry for another off topic, but I'd also highly recommend Blue Eye Samurai and Primal since we're on this topic.
