SPAGHETTI JUNCTION (THE FLASH)

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There's a moment in Andy Muschietti's superhero adventure 'The Flash' where Michael Keaton's dishevelled Bruce Wayne uses spaghetti to explain the concept of the multiverse.


It's a decent metaphor but even the most ardent pasta fan will tell you that too much spaghetti pretty quickly kills your enthusiasm for it.

That's exactly the point we have reached with superhero movies - especially superhero movies that deal the multiverse.

In recent years, Marvel has given us Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, Ant-Man and the Wasp and Marvel Avengers movies that have all toyed with this concept.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Their rivals at DC Studios have given us a 'Justice League' film which also played around with the idea.

Outside of the superhero genre, other movies like Christopher Nolan's head melting thriller 'Tenet,' Danny Boyle's sugary romcom 'Yesterday' and Max Barbakow's 'Groundhog Day' inspired comedy 'Palm Springs' have had stories fashioned around the notion of travelling through time and altering events.

However the zenith for the multiverse movie probably came last year with Daniels Kwan and Scheinert's quirky low budget comedy 'Everything, Everywhere, All At Once'.

Not only did it draw rave reviews and perform spectacularly at the box office, it also netted seven Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Film Editing and Best Original Screenplay.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Superhero movies, however, are beginning to lose their lustre just like Westerns did in the 1960s and 70s.

With superhero movies and streaming shows now reaching saturation point, do we really need another adventure in which the past is altered with potentially catastrophic consequences for the present?

That's the bet Warner Bros and DC Studios have made, investing between $200-220 million in Muschietti's 'The Flash'.

The other big gamble they take is on casting Ezra Miller as the film's hero, Barry Allen aka The Flash.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Miller has had well documented troubles off screen that may yet torpedo his career.

However DC Studios and Warner Bros have stuck to their guns, casting him as a superhero who can avert crises and disasters by moving at supersonic speed.

In Muschietti's movie, Barry is working as a police forensic investigator in Central City while also trying to prove his father, Ron Livingston's Henry Allen was a victim of a major miscarriage of justice.

Henry was jailed for his wife, Maribel Verdu's murder in the family kitchen despite having an alibi that she sent him to buy a can of tomatoes from a grocery store she forgot to purchase for the evening meal.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

After taking part in a dramatic rescue of babies in a neo-natal unit under the guidance of Jeremy Irons' Alfred Pennyworth, while Ben Affleck's Batman/Bruce Wayne was battling gun toting thieves on the Gotham City Expressway, Barry begins to entertain the idea of altering his own past.

He decides to go back through time and ensure his mum didn't forget the can of tomatoes on her grocery shop, thereby stopping the events that led to her murder.

Despite warnings from Affleck's Bruce Wayne that this could have potentially dire consequences for everyone else in the present, he executes his plan only to discover there is a second, more naive version of himself wandering around.

Going back in time to help his mum has forced other changes.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Michael Shannon's General Zod has returned, planning an Earth invasion and looking to square off against Superman.

When the two versions of Barry go to Wayne Manor to see Bruce, he is also much older than the version he is accustomed to.

In fact, he's Michael Keaton reprising his role as the Caped Crusader.

After explaining the multiverse predicament they find themselves in, the Barrys talk Wayne into smartening himself up and donning his Batsuit once again to help them track down Superman.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

This leads them to Siberia where they locate a Kryptonian space pod.

However Superman isn't there.

Instead they discover Sasha Callie's Supergirl.

But can this rag taggle gang of The Flash, the other Barry, Batman and Supergirl defeat General Zod?

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Can they also undo the unholy multiverse mess that Barry has unleashed?

Whether you care or not about these questions very much depends on how invested you are in a DC Extended Universe that dates back to Zack Snyder's 2013 Superman movie 'Man of Steel'. 

Box office for most of these films suggests only a niche section of filmgoers actually do.

But the cause isn't helped by a jumbled script by Christina Hodson, working from a story by John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein and Joby Harold.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

This is packed full of smug wisecracks about Batman, Aquaman et al that are quite tiresome.

There are also frequent references in the film to one of the original multiverse concept movies 'Back To The Future,' as if we are to dumb to absorb them the first time it is mentioned.

There is, however, a neat gag towards the end involving a very famous Hollywood actor.

However 'The Flash' is typical of a lot of DC or Marvel superhero output these days.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

It's brash, it's snarky and often boring.

Some the effects are surprisingly ropey - particularly in the hospital rescue sequence.

Miller lacks charisma in the dual roles of The Flash and the two Barrys but, to be fair, so do a lot of actors' portrayals of superheroes these days.

Callie, Affleck, Shannon, Irons go through the motions as does Gal Gadot who makes another appearance as Wonder Woman and Jason Momoa who turns up as Aquaman in the end credits.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Livingston, Verdu, Kiersey Clemons as Barry's news reporter love interest Iris West, Sanjeev Bhaskar as his workplace boss, Saoirse Monica Jackson and Rudy Mancuso as his co-workers dutifully trundle through their minor roles.

Only Keaton gives the film some zip, enabling Batman fans to wallow in the nostalgia of him donning the Batsuit once more as an ageing Bruce Wayne.

'The Flash' isn't the worst superhero film you'll see but it certainly isn't the best.

It just lacks anything truly memorable.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

Muschietti's film instead feels like an IKEA version of a superhero movie - slavishly following instructions with little ingenuity or passion.

Its heavy reliance on the appearance of Batman, Wonder Woman etc suggests a lack of confidence in The Flash being able to carry his own movie.

But then again, the same could be said for Marvel pictures that do the same.

In that respect, it is no better nor worse than the deluge of TV shows and movies these days featuring some of the less enticing superheroes.

© Warner Bros & DC Studios

With little thrills to be had, is it no wonder that audiences are getting tired of big budget, effects driven stories of superheroes, crumbling cityscapes and multiverses?

Enough already.

Can we just not have more stories about the world we actually inhabit?
 
('The Flash' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on June 14, 2023)

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