So by now I think everyone has heard of not only the movie, “The Flash” but also about Ezra Miller, and how his real life predicaments have negatively affected the movie reviews.

I’m not all up on what exactly the entire Ezra Miller fiasco was, but It did cast a huge cloud over this movie, and really kept people away. But I gave the movie a watch, because I am a Flash fan.

The Flash – 2023 – Produced by Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Studios, Double Dream, and the Disco Factory.

I am going to be upfront here and say that I do believe that the review bombing of The Flash was an intentional smear. A protest. I say this because this is just a fantastic movie. And in my opinion, close to, if not, THE best DC movie to date. That might not be that high of a bar really, but worth noting. I am also noting that I am not denying or condoning any accusations or actions of anyone connected to this movie.I’m just watching and talking about the damn movie.

And so..As with all the “superhero” movies The Flash does do a bit of setting up a basic origin story. And for once, I think a bit of recap is generally warranted here.

Just about everyone knows who The Flash is or at least his general look and M O,, but I think relatively few non hardcores could tell you much about him other than he runs fast.

A quick, but great set up sequence (with a couple of quirks) sets us off on a story that really is at heart of the Barry Allen Flash. Family tragedy, well meant but errant choices, bad luck going wrong at the wrong times, doubt, defeat, salvation. Everything that Barry/Flash has ever been.

The movie is 2 hours and 24 minutes of a Multiverse time traveling run with quite a few of DC Universe faces showing up, all keeping their fingers loosely in The Flash canon, while dropping in fresh twists and interpretations. And it just feels great right from the start on through to the end.
The visuals are a big plus here. Taking cues from the series and ramping them up. Not going over the CGI top, but still having a comic booky kind of “feel”

From the previews, I admit it was looking like a cameo-laden DC “who’s who” flick. But it was actually a thoroughly written Flash story that was well executed and pulled from many source materials with out coming off as a fanboy montage. It even managed to set up other projects down the line. (but we will see)

Sure there was a couple of unresolved plot points and a couple bits of strange dialogs but it more or less runs frictionless.

I 100% recommend this movie. Even if you are not so much into the Hero genre or fully immersed in the lore, it has just enough familiarity and writing to let you jump right in without needing a complete history of every character to enjoy the story.

I wish I would have seen this on the big screen.