Film Review : "the Flash"

 

To credit this movie as being one of the best DC movies is not that big of a compliment, so I think I should say this is one of the best  live action comic book movies we have seen since , the last Spider-man film which is very fair as it offers the kind of fan service that No Way Home did. I have seen online a few reviews trying to say this movie is the problem with comic book movies, and those are the kind of journalists, who do not know anything about comic books to begin with. Frist off I have no horse in this race, as I am not a DC, my favorite DC character is Swamp Thing. Not sure the Flash would make my top 10 DC characters list. I do have an appreciation for his lore, and watched the CW show., which I think overall gets a better feel for the character, but this movie comes much closer than other versions of the character we have seen on the big screen . 

The film explores a wider range of the Flash's powers. Ezra Miller, the  actor who defied cancellation, plays Barry Allen with the kind of charisma that served as comic relief for Justice League. For this movie you can not really say this is their best movie that is not a Bat-man movie, as it is pretty much a Bat-Man movie, and Super-Girl had more screen time than expected. Keaton reprised his role well, and the new Super-Girl worked for me, though would it have killed them to dye her hair blond? Tonally you will see people hating on this for the same things they loved about Deadpool. It does humor much better than any other recent D/C Movie ...the Suicide Squad included. I have also heard quips about the CGI, which was way better than anything in the Black Panther movies or Wonder-Woman, but did not hear the complaints from those people in regards to those movies, so I am suspect of them, 

When compared to the popular CW take on the Flash, the bigger budget allows for a better representation of his powers and what makes the Flash tick, where the CW show is more about what makes Barry Allen tick, I think there is space for both. It seems comic book movies are leaning into Multiverses pretty heavy lately, well DC did it first as they beat Marvel to the punch before Marvel cranked up their Ultimate Universe where Miles Morales came from. The story takes from parts of popular DC sagas and blend them well and offering fan service to an extent that might go above and beyond what Marvel has done, and if the story got convoluted well DC stories have always felt like action figures were just thrown on the bed into two page fight scenes, and this movie makes more sense of it and uses a bit of restraint to tell a better DC story than we saw in Black Adam or any of the Shazam movies, this movie serves as a great bridge from the Synderverse into Gunn's vision of the future and hopefully fans will say fuck the press and give this film the shot it deserves, all this is coming from a Marvel guy with no horse in the race, but a deep appreciation for where they went here. 

Film Review- "Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse"

 “Spider - Man; Across the Spider verse” takes the stylistic brand of animation that gave 2018’s “Into the Spider verse’ it’s charm and takes it to the level of high art animation. It uses more mixed mediums, from live-action to LEGOs. The animators worked on “the Mitchells vs the Machines” in-between making the two Spider  films and learned a whole new bag of tricks that they made the most of when it comes to varying the animation styles to create a wide range of atmosphere and mood. Gwen Stacy’s Earth 65 home looks like impressionistic watercolor paintings that reflect her unsettled emotional state that is dripping with brooding teenage angst. They capture this with the shifting drip of color, as well as the futuristic landscapes you are whisked off to. 

Miles Morales is taller as he swings deeper into his teen years , which also comes with conflicts with his parents, almost more of a focal point than the main villain the Spot. I was glad to see this more obscure member of Spider-Man's rogue’s gallery get some recognition, I do not feel like he was the most well written cast. Though matters of multiverses once again are the focus of the movie’s main conflict, that involves a society of Spider-People trying to hold Miles down. The movie's best characters like Ben Reilly come from this. While it pulls from every corner of Spider-Man lore, Jessica Drew got the worst shake of things with her alternate replacement. Ben is also a parody of himself as he is depicted as being hyper comics accurate. Mile’s finds life is a struggle, but wins when the plot armor is laid on too thick, as the Scarlet Spider and Spider-Man 2099, would wipe the floor Morales . 

I am sure viewer who want to read into this movie sub text that fits their narratives will find the fuel to do so, but Sony, unlike Disney did not bait their audience with the diversity tropes being pounded down our throats these days, despite the changes to character they made which would have left them open targets for such snark. Instead they just told a fun story free of agendas. A fact many viewers might not have even noticed since they were just enjoying themselves. Most of the things forced, just were organic working parts of the story being told. 

With the exception of Dr. Strange getting name dropped, this becomes an isolated corner of the Marvel Universe. This boxed the feel of the story into a smaller world even when they traverse other dimensions. But the movie’s main struggle is in the writing. They build up so many layers of plot and then get so lost in this web they have spun that the story is unable to find the third act, so they end with a cliffhanger. It would have been wise to take notes from “Infinity War” who might have resolved things with “the Snap” but opened it up for more questions, rather than this movie that found the writers not even finishing their sentence. Come for the art and you will be wow’ed, the story might work better as a cartoon series or comic book, but did not work in the adaptation to film,