It seems like a couple of lifetimes ago when Warner Bros. first announced that the DC character, The Flash, would be getting his own movie. The project started to take shape back in the 1980s, and over the ensuing years and decades, multiple directrors and writers have been attached. Even actor Ezra Miller (the FANTASTIC BEASTS films; TRAINWRECK), who has been playing the character in film and on TV since 2016 when he first appeared in BATMAN V. SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, reportedly submitted his own script for consideration. THE FLASH has finally arrived at our cinemas and the stakes for Warner Bros. couldn’t be lower. The DCEU is dead and James Gunn has taken over the struggling franchise, replacing it with the DCU. Some characters like Superman will be recast, and the futures of actors like Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), are still under discussion. Miller’s ongoing participation seemed quite unlikely given his public antics in recent years that have landed him in trouble with the law, but if THE FLASH does well at the box office, anything is possible. Certainly, THE FLASH director, Andy Muschietti (IT; IT CHAPTER TWO) has made his opinion clear. If there’s going to be a sequel, he wants Miller in it.

THE FLASH picks up after the events of JUSTICE LEAGUE. Barry Allen (Miller) is working at a police forensics lab in Central City when he gets a call from Alfred Pennyworth (Jeremy Irons) telling him that his good friend, Batman (Ben Affleck), is busy chasing bad guys who have stolen something important and he needs The Flash’s help on another disaster that is unfolding there. Barry zooms over to Gotham City where a hospital is about to collapse. The Flash saves everyone and then speeds over to where Batman is to help out there. Fortunately for the two of them, another member of the Justice League also shows up to lend a hand.

Back at Wayne Manor, Barry tells Bruce that he’s now able to run faster than the speed of light, meaning he can go back in time. With his father (Ron Livingston, TULLY) up for parole for the murder of Barry’s mother, Barry figures that if he can go back to the day his mother died, he can change one event and she’ll live. Bruce warns him not to do it because he might cause other events to change in the process but Barry wants to his mother back. He speeds away and ends up back in time where he meets his 18-year-old self. That Barry, though, is even more impetuous and irresponsible than the older Barry is. What’s worse is that Older Barry doesn’t have his powers anymore, meaning he’s now stuck in the past. Compounding his woes, an old, reclusive and dishevelled Bruce Wayne (now played by Michael Keaton) is that only one of the Justice League members to exist. When the Kryptonian General Zod (Michael Shannon) comes to Earth to turn the planet into a new Krypton, the two Barrys team up with Batman to find Superman, who is being held in a prison in a remote part of Russia. When they get there though, they don’t find Kal-El. They find Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle), who is Supergirl. Now, the four characters must team up to defeat Zod and save the planet… and Older Barry must to figure out how to set things right again. The Younger Barry, however, has other ideas.

If you’ve been a devoted DC fan all these years, first of all, you deserve a medal, and second, you will be richly rewarded with all the Easter eggs that THE FLASH has to offer. Clearly, the folks at DC and Warner Bros. recognised the popularity of bringing back all the old Spider-man actors, as they did in SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, and they double down here not just with Irons, Affleck, Keaton and Shannon, but also with more than a few that I haven’t mentioned because I don’t want to spoil it. Unfortunately, the addition of those de-aged actors doesn’t add anything to the story and smacks of shameless fan service.

Miller gives the character(s) his all and kudos to him for managing about 90 percent of the film’s dialogue. However, Barry Allen, even when multiplied by two, is not a compelling enough character to be the center — and most of the periphery in this case — of a film. As a sidekick, he’s great, but as a lead, not so great. Even GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, VOL. 3 didn’t spend all its time on Rocket.

As far as DC films go, THE FLASH isn’t a total bust the way BLACK ADAM was. It has some good moments but it’s a very middling film.

THE FLASH opened in Hong Kong yesterday. Whether you go see it or not will depend on how much you want to see Michael Keaton back in the bat suit again.

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