In a nutshell, "The Flash" is good. However, in today's world, "good" is no longer an absolute, hollow ultimate assessment. Just like the multiverse, time doesn't move forward linearly; it interacts with all related works from different stages and even different dimensions. This colliding and comparison with other works, is very much like the Flash running into the Chronobowl repeatedly, witnessing various impacts and collapses, yet incapable of changing any fixed endings.
The most notable aspect of "The Flash" is its incapability - no matter how fast it runs and whichever universe it runs into, it can't outrun its opponents. To be more specific, it runs into the “Marvel Cinematic Universe.”
Marvel movies have a basic triplet formula of marvelous spectacle, tragic storyline, and comedic elements. Over these years, blockbusters essentially only differ in the proportion of these three. What attracts the general audience into cinemas is precisely these emotional ups and downs of shock, sentiment, and joy.
During its golden era, Marvel skillfully manipulated these infectious elements to build up a dreamlike cinematic universe and ultimately, an entertainment empire step by step, through genre, mingling of genre elements, interactions between movies and TV series and management of fan-oriented business.
However, when it came to Phase Four, the quality of Marvel’s movies started to decline. At this time, DC presented a homogenized "The Flash," strangely bringing us back to Marvel's past glory with a great execution of the “triplet formula.” Although its visual effects were criticized, the exploration of the multi-universe, distinct from the dark and rebooted DC films, still provides a unique visual presentation and immersion.
More importantly, its structure and expression could bring the audience to another dimension. "The Flash" came at a critical time , unexpectedly taking on the role of looking back at past DC heroes like the Flash, Superman, Batman, and providing space for future storyline development.
While the movie had successfully completed its task for DCEU, the protagonist Barry Allen's character is also given substantial depth through a tragic main story.
The essence of a superhero is still saving lives. The Flash's acrobatic rescue at the beginning mirrors that kind of scenes where Spiderman repeatedly saves train passengers. It illustrates the heroic futility of being able to save most lucky strangers while unable to save all the people they really care about.
"The Flash" eloquently portrays tender family moments, creates a kind-hearted, endearing portrayal of a mother, and even shows the possible happiness from another universe. It’s truly tear-inducing when Barry finally manages to reunite with her but has to bid farewell to his mother, and that moment allows the audience to genuinely empathize with Barry, the socially awkward, introverted big boy with his superhero suit off.
Superheroes need to embody the full spectrum of human emotions, including vulnerability; otherwise, they would become unrelatable idols without personalities, which makes them no longer fascinating.
DC understands the value of this tragic arc in character development. The heroes who first captured our hearts, Superman and Batman, are the embodiment of this tragic essence. Superman is an alien who grows up in a small town, an ordinary employee, and Batman is a recluse, a wealthy billionaire. From being passive to active, they actually share similar marginalized identities.
The added element of losing a parent (or parents) that symbolizes care, and different friends or partners in different stories, almost constitutes the life experience of the majority of superheroes. Flash may not be the most unfortunate, but in terms of narrative arrangement, "The Flash" has created the most profound resonance among DCEU movies over the past ten years.
If the movie had stopped here, "The Flash" would have been playing within the DC framework, where it falls short. However, it has another interesting advantage - it finally got the comedic elements right.
DC went through a somewhat awkward phase, initially aiming to present a dark, adult-oriented tone in an attempt to set itself apart from Marvel's seemingly more family-friendly tone. But this was misunderstood as a boring rut, and DC later began cautiously to incorporate humor. However, even if "Justice League" and a few other films did some experiments on humor, they turned out to be rather awkward and vulgar.
But "The Flash" perfectly balances puerile and adult-oriented humor and breaks down the barriers between nerd and mainstream culture. It resembles the earlier “Marvel Studio” productions.
But even as we applaud "The Flash," its victory in the current context seems like a failure. Similar themes about the multiverse have already lost their novelty. To make things worse, it also trails the release of “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” which clashed with it in terms of themes and issues, and was also at one point ranked 11th on IMDb's overall charts.
With some regret, even though "The Flash" faces its share of awkward moments and lacks some rigor and brilliance, it has provided DC with new leverage to compete with Marvel. In a world where the superhero genre has started to decline after a period of prosperity, the freshness, enthusiasm, and purity that "The Flash" offers should be considered a precious spark.
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