The First Screenings Of Ezra Miller’s The Flash Are Making People Have Crazy Emotional Reactions
An early screening of The Flash reportedly had audience members in tears.
After a years-long journey, Ezra Miller’s The Flash is finally here, and if the first audience reactions are any indication, it was worth the wait. According to Deadline, the long-delayed film was shown at CinemaCon Las Vegas a few nights ago, and the general consensus is overwhelmingly positive. There are reports of some viewers feeling so emotional by the film’s end that they actually broke out in tears.
Warner Bros. unveiled the Scarlet Speedster’s first big-screen outing at a convention for theater exhibitors held every year to showcase upcoming movies. The exhibitors expressed their almost unanimous affection for the Ezra Miller-led The Flash as soon as the credits finished and the screen went black. An exec from Vue Cinemas said that he “absolutely loved it,” before going on to praise the film for having heart and soul.
An exhibitor from a chain of dine-in movie theaters called the Andy Muschietti-directed Ezra Miller superhero outing “One of the best DC films ever made,” and even said The Flash was “one of the greatest superhero movies ever made,” period. AMC CEO Adam Aron expressed his enthusiasm for all the upcoming Warner Bros. Discovery movies, including Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Blue Beetle, claiming to be excited for “the whole slate.”
The advanced buzz The Flash is generating is good news for DC. After the film’s troubled production, newly appointed Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The movie was originally slated for a 2018 release, but extensive reshoots and post-production hindered by COVID-19 resulted in the film being pushed back until this year. Star Ezra Miller repeatedly popping up on the news for various alleged offenses also didn’t help The Flash.
Ezra Miller’s struggles with the law during The Flash‘s production have been widely reported on, but it seems as though they’re on the right track as of late. Still, Warner Bros. isn’t taking any chances and has largely used the return of Michael Keaton’s Batman as a selling point for the upcoming The Flash, de-emphasizing Miller’s part in what is essentially their own movie.
Keaton isn’t the only actor coming back for the film. Ben Affleck plays another version of the Caped Crusader alongside Michael Shannon‘s General Zod and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Ezra Miller also shares a fair share of The Flash with actress Sasha Calle who plays the DCU’s first-ever Supergirl. It’s clear that Zaslav and Co. were counting on nostalgia and a packed cast to help audiences forget about Miller’s public drama, and going by CinemaCon, it worked.
From the first official trailer, all anyone has been talking about is the return of Michael Keaton. The 71-year-old actor last donned the cape and cowl in 1992’s Tim Burton-helmed Batman Returns, and his return to the role alongside Ezra Miller in The Flash has had fans losing their minds. With two little words, “I’m Batman,” that first Flash trailer hit millions of millennials right in the childhood.
When The Flash goes on to make the inevitable billion dollars or so at the box office, it will largely be due to Michael Keaton’s involvement. It’s a shame Keaton’s role in the shelved Batgirl film will never see the light of day, but who knows, maybe if The Flash does well enough…
See Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, and Sasha Calle when The Flash releases on June 16th.
