The Movie That Killed The DCEU Is Worth Revisiting On Netflix

What is The Flash about, though? Still distraught over the murder of his mother when he was a child, our title character uses super-speed, traveling backward in time to save her life.

This creates a wildly altered reality, and the speedster is soon racing to save the world, only to realize that his attempts may threaten the entire multiverse and all of reality as he knows it.

The cast of The Flash is a real “who’s who” of both comic book characters and major Hollywood players: Ezra Miller plays the Flash, while Batman is played by both Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton, reprising the version of the character he made famous back in 1989.

Speaking of reprising roles, Gal Gadot pops in briefly as Wonder Woman, and Michael Shannon returns to threaten the world as Zod once more. The cast also has some fun surprises, including Sasha Calle as Supergirl and Kiersey Clemons as our protagonist’s future love interest Ira West.

As I previously alluded to, The Flash was a bona fide box office failure. The budget for this movie was between $200 and $220 million, and it only earned $271.3 million.

That may look like a small profit on paper, but when you throw in the exorbitant amounts of money Warner Bros. spent to market this film, it is estimated that this ambitious DCEU blockbuster actually lost the studio about $200 million.

The movie itself is better than its reputation suggests (more on this soon), but The Flash was plagued by a perfect storm of bad circumstances: star Ezra Miller kept making headlines for his arrests and other controversial actions, which is why WB sidelined the actor from really promoting the movie.

At the same time, the writer’s strike of 2023 kept late-night shows off the air, further hampering the studio’s ability to market the film. Warner Bros. settled instead for spending a small fortune to air previews during events like the NBA playoffs, but the controversies and general failure of the DCEU kept these efforts from paying off.

All of this added up to the movie getting a reputation for being awful, but here’s the thing: it’s really not. The Flash has a 63 percent critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it safely in the “fresh” territory.

The critical consensus is that the film “is funny, fittingly fast-paced, and overall ranks as one of the best DC movies in recent years.”

Now, if you’re cynical, you might say “one of the best DC movies” is a low bar to clear, but it’s notable that this movie has a much higher 83 percent audience score.

These numbers paint an interesting picture: not that many people saw The Flash—at least, not as many as Warner Bros. would have liked. But those who did watch the movie really enjoyed it, and to me, it’s not hard to see why.

I’m one of the dorks who saw The Flash in theaters, and I’ll be honest: part of my motivation was to see just how bad the DCEU (a cinematic universe I have historically had no great love for) could get.

I was pleasantly surprised from the very beginning, though, with a movie that leaned into the title character’s trademark humor. The plot itself sometimes goes to grim areas, but the Flash himself remains a red beacon of humor and hope throughout the movie.

In addition to the very welcome comedy, I also enjoyed that this movie has clear emotional stakes that help to anchor everything down. It’s easy to blame Barry for putting the entire multiverse in danger all to save his mother’s life.

But if you show me someone who wouldn’t let the universe burn to save their mother’s life, I’ll show you someone who didn’t get enough maternal love growing up.

GFR SCORE

Plus, I thought it would be just a gimmick, but it was unbridled fun seeing Michael Keaton suiting up as Batman again. The 1989 Batman movie was a real cornerstone of my childhood, and Keaton clearly hasn’t lost a step when it comes to portraying the character who made him a household name.

This movie is a love letter to all things DC, and Keaton’s return as the Caped Crusader drives that home like nothing else.

Will you find The Flash a thrilling roller coaster ride of both laughs and tears like I did, or is this one movie that you’d like to erase from the timeline? You won’t know until you stream it on Netflix.

If you end up hating it, though, I have just one request: please don’t travel to the past and try to screw up my entire life.

After all, there’s nothing you can do to me that’s any worse than the time I watched Batman v. Superman. Twice.