MOVIE REVIEW: The Flash

 (Are You Really Okay - Sleep Token)

If I weren't exhausted from a number of things, I'd start this review off with a long, rambling oratory about the business of separating the art from the artist and the myriad philosophical questions that such an act generates.

...I mean, why not? It worked with 'Ender's Game', didn't it?

Fact is, I am exhausted from a number of things so we're going to cut straight to the chase:

I am really, really struggling to reconcile the fact that 'The Flash' is as good as it is. Anyone within a mile of a nerd-attracting newsfeed will have heard about the Flash's leading actor -- I'm not going to give the Search Engines the benefit of using his name here... -- and the wide variety of trouble they've gotten up to. Excuse me, wide variety of Trouble, capital 'T'. I didn't want to like this movie.

...Then the first trailer dropped and it showed off what would become one of the movie's signature drawing points, and quite possibly the greatest cameo in the history of cinema. In a way, that was a balm for me, an excuse that I could feed myself if I ever got around to paying money for a viewing.

And then I got around to paying money for a viewing -- bonus points, I got around to a viewing with my absolute favorite person to go to movies like this with -- and as the credits rolled, we both turned to one another and agreed that this film was, full stop, the best thing that's come out of the DCEU/DCU to date...and not just because of that cameo. Orrrr the plethora of other shamelessly and expertly deployed cameos.

And that's really where it ends. The formal review, that is. If you've been dreading this film because of the things I said up above, you might as well go watch it. You won't regret it. You'll actually enjoy it. A lot.

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS!

- So, most of the reviews I've read talk a lot about the special effects in the film and how they looked odd or bad, and I'm here to tell you that I have no idea what they're talking about. The special effects all looked fine, with one very, VERY notable exception being the massive CG Cameo-Fest in the film's final 20 minutes or so. I'm hesitant to give that too much crap either because it...sort of...felt deliberate? Like, if you know what we can do with deepfakes and CG these days, they didn't have to make it look like they did.  And regardless of how they looked...

- I cheered my head off when those cameos started rolling. Especially when I saw the spiders. 

- You won't understand character growth unless you've watched The Justice League. Seriously, what's on display with The Flash is pretty damned impressive.

- Yes, Michael Keaton is the goddamned Batman. He absolutely kills every scene he's in.

- Can we please, PLEASE talk about Sasha Calle as Supergirl? That young lady absolutely KILLED it. I want a Supergirl movie with her in it. I love Cavil but even when he got 'mad', it never came off as more than, "Alright, now I want to stop you." Calle's Supergirl skips straight past that and gets directly to rage, and I am HERE for it. Also her suit. I love that she did so well here too, because there were a lot of folks who got cranky about her not being a typical leggy blonde in a red skirt. Boys and girls, I'm here to tell you that you simply will. Not. Care. Kara Zor El slays.

- (Sighs) I'm still not gonna use their name, but the Lead will make you cry before the movie is over. And I hate that. But they will, and it's legit.

- If you didn't know who was stepping out of the car by the look of his shoes,  you weren't paying nearly enough attention.