The Flash Review

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Welcome to the Dynamic Duel Podcast, a weekly show where we review superhero films and debate the superiority between Marvel and DC by comparing their characters in stat-based battle simulations. I'm Johnny DC. And I'm his twin brother Marvelous Joe. And in this episode we are reviewing DC's latest theatrical release, The Flash. Was it the greatest superhero movie of all time like James Gunn said it would be? And Tom Cruise, don't forget Tom Cruise. No, the answer is no. But it was still really good.

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Of course, we'll talk all about it later on in this episode. Before that, we're going to break down the comic book movie news from this past week, including the news that Andy Muschietti, the director of The Flash, has been tapped to direct Batman Brave and the Bold. We also learned that Deadpool 3's release date has been moved up, while other Marvel Studios films have been pushed back. As always, we list our segment times in our episode description, so feel free to check out the show notes if you want to skip ahead to a particular topic.

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And those of you who have listened to our recent episodes will know that our duel simulator has become so advanced that it's gained sentience and has named itself the artificial life form for running extensive duels, just a rather very intelligent simulator 9000 or Alfred Jarvis 9000. He has a quick message for our listeners, so let's hear it.

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them on social media. Check it out at patreon.com slash dynamic duel. Pip pip cheerio. Thanks AJ9K and thanks to everyone who supports the podcast, including our executive producer Ken Johnson, the host of the Max Destruction podcast. Yeah, that show uses a Monte Carlo simulator like ours to determine who would win between action film stars, including the

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from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. That's tomorrow's episode, so definitely make sure to check that out. Yeah, you can find a link to his podcast and all the Dynamike Network podcasts by clicking on the link tree in our episode notes. But with that out of the way, quick to the No Prize. A No Prize is an award that Marvel used to give out to fans. Our version, the Dynamic duel No Prize, is a digital award that we post on Instagram and in our email newsletter.

03:33
for the person that we feel gave the best answer to our question of the week. Last week we asked, who is your favorite alternate universe Marvel or DC character and why? We got quite a few answers, but let's break down this week's honorable mentions before revealing the no prize winner. Yeah, our first honorable mention goes to Bideer Bangora, who said, Hello, Dynamitool. My favorite character from an alternate universe has to be Frank Castle, the cosmic ghost writer.

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And that version of Frank Castle was set from the strongest one. Frank Castle by himself is pretty strong. But on top of that, with Ghost Rider powers, and even on top of that with the power of cosmic, he's nearly unbeatable. So that's why for me, he is the strongest and the best alternate universe character. Thank you. Yeah, Cosmic Ghost Rider is a badass. We did a duel episode where we pit him against the Batman Who Laughs in a previous duel episode, so be sure to check that out. Basically, Cosmic Ghost Rider is Frank Castle the Punisher.

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who became a spirit of vengeance, getting Ghost Riders powers, and was also bestowed the power of cosmic by Galactus, similar to the Silver Surfer. He has a really cool design, and is one of the more popular, recently introduced, multiversal characters for Marvel. Yeah, the character is insanely powerful, so I definitely see the appeal. Travis Herndon also gave the same answer. Yeah, great answers guys. Our next honorable mention goes to Scott Camacho. Who said? My pick is the Injustice Superman.

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I mean, I don't know where to start. He took out Joker, took out the world's dictator, seized the world's military, not just the United States. He got a yellow lantern ring and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. He killed Shazam. He turned the world into a one government state with the Wonder Woman and the Amazons at his side. All hail Superman. I couldn't tell if he said, all hail Superman or all hail Superman.

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Either way, it's appropriate. Injustice Superman, of course, comes from the Injustice video game. But there was also an insanely popular comic series that tied into that, where the character also kicked all kinds of ass. Yeah, we talked about Injustice Superman in our review of the Injustice animated adaptation of that comic book series. And yeah, the guy's freaking forced to begin with. It's basically Superman if he became an evil dick.

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which is popular nowadays with shows like The Boys and Invincible or Brightburn. Yeah, exactly. Great answer, Scotty. Our next honorable mention goes to Lizzie Dyer Arnie, who said. Hey, it's Lizzie. So my favorite AU character would have to be the Spider Woman of verse 65. That's Gwen Stacy, AKA Spider Gwen. So as we know, the death of Gwen Stacy is such an important part of comics history, but I can't go into that right now. In this universe, Gwen becomes a Spider Woman and Peter ends up dying.

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It's such a great flip story. She's hiding from her father, who's a police captain. There's so much I could say, but I really can't. Have a good day. Yeah, Gwen Stacy, Spiderwoman, a.k.a. Spider Gwen is a fantastic character, really made popular and brought into the forefront in the Spiderverse films. But, you know, she was popular in the comics before that. Her story is definitely a great riff on the traditional Spider-Man tragedy.

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where she died after being thrown off of, I think it was the Brooklyn Bridge by the Green Goblin. It was definitely the moment in Spider-Man comics where Peter Parker really graduated from being kind of like this boy superhero into a man superhero. And in the Spider-Gwen comics, it was in fact Peter that died after becoming a version of the Lizard. Now, is her name Spider-Gwen or is it like Ghost Spider? Spider-Woman? What is it? Spider-Woman, although in the Marvel Rising cartoons, I believe it's Ghost Spider.

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but she's affectionately referred to as Spider Gwen. Okay. Well, great answer, Lizzie. We wanna give a quick shout out to Brandon Estergard, Christopher Minotti, Ezra Garcia, and Ken Johnson for taking the time to visit our website and record your No Prize answer. Yeah, we'll be including your answers on our Discord chat server for further discussion. But the winner of this week's No Prize is Ed Jones. Who said? What's up, guys? This is Ed Jones. Long time listening to First Time Call.

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I do believe that my favorite alternate character would have to be Static from the Static Shock cartoon that came on WDB earlier in like the early 2000s. He is my favorite character because he was just so goddamn hip and so cool. He was so dope that he made me start picking out comics and he still makes me like it. Anyways, that's my favorite character. Hope you guys have a dope day. Yeah, I haven't read too many comics with Static Shock, but I do remember watching the TV show, which was really cool.

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Yeah, we recently talked about the Static Shock series when we counted down our top favorite Marvel and DC cartoon theme songs over on Patreon. Definitely listen to that guys. But I thought actually Static was part of the mainstream DC universe. He's part of the Milestone universe, which I guess you could say has been absorbed into DC proper. We're way past due to do a duel episode with him. We've got to do that sooner rather than later. I'm really excited to collaborate with the executive producers.

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to find out who would be a good match for him. But great answer, Ed Jones. Congrats, you win this week's No Prize. If you, the listener, want a shot at winning your own No Prize, stay tuned to later on this episode when we'll be asking another Question of the Week. And now that that's done, on to the news.

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Okay, so a few weeks ago we heard rumors that Andy Muschietti, the director of The Flash, would also be directing Batman Brave and the Bold, and it was confirmed that that was the case last Thursday. It's been said that this movie is going to be based on the series authored by Grant Morrison, which of course features Damian Wayne, Bruce Wayne's son, as the titular Robin. Andy Muschietti's sister, Barbara Muschietti, is his producing partner, and she will also produce the film just as she did The Flash.

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Now, James Gunn and Peter Safran have been talking up The Flash, describing it as one of the greatest superhero films that they've ever seen. So it's no surprise that they rehired Andy Muschietti to direct another one of their projects for DC Studios. The movie does not have a screenwriter attached to it yet. So I'm really curious to see who they're going to get to write the film, especially amid this writer strike that's going on. Considering how the character of Batman was treated in The Flash movie, I'm pretty excited about this news. I think.

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Musketi has a good handle on what makes Batman so cool and really has a handle on what made each individuel Batman so cool between Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck. So it'll be interesting to see who this new Batman is and how they'll be portrayed. Yeah, I can't wait to see who he casts as Batman. I'm also really interested to see who he casts as Damian Wayne. We haven't seen a Robin in a live action feature film since Batman and Robin. Yeah, Chris O'Donnell to go with George Clooney.

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It's been too long. It's been too long. Wouldn't it be cool if they brought those two back? Shut the fuck up. I seriously doubt that's going to happen. But speaking of casting for Batman, Brave and the Bold, that brings us to this week's question of the week.

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Who would you cast as Batman and Robin in Batman Brave and the Bold?

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In Marvel news, we got a slew of new release dates to come out for the MCU film Slate, I think largely due in part to the writer's strike that's currently going on. I think some projects have gotten stalled, whereas others seem to be in good shape and so are better suited to come out earlier. While there are several Marvel films in production right now, including Deadpool 3 and Captain America Brave New World, but it looks like Deadpool 3 is actually on better track. So to start off the release date changes, Deadpool 3

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has been shifted from November 8th, 2024 to May 3rd, 2024. So it's gonna kick off the summer movie season next year, which is awesome news. I actually, out of all of the upcoming Marvel Studios films that have been announced, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Deadpool movie will kind of put an end to the Foxman universe and dovetail into the MCU. If it does that, at the very least, it'll be nice to have a Deadpool Wolverine team-up movie.

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I mean, same of all of the Marvel releases that are coming up. I'm really, really curious about this Deadpool 3 film. I really hope it is what it's rumored to be, which is Deadpool kills the Fox universe. Yeah, we'll see. That May 3rd, 2024 release date was initially owned by Captain America, Brave New World, but that movie got moved from May a few months back to July 26th, 2024. So it's going to come out in the middle of summer.

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That date, of course, was initially owned by Thunderbolts, which has got pushed back to the Christmas movie season, December 20th, 2024, which I think I feel like the Thunderbolts is a weird movie to come out around the Christmas time, but whatever. The next movie that got pushed back was Blade, which was originally going to come out in September of 2024. Now it's coming out Valentine's Day 2025. That one I'm kind of bummed about because

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I thought Blade would make for a good autumn type film, you know, leading into the Halloween season and stuff, but instead it's coming out during the Valentine's Day season, which is kind of weird. Not really, man. It's been shown that horror films are more likely to get you laid than any other genre of film for like a date. Is that anecdotal or do you have science to back that up? No, that's science. I guess it's like the fear just like gets your blood racing. I buy that, I buy that.

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Initially, the Fantastic Four movie was going to come out on Valentine's Day 2025, but that got pushed back to May. So Fantastic Four is going to kick off the summer movie season in 2025. And that was the date that the next Avengers movie, The King Dynasty, was going to come out. That film's been pushed back a whole year to May 1st, 2026, as well as Avengers Secret Wars, which has been pushed back to May 7th, 2027. So, yeah.

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A lot of stuff got pushed back pretty far, especially those Avengers movies. The only upside to all of this news is that we're getting Deadpool 3 earlier. When I start thinking about like 2026 and 2027, I'm like, is the podcast even going to be around at that time? Yeah, who knows? Are we going to review that? I don't know. It's like too far ahead to think about. Yeah, it's like four years away. Like, who's thinking about that? Nobody. The podcast will be 11 years old in 2027. Wow.

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That's crazy.

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Well, I think that does it for all the news this week. Now let's move on to the main event of this episode when we review DC's latest theatrical film, The Flash.

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Alright, The Flash is the latest and potentially last film in the DCEU cinematic universe. The film was directed by Andy Muschietti, who is the last in a long line of directors attached to this project since it was first announced in 2016. The same year, we first saw actor Ezra Miller as the character of Barry Allen in the films Batman v Superman, Dawn of Justice, and Suicide Squad.

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Fans have been waiting for over half a decade for this film, which has been mired not only by the revolving door of filmmakers working on it, but also by the drama surrounding studio interference with the Justice League film and the criminal behavior of its lead star, Ezra Miller. It's been a rollercoaster waiting for this film, and not a fun one in all honesty, but the important thing in the end was whether the film was fun. And I'm happy to say

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It's one of the funnest and surprisingly funniest films in the DCEU and a true celebration of DC's cinematic history. There are a lot of fun cameos in the film and I don't want to ruin them for anyone who hasn't seen it. So please make sure to do so before listening to this spoiler review. Yeah, I was also surprised by the amount of comedy in this movie. I think I would almost classify it as a comedy first and foremost. Yeah, that was really surprising. Like even from the opening scene.

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just how funny it was. I didn't expect that. I feel like I should have, just because of Ezra Miller's take on the character, which I didn't love in the Justice League films, but I thought that version of the character was incredibly well executed in this film. Yeah, it's definitely Ezra Miller's version of Barry Allen, which is not necessarily true to the comic book version of Barry Allen, and whether or not you loved or hated it from the Justice League movies will, I think, have a large part in how people feel about this film in general.

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because the film dials the Ezra Miller-ness to 11. Yeah, your feelings regarding Ezra Miller and his portrayal of The Flash, as well as your feelings of Ezra Miller in real life, will go a long way in determining how you feel about this film, I think. Now, when The Flash film project that was to star Ezra Miller first started in 2015, before it was even announced, filmmakers Phil Lord and Chris Miller were hired to write and possibly direct the film.

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When they decided to direct the solo Star Wars movie instead, Seth Graham Smith was brought on to direct a film based on Lord and Miller's treatment. Graham Smith later left the project over creative differences, as did his successor Rick Famuyua and the directing duo John Francis Daly and Jonathan Goldstein. DC Films president at the time, Walter Hamada, ultimately gave the film to Andy Muschietti, who had previously directed the successful IT films for Hamada.

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Christina Hodson did a page one rewrite, though it's rumored that Moschetti and Ezra Miller rewrote much of the film themselves. Amidst the pre-production chaos, several page one rewrites were supposed to have been done, but it seems to me like quite a number of elements seemingly survived from Lord and Miller's original story treatment, as there are a number of comparisons to be made between The Flash and Lord and Miller's recent film to hit theaters.

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Spider-Man across the Spider-Verse. Which I still haven't seen, so like no spoilers there. Like I don't want to know how similar they are. Yeah, no, I'm not going to spoil anything that wasn't in the trailers. Essentially, both films involve the main superhero character traveling to an alternate reality where they team up with variant versions of themselves, learn about inevitable canon events in the multiverse, and are ultimately faced with the decision whether to sacrifice one parent to save an entire world.

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You and I got the chance to see The Flash about a month ago, and I loved at that time when I first saw it how unique the film was. My heart did sink a bit when I saw Across the Spider-Verse because I knew most people would see that film before The Flash. But after seeing The Flash again, I think there's still quite a bit that makes it unique. And though I'm sure once you see Across the Spider-Verse, you'll insist it's the better film. And while you'll be wrong.

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You'll have to acknowledge that of the two films, the Flash is at least more accessible, particularly for audience members who grew up with George Reeves or Christopher Reeve as their supermen or wore out the VHS tape on their copy of Batman 89 like we did. There are fewer characters to introduce audience members to in the Flash and really fewer characters in general. You know, when it comes to movies, I'm not concerned about accessibility. I like my films to, you know, be deep and, uh...

20:02
That's what she said. I just I really can't wait to see across the Spiderverse. I'm honestly really curious to hear your thoughts once you do see it. You go back to the Flash. Not only are there fewer characters here, but there's fewer concepts as well. You know, by this point, audiences have largely been introduced to the concept of the multiverse thanks to films and shows like Spider-Man No Way Home, Loki, Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness and the Spiderverse films,

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Flash was originally set to come out before any of those. So what you're saying is DC is ripping off Marvel? No, I'm saying the opposite. I'm saying everyone knew what the Flash film was going to be and wanted to race to get there before it. Surprisingly, for a character about the fastest man alive, the film is very much like Barry Allen in that he is always late. Now people, of course, look forward to the cameos in these multiverse films, but none of them

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go as far back, or even can go as far back, as The Flash, which is able to reach outside the boundaries of the DCEU to go back as far as the Golden Age of Television in the 1950s to the adventures of Superman. Yeah, starring George Reeves. Exactly, yeah. And if George Reeves is our Golden Age Superman, then Christopher Reeve was our Silver Age, Nicholas Cage was our Bronze Age, or Dark Age, or whatever you want to call it.

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And we even get a glimpse of Henry Cavill in the film as our modern-age Superman. And we get four Batman, Ben Affleck, Michael Keaton, Adam West, and even George Clooney. The Flash film was an absolute love letter to the worlds that DC has established in its history on screen. And it was fucking miraculous to behold, like for real.

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Yeah, it seemed like they came to compete with films like Avengers Endgame, who was able to call on, you know, 10 years of continuity with their own cinematic universe. But since Warner Brothers has produced and distributed all of DC's films, or at least owns the rights to them, yet DC can harken back even further than Marvel Studios can, because Marvel doesn't own all the rights to all their stuff from their history. Those cameos at the end were such a huge surprise.

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And the first time I saw I couldn't even believe what I was seeing. I did not expect it at all. I think to DC fans, those shout outs are going to be everything. But to the casual moviegoer, I think they're largely going to be taken back by the lackluster special effects. That's honestly the one knock I have on the film. The special effects. When we saw the early screening of this, like.

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We knew it was an earlier cut of the film, we were told that, so I just assumed that the VFX weren't completed yet, but apparently they were. Filming wrapped over a year ago, so you'd think they'd have had plenty of time to polish the special effects to perfection, but instead it looked like we got something from the PlayStation 3 era of video games. And not all of the special effects are bad, but the ones that are are some of the worst I've seen in years, unfortunately. Like,

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The time travel orb and surrounding carousel. What a brilliant way to depict time travel, but also what a painful to watch uncanny valley the final product turned out to be. The carousel thing was a unique concept with like the time orb or whatever. Yeah. I thought it would be cooler if it was more like a time tunnel, kind of like in the vein of the Willy Wonka chocolate boat ride, where you see the images flash in the tunnel kind of thing. I think that would have been a little bit more accessible.

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concept wise than this hamster ball that he was running in. That was weird. Well, it was kind of like a like a zoetrope kind of thing that they did with the carousel. Yeah. And also because they did it that way, they were also able to make it shaped like a sphere, like a world, which I thought was great. So I definitely prefer what they did over a time tunnel. That said, it looked fugly.

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Seeing those like spherical manifestations of timelines crash into each other kind of pissed me off because really That's how incursions play out in Marvel's Secret Wars event the one that came out in 2015 Really? And I think that's pretty similar to how things are gonna be depicted in the upcoming Avengers Secret Wars film Well, not anymore. Don't know what to tell you. Yeah. Yeah, I think DC was trying to beat Marvel to the punch Although, you know to be fair DC did have the crisis on infinite Earth's story that came out, you know back in the what?

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which I think depicted things in a similar fashion. Exactly. It just harkens back to like the George Perez artwork of like the different earths and the ory of worlds representing the multiverse. So that was cool to see. But so the rest of it, not so much. Andy Muschietti insists that everything was meant to look weird when Barry was running because textures and lighting would look different when you're moving near light speed.

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but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't look like that. And why would we even need to see things from Barry's point of view anyway? It was just a cheap cop out. No, Andy Muschietti's just trying to cover his own ass. He's lying. That fool's lying big time. I agree. I agree. Now we've mentioned Crisis on Infinite Earths in its depiction of the different worlds. Of course, the Flash movie also borrowed from that comic regarding the deaths of Supergirl and the Flash. And it's definitely a nod.

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to the Flash of Two Earths storyline in the comics, which is pretty fitting considering that storyline also introduced the multiverse concept in comics. But the biggest inspiration for the film, obviously, was the Flashpoint storyline, with Barry going back in time to save his mom, with the older Batman strapping Barry to an electric chair during the lightning storm to regain his powers, with Barry creating an all-new universe in the end.

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I was hesitant about them adapting Flashpoint because you really need an established universe to do it well, but the filmmakers were able to circumvent that and cheat a little bit by digging into DC's cinematic past, and they came up with a remarkably good adaptation of the source material. Yeah, while I never read the Flashpoint comic book series, because I'm a Marvel fan, I don't read DC, I did really enjoy the animated adaptation that DC put out almost a decade ago.

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That storyline felt a little bit more apocalyptic and had cool elements like Thomas Wayne in there and stuff like that. But I have to say that yeah, this was a great adaptation with the filmmakers relying on cinematic alternate universes as opposed to the comic book multiverse. Right, yeah. It's a brilliant take. Why go with Thomas Wayne when you can go with Michael Keaton's Batman from the Batman 1989 movie? In the comic books, Michael Keaton doesn't exist like that.

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but in the movies, he does. And the actor is still alive and still capable of doing the role. So why not tap into that nostalgia? I mean, part of me would have also liked a direct adaptation of Flashpoint because it is a cool storyline, but I think Michael Keaton was a huge draw for non-comic book fans who may not be familiar with that story at all. One thing I think the filmmakers did better in this film than in any other time travel or multiverse movie or show was explain

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what the multiverse is and how it's created. The simple lesson with the spaghetti literally blew my mind and blew up, I think, every other explanation of time travel or alternate dimensions ever. Like Endgame could go fuck itself. No, Loki did it better. Loki... No! Yeah, it was better. No, because quantum mechanics has shown itself to be retro-causal, and it only makes sense that the matter that makes up your new universe...

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would not come from the same big bang as another universe because that universe still exists. So this new universe would need its own history going all the way back to the beginning. It's just fucking brilliant, I love it. Why isn't this film getting better reviews? Seriously. Cause it's maybe not as good as you think it is. But also, I don't think that they had a better explanation than Endgame or Loki. Did you not hear me say that quantum mechanics is retrocausal? Who gives a shit? That's just a theory. But it's a dope one.

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Sure. I think you're just jealous that Marvel didn't do it first and they have to do their stupid little like timeline split. No, because Marvel's method is a lot more clean, you know, with the Flash, all of a sudden you start getting into like Slider's territory where he's all of a sudden unable to find himself back in his home dimension. And so the whole thing becomes about dimension hopping. And, you know, you can skip all of that with Marvel's explanation. Yeah, like a bunch of losers. With time travel, you wouldn't be able to find your way back home. That's like the whole...

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risk and tragedy of it. I guess I would be able to find my way home. The Avengers were able to find their way home. They must be better heroes than the Flash. Tony Stark figured it out. Tony Stark could go fuck himself. Tony Stark had that cool ass, you know, reverse Mobius strip hologram that he was working on. Whereas Batman just had a plate of spaghetti. Come on, come on. Hashtag team spaghetti. Moschetti spaghetti. Exactly. Let's move on to the character breakdown. Starting of course with Barry Allen, the Flash.

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played by Ezra Miller. Say what you want about Ezra's comedic depiction of Barry Allen and how much it differs from the comics. The guy can act, and at least the performance was in keeping with the character's appearances in prior DCEU films. When news emerged regarding Ezra's erratic behavior, many wondered if the film could be reshot with a different actor, and after seeing the film it's pretty clear that the roles Ezra plays were written

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specifically for Ezra. No one else could have pulled off these roles as well as Ezra did. Yeah, they did great. Did you find it hard to move past the baggage of the actor? Not really. I'm not terrible at separating art from the artist. And nobody's perfect. Like, if that was the case, I wouldn't be watching anyone's films, I feel like. I do see a lot of people saying that they're skipping this movie because of Ezra's offset behavior. It is understandable.

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Not everyone needs to separate art from the artist. DC has gotten a lot of flak for charging forward with a Justice League film before introducing us to the characters in their own standalone origin movies like Marvel did with the Avengers. But we got the gist of Barry's tragic origin in the Justice League film. His mom was murdered, his innocent father is in prison for her death, and Barry is trying to prove his father's innocence. The situation carries a much more emotional impact in this film.

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as we see Barry admitting to his father that their plan to prove his innocence isn't going to work as they both reminisce over Barry's mom, Nora. Nora told Barry when she was younger that not every problem has a solution, a lesson he doesn't fully grasp until his decision to travel back in time to save his mom spirals out of control and threatens an entire universe he accidentally created. Faced with the choice to save his mom,

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or everyone else in that reality, Barry makes the selfless decision to allow his mom to be killed. Or at least mostly selfish because in that same scene he does decide that if he can't save his mom, he could at least help prove his father's innocence. Seemingly returning back to his universe and having his dad set free, Barry learns in the end that even a small change can have cascading consequences.

31:29
Yeah, I think one of the most interesting things about this movie, and I pointed this out to you after we first saw it, was that in this story, the hero does not win. He does not save the day. The hero actually loses in that what he was attempting to do does not really get accomplished. He fails in his attempt to save his mom. But what he gains is a lesson in coping with loss and abusing his time travel powers. I think that's fascinating to have a superhero movie in which a superhero loses.

31:59
You know, you can say that he gets the small victories of saying goodbye to his mom and saving his father from prison. But even his father, his original father, I think is still screwed. It's a different timeline. So he comes away with very little victories here. Right. Exactly. And I think it's one of the things that definitely makes the film interesting and unique from other superhero cinema that we've gotten. It's my favorite thing about the movie. Now, of course, he doesn't really learn that lesson in the end, which, of course, is necessary to shake things up in the DC cinematic universe.

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in preparation for their upcoming, hopefully better received films. But also, like who's to say they wouldn't have done the exact same thing in Barry's Place? The film is ultimately like you mentioned about loss and acceptance, and no matter how much someone matures, accepting the death of a loved one may be the hardest thing a human being can endure. So I don't fault the filmmakers for making the character somewhat static in that regard. Not fully static, I would say.

32:58
Barry learns that he can't fuck things up too much, although, yeah, again, like you said, even the smallest changes can have cascading consequences. But at least in the end, he didn't doom an entire planet like he did prior. Exactly, yeah. And I definitely think that going forward, he probably won't be messing with time again or risk his father not being set free. Or a version of his father. Yeah, true. Now regarding the costume, I really liked Barry's suit from Justice League and from early photos.

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I wasn't thrilled with this updated suit, but honestly, it wasn't an issue at all in the film, and the change was well explained in how it helped regulate the energy he generated when moving fast. And it was all worth it, honestly, to make the Flash Ring canon. That was badass. Yeah, the Flash Ring is okay. I always thought it was weird how the Flash had a ring, just like Green Lantern had a ring. But I like how when the Flash would wear the suit, his lightning would be yellow.

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Right, and when he wasn't wearing it, it was blue. Now, Ezra Miller, of course, also played the younger version of Barry, who also became Dark Flash by the end. And Ezra did an amazing job playing both roles. You know, whereas Barry Prime is very insecure and can't even talk to girls, young Barry is confident getting dates with Iris West, yet he's oblivious to how obnoxious he is.

34:19
thanks to the fact that he grew up with a father and a mother who coddled him and, you know, still does his laundry. He didn't have to grow up as fast as Barry Prime did, and it shows in Ezra's performance. Yeah, yeah, I mean, like the young Barry Allen also appears to be suffering from some kind of, like, iodine deficiency or something. He can be a chore to get through in the film because he's so fucking stupid, and, like, everything that comes out of his mouth is just the dumbest shit I've ever heard, and not necessarily in an endearing way.

34:49
But at the very least, I did chuckle a few times at his lines. I'm wondering how many people are willing to like tolerate his buffoonery in the course of watching the film. I suspect that, you know, the reason that this movie got a B Cinema score is likely due to young Barry. That's my guess. Perhaps that's probably a fair guess. But honestly, I got so many laughs out of the interactions between the two is very much like an odd couple kind of situation here. And even Barry.

35:18
you know, was fed up with young Barry's shit saying, you know, he was just being obnoxious and he thinks he's funny, but he's not. So it was always intended for the character to be that way. I think you could see the character as annoying or you could see him sort of like, I don't know, Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. That's sort of how I saw him. I enjoyed it. I was entertained. An interesting statement considering how Dumb and Dumber is a vastly different film or you would think would be a vastly different film than The Flash. And yet here we are.

35:47
bringing Jim Carrey up in this review. I mean, it was a comedy. You said it yourself. Now, even though we never got to see Barry Prime's origin story on screen, the idea to have him coach a newly powered young Barry was a worthwhile and often hilarious consolation. The film managed to balance a superhero learning all about their powers with a fully realized version of the same character at the same time, which I thought was great.

36:14
Yeah, it was a way to show original Barry's origin without showing his origin. Yeah, exactly. Now, because young Barry was raised by parents, particularly a mother who spoiled him, it made sense that at the end, he would fight to get what he wanted to make sure things went the way he wanted them to go without realizing they never could. Barry Prime understood this sooner because he lived an entire life with things not going his way. You know, he didn't have his parents. Ultimately.

36:44
Young Barry's selfishness and tenacity took him down a dark and distorted path where he became Dark Flash. But it was also Young Barry's selfishness that led to his most heroic action, sacrificing himself to save Barry Prime, because Young Barry didn't want anyone to die and was also horrified to see what he would become. The transition between goofball to dark figure was quite sudden, I thought.

37:11
It all largely took place during the course of the battle against the Kryptonians. And I guess you could say a lot of it was catalyzed by Young Barry's fear, kind of shocking some sense into him. But it was quite abrupt, I thought. It was like, oh, man, this guy's like serious all of a sudden. Well, yeah, he really struggled in that battle. And I mean, we don't really get to see the full transition from Young Barry to Dark Flash. We only get to see the the barest beginnings of it. There's a whole time travel aspect to this.

37:40
a huge chunk of time that we don't get to see young Barry age into this elderly dark flash. That's a valid point. What did you think of the dark flashes armor though? Like it was composed of like all this shrapnel that was getting launched into his body. But I'm surprised Barry didn't take the shrapnel out and then heal it. He just like left it in there and then like he's getting impaled by all this shit and he just kept it there like for some reason it was a very bizarre way to present his new costume.

38:09
Well, the first blade that went into his arm, pretty quickly he found out could be used as a weapon. So I think that's why he didn't remove it. He saw it as a tool to be used. Is that even practical though? Like, if a blade goes through my forearm, I don't think I'm gonna be able to slash anybody with that shit without causing greater damage to my forearm. I mean, maybe it's different if you're moving at super speed? Bullshit! What? I'm calling bullshit on that. Okay.

38:37
I mean, there also was like this clear, like, goopy crystalline stuff that appeared in the background when the Kryptonians were fighting the humans. I'm not sure if any of that got involved in his final look, but I was under the impression that it was. Now, Dark Flash's death is a paradox, much like Reverse Flash is in the comics. And while we don't get a lot of screen time with Dark Flash, Young Barry serves as a point of conflict for Barry Prime through a majority of the film.

39:06
So the movie never quite feels like it has a villain problem. In a way, the villain was there all along, and it was a fascinating approach to make the ultimate antagonist a creation and protégé of the protagonist. Yeah, that's another thing that makes this film unique. You know, whether or not you like the film or love the film or think it's okay, I think you have to at least concede that...

39:30
the ideas of the hero losing, the ideas of the villain being the hero himself, but not really having a true standout villain is something different that we've never seen before in the superhero genre really, and I think that's commendable. Totally, yeah, I agree. Moving on to Old Batman slash Old Bruce Wayne, Michael Keaton's return as Batman was probably the biggest draw for a lot of moviegoers, as I mentioned earlier.

39:53
I will admit though that I was a little apprehensive that his involvement would overshadow the Flash in a Flash film, and that turned out not to be an issue, thankfully, though I see some people expressing disappointment in how relatively small his role turned out to be. I thought it was fine. I thought he hit all of the major beats I wanted to see for the character, action and intellect-wise. Michael Kean is still a badass, and it was great to see him back in the role.

40:21
I liked his kind of like low key reserved take on the character. You know, he wasn't trying to still scenes or stand out. He just simply did what had to be done for the purposes of the story, which limited the size of his role. But I loved seeing him. Yeah, this was very much less of a you want to get nuts. Let's get nuts. And we're you want to get nuts. Let's get nuts. But it was still good. It was still badass. Yeah. Now, old Bruce Wayne in this film essentially acts as a

40:49
Thomas Wayne's surrogate from the Flashpoint storyline in the comics, though this film was able to add a cool multiversal spin on it for nostalgic effect, similar to what was done in Spider-Man No Way Home. We meet old Bruce Wayne, retired in this decrepit mansion, clearly purposeless, as he explains that Gotham no longer needs Batman. When Barry reveals that he also lost his parents,

41:13
It spurs Bruce to don the cowl once again to help bury and save the world from the alien threat. Bruce is, of course, no match for the Kryptonian army and sacrifices himself to help stop them. Which is hard to watch. Like, He-Man's Batman is near and dear to a lot of fans' hearts and it even took me a while to accept that, yes, this Batman who struggles against powerless freaks would in fact die at the hands of Zod's Kryptonian army.

41:42
But dying in battle is not a terrible way to say goodbye to the character. And the character himself seemed willing to go down in the fight. Were you saddened or surprised at all when Michael Keaton died? No, because time travel is the thing in this movie. So I knew that was going to be reversed. That being said, it's not necessarily time travel so much as like universe creation. So in reality, multiple versions of Michael Keaton's Batman died multiple ways. That's right. That's true.

42:11
Now of course we weren't originally supposed to say goodbye to Keaton's Batman, as he was going to shepherd in a new age of DC heroes going forward, like he had a major role in the Batgirl movie that was shelved, but in the end I do think he went out with a bang, and I was glad we got to see him one last time. I do kind of feel bad for Michael Keaton though, the actor. I, yeah, I think he's kind of pissed off about it. He didn't show up to the premiere of The Flash, even though he was invited. Well he is filming another movie, to my knowledge.

42:40
Thank goodness, I did not know that. It was really cool to see him kick some ass in a cowl that actually allowed him to turn his head in this movie. I was really looking forward to that and it did not disappoint. Moving on to Supergirl, AKA Kara Zor-El. She was played by Sasha Kaie. We get very little screen time with her. A lot of her best stuff was actually spoiled by the trailers, I felt. But what we did get of her was pretty good. I thought, you know, her performance had this

43:08
presence to it like disdain or anger. And she was definitely angry at humanity for locking her away for decades while she thought her cousin Kellele was alone. Young Barry tried to convince her that there are some good people in this world and while she didn't necessarily believe him initially, it wasn't long before she realized she would need help against Zod. And it turns out in this reality Kellele wasn't imbued with the codex, but she was.

43:34
and as Zod is able to defeat her and extract her DNA over and over again, that's essentially the end game. The bad guys win. And it's the main reason why both berries decide to go back in time. Supergirl is quite the tragic figure in this film, having spent most of her life imprisoned, only to learn shortly after that her baby cousin, whom she was charged with protecting, was killed by Zod, only to then be killed herself. Like Batman's death, it's tough to think about.

44:03
Yeah, and you know, she gets suitably pissed learning that her cousin died. And I thought she kicked all kinds of ass because of that in this movie. You know, despite the fact that she kept dying, I thought the film did a great job of showcasing her powers and abilities. I wonder if we're going to see Sasha Kaia again as the character in the upcoming Supergirl film that James Gunn has slated for the DCU. Oh, yeah. Woman of Tomorrow. Yeah. You know, I see a lot of people hoping that we get to see here in that film. And honestly, I wouldn't hate it.

44:30
You know, from what I hear, she would probably be a good fit for that storyline Supergirl. But I also think the studio will go with someone with more star power. So I wouldn't be surprised if this was the last we saw of Sasha Kaya as the character. She at the very least played kind of like a good analog to Henry Cavill's Superman. Yeah, I would agree. Her look is based on the Laura Lane Kent version of Supergirl, whose Superman's daughter in the Injustice universe had she not died.

44:57
And I think that's a pretty cool look for the character. That's not like the traditional Supergirl look. There was a version of Supergirl that had like a black outfit with like a large red S. Yeah, that's Sir L. OK, yeah, I thought she kind of looks similar to that as well, at least with like, you know, the hair and stuff. Yeah, I could see that. She's definitely based on Laura Lankent, though. But that does it for the character breakdown. Let's move into the story highlights.

45:28
After saving people from a hospital explosion, The Flash helps Batman and Wonder Woman stop a robbery before Barry Allen revisits his childhood home while speaking on the phone with his imprisoned father, Henry. There he remembers his mother, Nora, before Henry's wrongful imprisonment for Nora's murder. Overcome by his emotions, Barry accidentally travels back in time to earlier in the day and informs Bruce Wayne about it.

45:57
Barry decides during a conversation with his crush Iris West to go back to the day of Nora's death and prevent it from happening. What did you think of the Batfleck and Wonder Woman cameos? I loved Ben Affleck's cameos. I thought they were great. It was really cool to see Batman in action on that motorcycle. It was a really cool Batman chase sequence. I didn't love Wonder Woman's cameo. I feel like El Godot is always kind of like tongue-in-cheek smiling as the character because she knows, hey, it's a cameo.

46:26
Yeah, kind of similar to how she was in the Shazam film. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, if this is the last we see of the character, I would have hoped that she kind of played the role a little bit more seriously. But I guess not. This film does confirm that Zack Snyder's Justice League is canon because of Iris West and because, you know, Barry is telling Bruce about how he went back in time and Bruce Wayne's like, oh, like the battle in Russia. And Barry's like, no, that was only a second this time. I went back an entire day. Those things.

46:54
only happened in Zack Snyder's cut of the Justice League film. Does this flash film imply that Barry Allen's time traveling in Zack Snyder's Justice League was not in fact linear and did in fact create an alternate reality in which the Justice League were successful? Oh interesting, yeah I think you could argue that. But he only went back a second so nothing really changed. Well I mean except that in the alternate universe Steppenwolf destroyed the planet using the mother boxes. True, yes.

47:24
So a lot changed, basically. I mean, a little bit a lot. As a father with a newborn, were you horrified by the scenes with the newborns? Well, she wasn't born the time I first saw this movie, so I don't know how I would feel about it now. Seeing Barry put one of the babies into the microwave in order to protect them, I thought was a really insane solution to the problem at hand, I guess to save the baby from an explosion or something like that. I can't remember why he did it. It was fire.

47:54
It was quite an interesting action sequence, very much reminiscent of the Quicksilver scenes from the Fox X-Men films, but DC rips off Marvel, so I'm not surprised. Oh my gosh. You know what? And Marvel rips off the Matrix, so fuck off. I really did like the opening scene when he's running, how the background stretched, and then he just sped across that distance as he's traveling from Central City to Gotham City. That was a cool sequence. Now, as Barry returns to the present,

48:23
He's knocked out of the Speed Force by the Dark Flash and ends up in the alternate timeline where his mother is alive. He finds his past 18-year-old self and realizes he has arrived on the day he originally obtained his powers. Barry and his young counterpart go to the Central City Police Department where Barry forces Young Barry to be struck by lightning, giving Young Barry powers, but losing his own in the process.

48:53
The two of them see a broadcast by General Zod, who is preparing to invade Earth. One of my favorite jokes in the movie was when Barry's sitting down to have dinner with his parents and he's just loving it. Then he sees young Barry across the street in the window and he's like, oh, shit, I, uh, I got a shit outside. I liked the phasing jokes. I thought that was pretty well done.

49:18
And the effect where they like zoomed in to young Barry's atoms on his eyeball as he was going through the door was a neat effect. That was cool. It was also hilarious when Barry tried to face to the wall, but couldn't. And then he was running around like an idiot trying to use the speed force. It was funny. Now, Barry attempts to get in touch with the Justice League, but is unsuccessful as he realizes this timeline has no metahumans. The two travel to Wayne Manor, hoping to find Batman.

49:46
but instead find an alternate older version of Bruce Wayne who has retired from crime fighting. They convince Bruce to help them find Superman to aid in the fight against Zod and save the world. I gotta say, uh, the scene with young Barry's roommates was just fucking ridiculous. Like, what a bunch of weirdos. The concept of old Barry learning that he's not just in the past but in an alternate dimension using the fact that Eric Stoltz was initially cast as

50:16
in the Back to the Future movie series was such a quirky way to go about it. I thought it was brilliant. I mean, the film is pretty fun, like Back to the Future, so I didn't mind the call out. My favorite scene when the berries first enter the manor was when Barry Prime saw the paintings and he was like, Oh, you paint looks good. But it clearly doesn't. I know there's just something about the humor that I just found hilarious.

50:46
Maybe it's just me. Now, using a backdoor connection to NASA within the Batcave, Barry and Bruce are able to locate a Kryptonian pod that was reportedly discovered in Siberia. Upon arrival, they instead find Kara Zor-El, a female Kryptonian who later claims to be Superman's cousin. After rescuing Kara from the facility, Barry asks Bruce to help him get his powers back by recreating the original accident. The first attempt fails and nearly kills Barry.

51:15
prompting Kara to fly Barry into the storm and get struck by lightning, successfully reviving his powers. I loved the Siberia breakout scene, like every minute of it, like when they first got into the plane and then traveled there. The Batplane is just so much cooler in this film than it ever has been. Yeah, and even the little callouts were neat, like when Batman asked Ezra how much he weighed when he was placing the explosives to launch the lift that they were standing on up out of the missile silo.

51:43
Yeah, I would not have guessed that Ezra Miller was 180 pounds. He kind of bulked up for this role. Yeah, he looks like a scrawny twerp, but he had some muscle going. Kara and Bruce joined the two Berries to fight Zod's forces. During the battle with Zod, Kara learns that Zod intercepted the infant Superman's escape pod and killed him during a failed attempt to retrieve the codex needed to make the Kryptonian race. After Zod reveals the codex was within Kara, the two fight.

52:11
Zod overpowers and kills Kara, allowing him to obtain the codex from her blood. Meanwhile, Bruce also sacrifices himself in the battle. The two Berries travel back through time to save their companions, but are unable to change their fates. Barry realizes that they're unable to save them, but Young Barry keeps trying, repeatedly traveling back through time, but always failing. As Young Barry travels,

52:37
existence begins to spiral out of control and the universe begins to collide with other universes in the orrery of worlds, allowing Barry to see into the multiverse. You know what I would have done if I was Old Barry? Since Old Barry knows that Kryptonite is a thing because Batman used it in his fight against Superman, he should have waited for the World Engine to create Kryptonite, grabbed some, went back in time, and then used it to defeat Zod and his henchmen, saving the day.

53:07
Oh shit! Well, I mean, that's assuming that he knew the World Engine created Kryptonite, though. You're thinking BVS. Like, Barry didn't really come on the scene until Justice League. But he was friends with Bruce, so he must have known that Kryptonite was a thing, I think. Probably, but that doesn't mean he knew where it came from. He hangs out until after Kryptonite is made, and then learns where it comes from, you know, probably meets up with Lex Luthor or something like that. No, the Kryptonians would have killed everyone!

53:34
Lex Luthor never would have got his hands on the kryptonite in this universe. Well, maybe Barry is just not smart. I think you're not smart. You're trying to find a pothole when there isn't one. I guess not. Though I do commend you for trying. OK, so this is what I would have done. All right. I would have gone back in time. I would have taken the can of tomatoes out of the shopping cart, letting the original timeline take place, would have gone back into the future, would have learned from Batman where kryptonite came from, would have got the

54:03
put the can of tomatoes back into the shopping cart, letting the new timeline play out with Supergirl and Michael Keaton Batman, and then saved them in that timeline. Sounds like a riveting movie. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Now, eventually the Dark Flash, who originally knocked Barry out of the Speed Force, returns and is revealed to be an older version of young Barry, who still believes he can save this world from Zod and prevent the deaths of Bruce and Kara.

54:32
Dark Flash explains the causal loop paradox that led to his own creation, but grows angry when Barry reveals his own intention to reverse his actions by letting Nora die. Enraged, Dark Flash attempts to kill Barry, but young Barry steps in the way, sacrificing himself to save Barry while also causing Dark Flash to disappear. So it seems like Dark Flash disappeared because he killed his younger self, thereby negating his existence.

55:00
Yes. But wouldn't he have just created an alternate timeline in which his younger self died? Like, how was he able to affect his own personal past through his actions in that case? Well, they were in the time bubble. So things were a little bit different. You aren't creating new multiverses in the time bubble. You're creating them out of it. Sure. OK. Trust me. I know. What did you think of Nick Cage's Superman fighting against a giant spider? Like it was a spider. It was a Thanagarian snarebeast.

55:30
It was a giant fucking spider, just like Kevin Smith described. John Peters wanted to include a giant spider in his Superman lives script. Yeah, but you also remember the studio execs were like, can you call it something else besides a spider? He was like, Thanagarian Snare Beast. They're like, yeah, fucking go with that. Yeah, that was really cool. Honestly, that was like my favorite cameo out of the entire thing. I know a lot of people are going to love to see Christopher Reeve up there. But when I saw Nick Cage fighting the Thanagarian Snare Beast,

56:00
I was like, fuck yeah, Kevin Smith is gonna love this. Was it really Nicolas Cage that did that cameo? Yes, it was. They de-aged him horribly, but yeah, it was. Helen Slater's appearance took me by surprise too, considering that I don't believe Christopher Reeve was in the Supergirl movie. It's been a long time since I've seen the 80s Supergirl movie, but seeing that Superman and Supergirl stand side by side in that universe was actually pretty cool. Yeah, it was pretty heartwarming, honestly, because

56:29
You know, we know sadly that can never happen today. Superman wasn't in the Supergirl movie, but a photo of him was. So this is definitely the closest we'll ever get to seeing them together in live action. The Jay Garrick cameo is pretty cool, too. Yeah, that was cool. I was not expecting that. Is it weird, though, that considering all these multiversal cameos, Ezra Miller himself did a cameo in the Arrowverse. Right in the flash with Grant Gustin. Yeah. So I guess the implication there was that.

56:57
Barry had done some additional time traveling wherein he ended up in a random universe with Grant Gustin as the Flash. Well, I mean, in the show at that time, the Crisis on Infinite Earths event was going on, so it was pretty wacky all over the place in terms of the multiverse and characters appearing where they shouldn't. So the two Flashes meeting up could still be considered part of the multiversal continuity? Yeah, I think so. And honestly, I still think that that's where Ezra Miller got the name The Flash, was...

57:27
from Grant Gustin's version of the Flash. Interesting. Back to the movie. In the aftermath of the dark Flash disappearing, Barry undoes the changes he made to the timeline and comes to terms with his mother's death. However, he makes one minor change in the past, which creates new evidence, seemingly in the present day, that proves Henry's innocence. After helping to exonerate Henry, Barry is contacted by Bruce Wayne, whose appearance has again been altered as a result.

57:55
of Barry's timeline change. And of course, this is George Clooney's version. The scene where he says goodbye to his mom was very heartfelt. I thought it was really well done by Ezra Miller. I wasn't expecting so much emotion to come out of this movie, but the film has some real heart to it. Yeah, his mom just seemed like such a good person to like care for this complete stranger, you know? Yeah. And that just kind of made it all the more heartbreaking in that she maybe kind of realized that this guy looks like her son.

58:24
And it actually was. And this is the last time they're going to see each other. Now, when we saw the early screening, the film stopped right when Ezra Miller said, Who the fuck is this? Which I thought was a great ending. It was a fantastic ending. And you mentioned to me that you almost kind of wish the final cut would have ended there. And I don't disagree with you. I think that probably would have been a stronger ending. But part of me also feels like the George Clooney cameo was just

58:53
Also fucking awesome. Well, the reason I don't like the idea of a George Clooney cameo at the end is because by ending the movie on Ezra Miller saying, who the fuck is this? It creates anticipation in the audience as to who this new Bruce Wayne could be leading into the Brave and the Bold movie in the upcoming DCU. So it would make it feel more like the movie ended in James Gunn's DCU. But by having George Clooney at the end, just as a gag, we know now that likely

59:22
this movie does not end or connect anyway to the upcoming DCU. And I agree with you 100 percent. I highly doubt George Clooney will be the Batman in Brave and the Bold. So that means everything is going to change once again. And they sort of had the perfect opportunity to explain why there's a new Batman actor and Superman is a different actor and things like that, all the different changes coming from Guns Universe. And they didn't utilize the opportunity that they had. Unless, of course,

59:51
Like I said earlier, they bring back Chris O'Donnell to be Robin, and we have a George Cooney, Chris O'Donnell, Brave and the Bold movie. They should do that. Shut the fuck up. I mean, for a while, Damien's Batman was Dick Grayson. So maybe Chris O'Donnell comes back as Batman. I hate everything that's coming out of my mouth. Just no. In a post credit scene.

01:00:17
Barry tells a drunken Arthur Curry about his experiences traveling the multiverse. And I didn't really care for this post-credits scene. It was really just to let people know that, hey, the Aquaman movie is coming out later this year, and you're still gonna see Jason Momoa there. But again, that felt unnecessary considering George Clooney isn't going to be Batman. I don't know. There's all this talk of, like, the DCU and what exactly that is. You know, James Gunn says things like,

01:00:46
Blue Beetle will be the first DCU superhero, yet he also says things like Superman Legacy is going to be the first holy DCU film. Well, he also said that the Flash was going to be kind of like a bridge to the new DCU, if I remember correctly. I just wonder how or if they're going to explain any of this. Maybe we'll learn more in Aquaman. I highly doubt it. I just feel like Superman Legacy can't come soon enough because I'm ready for it. Here's what they should have done. They should have released...

01:01:15
Aquaman the Lost Kingdom prior to this flash movie. Yes. And then at the end of the flash, we don't see who the new Batman is, because, you know, they're still casting him. But when he meets up with Jason Momoa, a character who he thinks is Aquaman, turns out to be Lobo. That's what they should have done. Yeah, probably. You're right. They should have done that. They didn't, though. And I don't want it to sour my take on this film, because I do think that this film is great. I don't want to think about it in the larger context.

01:01:44
of all the uncertainty we're getting with the future DC universe. It should exist on its own. So I rate it on its own. And overall, I would say that The Flash is a humorous and heartfelt examination of loss and acceptance with strong lead performances and fun action. The whole thing is a celebration of DC's cinematic history. I loved it. And I'm giving it four and a half out of five stars, a fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

01:02:15
I think four and a half is a little bit high. I think I would go probably closer to four because I think it was about the same quality as Wonder Woman and Aquaman. But I did like the movie. I had a whole lot of fun with it. You could tell that Andy Muschietti loves this DC sandbox that he's playing in and made full use of it. And I really like how it's a movie where the hero loses but doesn't lose the lesson. Right. It's unique.

01:02:39
I also think it's definitely as good as films like A Wonder Woman, which we also gave four stars. I'm giving it that half-star bump just because of Andy Muschietti and how much, like I mentioned, of a love letter this is to DC and everything that's come before. It was a huge surprise. It was something I never thought I would see, and it was just so heartwarming to see it on screen as a DC fan.

01:03:03
But that does it for this review. Let us know what you thought about the movie by writing to us at dynamicduelpodcast.gmail.com or by visiting us on Instagram or Twitter. You could find links to all of our accounts by checking out our show notes or visiting our website at dynamicduel.com. And on our site, you could also find a link to our Patreon page where you can join our dynamic 2.0 tier and chat with us and fellow listeners. Our fantastic 4 tier, which gives you bonus content each month. Our X-Force tier that makes you an executive producer of this podcast.

01:03:33
or our newest tier that lets you join our Dynamike podcast network. If you can't join Patreon, you can still support the show by signing up for our e-newsletter also at dynamicduel.com. Or you could also rate the show on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Podchaser or on our website. In our next episode, as a tie in to The Flash, we will be reviewing 1989's Batman directed by Tim Burton.

01:03:59
with special guest Max Boyle from the Ready to Retro podcast. Yeah, we had him on for our Spider-Man review. Max has a great podcast talking about all things nostalgic. So we thought it would be a lot of fun to bring him on board for Batman 89. Look forward to that next week. But that does it for this episode. We want to give a big thanks to our executive producers. Ken Johnson, John Staroski, Zachary Hepburn, Dustin Belcom, Miggie Mathingian, Brandon Estregard, Nathaniel Wagner, Levi Yeaton, Nick Abato.

01:04:28
Austin Wissolowski, AJ Dunkerley, Scott Camacho, and Adam Spies for helping make this podcast possible. And we'll talk to you guys next week. Up up and away, true believers.