The Flash

It’s been said that speed kills.

However, in the premise of “The Flash,” speed unkills or speed hopes to undo a killing.

In the latest DC superhero pic, The Flash / Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) realizes he can go back in time by running faster than the speed of light. So the speedster goes back to prevent his mother from being murdered and his father from being falsely accused.

But his time traveling adventure instead creates a very bleak world that’s facing annihilation without superheroes to protect innocent lives.

“The Flash” was loosely adapted from the 2011 comic book story Flashpoint, in which Barry accidentally creates another reality where the DC Universe is totally different, leading him on a chase to restore his own timeline before it’s too late.

In the movie, Barry teams up with an alternate timeline versions of himself and versions of Batman along the way, including Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton—-who hasn’t played the character since 1991.

“If you were to go into the past, you have no idea what the consequences would be,” Bruce Wayne (Affleck) tells the speedster.

Barry then replies: “Bruce, I could fix things.”

But Bruce rebukes him by saying: “You could also destroy everything.”

Better than recent Warner Bros. DC superhero films such as “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and “Black Adam,” “The Flash” is a fun, funny, entertaining, emotional, adventurous movie with lots of surprises and cool cameos.

Newcomer Sasha Calle stars as Supergirl, while Michael Shannon reprises his role of General Zod from the 2013 feature “Man of Steel.”

The film strongly promotes loving your parents, especially your mother, standing up against evil, bravery, doing what is right although it’s difficult and painful, sacrifice and acts of selflessness. Fortunately, “The Flash” doesn’t feature woke content, but it’s tainted by the use of one “f” word, several strong obscenities, a brief non-sexual partial nudity scene that’s portrayed as a funny sequence.

In addition, it’s not a really family friendly movie due to lots of action violence, which features a heavy body count, including some graphic impalings, so strong caution is advised for younger moviegoers.

The Flash director Andy Muschietti, whose previous directing credits were the horror movies “It” and “Mama,” recently told i09: that the “weird” look of the film’s CGI was on purpose.

The one “baby shower” scene in particular, which occurs near the beginning of the movie, is creative and funny. The scene shows The Flash saving babies from a nursery as a building begins to collapse around him, but everything is distorted in terms of lights and textures in order to give the speedster’s ‘waterworld’ point of view, according to Muschietti.

Arguably, the best part of “The Flash” is Michael Keaton as seeing him as Batman once again brought back nostalgia from the 1980s and 1990s. Without question, Keaton still has it as the caped crusader, and he really owns the character.

With a $220 million budget, “The Flash” is being heavily counted on by DC to improve its standing after the tepid box office showing of “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and “Black Adam,” but the film is expected to gross approximately $60 million for the three-day Father’s Day weekend, which is lower than projections, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The studio’s leadership has been hyping “The Flash” for months, with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav proclaiming it is the greatest superhero movie he’s ever seen in late April during CinemaCon.

Many critics don’t agree with the assessment as the pic currently has a 67 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes. Even worse, audiences gave the movie a mediocre B CinemaScore, The Hollywood Reporter noted.

Box office pundits are divided as to whether Miller’s off-screen woes are impacting the film’s performance. Miller was arrested multiple times in 2022 and was the subject of several controversies, culminating in the actor issuing a statement in August 2022 apologizing for his behavior and saying he would receive help for “complex mental health issues.”

Although it doesn’t feature clear spiritual content, “The Flash” touches on the correlation between a person’s free will and destiny as well as how hurts from the past should not be tampered with because they shape people.

At one point, Affleck’s Bruce Wayne tells Barry: “These scars we have make us who we are. We’re not meant to fix them.”

In another scene, Barry’s mother, Nora Allen (Maribel Verdú), tells him, “Not every problem has a solution.”

For Christians, there is someone who can heal our scars and every sin problem has a solution. His name is Jesus.

“if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” —John 8:36

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” —Galatians 5:1

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” —2 Corinthians 5:17

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners.” —Isaiah 61:1

“The Flash” is the latest film to explore the multiverse and time travel (see “Avengers: Endgame,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” and “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”

“The Flash” maybe the best superhero film to a studio movie executive, but media-wise parents should not dash hastily with their young children to their local cineplex to see the superquick hero break the time barrier.

CONTENT WATCH: “The Flash” is rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some strong language and partial nudity. There is some strong language, including several uses of s—t, d—k and one f—k. God’s name is abused a few times. There is an extended non-sexual partial nudity, funny scene when younger Barry discovers that using his superspeed will result in his clothes coming off, causing him to be naked in public spaces. He has to cover his privates, respectively, with a tambourine and a frying pan. There’s implied sex between a female college student and her boyfriend as they get out of a bed one morning in the apartment of Barry’s doppelganger. Several fight scenes involve guns, blades, fists involving stabbing and slitting of throats. A bullet passes through a superhero’s leg, in close-up bloody detail and in a sequence a man’s wound is stitched up. Although it’s not shown, it’s assumed that many people die from Zod’s lethal alien technology and weaponry. A superhero is shown in a drunken stupor as he stumbles face down in a puddle.

• Violence: Very Heavy
• Profane language: Heavy
• Vulgar/Crude language: Heavy
• Drugs/Alcohol: Moderate
• Nudity: Mild
• Sex: Mild
• Occult: None
• Wokeism: Use and promotion of Ezra Miller as The Flash

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.

• Positive
• Neutral
• Negative
• Critics