The long-suffering solo film about the superhero Flash has been digitally released online. About why Andy Muschietti’s film strives with all its might toward the future but ends up running in place—read our review.

After the events of ‘Justice League’, Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), aka The Flash, like all superheroes, leads a double life: de jure he works as a forensic scientist in a lab, trying to get his father out of prison, and de facto he occasionally saves people. Well, more precisely, the saving is done by Batman (Ben Affleck), Superman, and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), while Barry is always the backup. But he handles his role successfully.

With such a busy life, where there isn’t even time for a snack, Barry never stops thinking about the tragedy that happened to him many years ago when he was a child. Back then, his mother was killed by an unknown criminal while no one was home. By a tragic twist of fate, Barry’s father was accused of murdering his wife and was locked up in prison for 20 long years. Since then, The Flash has lived alone, and during that time, he was struck by lightning, turning him into the fastest man on the planet (or, in the whole universe).

It was this ability that helped Barry one fine day realize that he could not only outrun anyone but also travel through time. Then he decides to run back 20 years, save his mother, and change his fate. But upon returning, The Flash realizes that his own universe is no longer the same. Batman is different, and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) doesn’t even exist.

One might say that the new ‘The Flash’ was released by Warner bosses hot on the heels of Disney’s hit ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, but two years have already passed since its theatrical release. During that time, ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ thundered across screens, and two parts of the ‘Spider-Verse’ flashed brightly. These films thoroughly exploited the main tropes of the multiverse, and they no longer feel fresh or new. You quickly get used to the good stuff.

In a sense, ‘The Flash’ simply didn’t make it to the prize distribution because at WB they first couldn’t decide who to appoint as director, then the release of the not-yet-filmed movie was constantly postponed, and there were a bunch of other mishaps (including Ezra Miller’s antics). This entire production nightmare severely impacted the quality of the film, with the main criticisms being the secondary nature of the plot and the lack of novelty.

Moreover, the solo film about The Flash (long-awaited, after all) turned out to be heavily overloaded. Into the truly touching story of time travel to save his family, and himself, new characters constantly burst in, not allowing us to properly focus on Barry Allen, the, for a minute, main character of the film, who, moreover, has to play both for himself and for that other guy (but Ezra tries very hard—it shows).

The superhero battles escalate, Supergirl (Sasha Calle) first refuses to save earthlings and then suddenly agrees, Batman takes charge, and General Zod (Michael Shannon) tries again to destroy Earth, but looks extremely tired while doing so.

And the literally resurrected DCEU heroes from the past, who were crammed into the film for mere seconds (including those who nominally existed only on paper), push Barry’s story somewhere to the sidelines. And besides it, there’s generally nothing else in the film to rely on, since the quite typical confrontations with aliens look sluggish, devoid of a creative spark, absolutely formulaic, and moreover, poorly drawn in places.

The only one to be happy for in this plasticky world, oddly enough, is Michael Keaton. In ‘The Flash’, he is literally a good-old-days hero, having lost not a gram of his charisma and talent. Yes, he too is no longer young, and some wrinkles can no longer be hidden under the bat-mask, but the fire in his eyes still burns, he acts with his face and seems to be the only one enjoying the process, stealing attention from the main characters. You can tell he missed the bat-cave.

In the end, ‘The Flash’ does nothing to save superheroics, but on the contrary, drives it even further into a state of lethargic sleep, merely performing the routine function of yet another meaningless solo film about a metahuman who may have no future. No matter how much Barry strives to get there, it’s just running in place.