The Flash (2023)

The Flash (2023)

7/10

Starring

Ezra Miller

Sasha Calle

Michael Shannon

Michael Keaton

 

Directed by Andy Muschietti

 

This is the thirteenth movie in the DCEU, and it’s one of my favorites. I’ll admit, though, the way they wrote eighteen-year-old Barry Allen was awful. I was eighteen once, and I know I didn’t act like a five-year-old. That aside, with the cameos, Supergirl, and my favorite Batman, Michael Keaton, the movie was a joyride that felt too good to end.

I like how they’ve used this movie as a soft reboot for the DCEU, setting up the new DCU now overseen by James Gunn.

From the first few minutes, you can tell many hands worked on this script, with the way the movie moves up and down. But once Michael Keaton’s Batman entered the mix, everything stabilized, and the fun began.

The plot centers on Barry’s desire to save his mother. In the comics, this created the Flashpoint storyline, and the movie takes a similar approach. Barry discovers he can go back in time if he runs fast enough, so he decides to make a small change to prevent his father from going to the shops and returning to find his mother murdered. After he makes the change, someone in the Speed Force pushes him out on the day he got his powers.

Now in the past, Barry decides to visit his parents and runs into his eighteen-year-old self. After much effort convincing his younger self of what happened, he persuades him to get struck by lightning to gain his powers. The consequence, however, is that Barry loses his own powers.

Trapped in the past, he learns that Zod has arrived on Earth to destroy it. Barry’s actions seem to have caused significant changes to the world. He seeks help from Bruce Wayne (Batman), but this Batman (Keaton) isn’t the same as his original Batman (Ben Affleck). To make things worse, this Batman hasn’t even heard of Superman—the one person Barry knows can stop Zod.

Now they need to find Superman and hope they can come together to save Earth, while Barry works to understand and fix the damage he’s caused.

You will like a world where there is no Superman and Batman himself seems lost to the fact that he is supposed to be connected to someone like that.

I really enjoyed this movie once the story started to fall into place. I hope the new DCU that emerges from this is more coherent and fun than the earlier films.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

 

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

 

 5/10

 

Starring the voices of

Shameik Moore

Hailee Steinfeld

Brian Tyree Henry

Luna Lauren Vélez

Jake Johnson

 

Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson

 

The rating for this movie is high, with many thinking it’s the best thing since sliced bread. I don’t think so. I got tired halfway through, feeling like I’d seen all this before—not in Spider-Man form, but in other time-traveling and multiverse movies. The whole “I want everything to remain the way it always has been” mindset, and the willingness to switch sides from being a good guy to doing whatever it takes to stop another good guy from doing what feels right, felt overused. It was like watching every superhero or good guy versus his own kind movie rolled into one.

There’s always the one who believes their path will be different, so they challenge the norm. Then there are others—some picking sides with the status quo, others cheering for the disruptor. Heroes fighting heroes isn’t new, and neither is heroes fighting villains, but if you’re reusing the same old plots, it just feels stale. I love when movies put a fresh spin on familiar ideas, not when they just replay the same game where we all know the ending.

This multiverse craze is getting old. Both DC and Marvel are neck-deep in it, and honestly, I feel like I’ve seen it all before. So, when people rave about the idea of someone traveling to another dimension and stepping in as a replacement father for their counterpart’s family after their counterpart dies, I just sighed.

That said, the animation in this movie is stunning, as you’d expect. The way they weave all the Spider-Men from different universes together is something I always look forward to.

The story starts with Gwen Stacy, from the first movie, joining the multiverse team. Then we’re introduced to the new villain hunting Miles Morales. I call him Spots, and his ability to create portals lets him move around freely. He’s determined to get stronger and make Miles’s life miserable, blaming him for the circumstances that led to his own situation.

Gwen comes back to Miles, but we soon find out she’s on a mission to ensure that everything stays on course and the Spider-Men across the Spider-Verse remain intact.

When Miles learns about the plans these Spider-Verse variants have for his future, he revolts, trying to break free and protect himself and his family from a future filled with pain.

Not an amazing animation, but watchable if you have some free time and want to see something you and the children can watch on a weekend.

Elemental (2023)

 

Elemental (2023)

 

6/10

 

Starring the voices of

Leah Lewis

Mamoudou Athie

Ronnie del Carmen

Shila Ommi

 

Directed by Peter Sohn

 

It’s easy to see why this movie didn’t break the bank compared to other Pixar films. Watching it, I felt a huge disconnect between myself and the characters. The animation is the same top-notch quality you’d expect from Pixar, but the story is just so boring at the start. Twenty minutes in, with Ember struggling to control her temper and chasing after the city official, I was already yawning.

This is Pixar’s twenty-seventh animated film, set in a world inhabited by anthropomorphic elements of nature. The movie is a romantic comedy about two crossed elements—water and fire—falling in love. They meet in a convenience store owned by Mr. Lumen, a fire element who runs the store with his daughter, Ember, while his wife reads the future for lovers in their apartment upstairs. The family has one major issue: Ember struggles to keep her emotions in check. Early on, we see her flare up when people start getting on her nerves.

How did the two meet?

Well, Wade, a water-element city inspector, gets mistakenly sucked into their plumbing and discovers numerous infractions that could lead to the store being shut down.

The connection between the two characters—Wade, who can’t stop his tears from falling, and Ember, who struggles to control her fiery anger—starts when they team up to save the store. The Lumen family’s shop is getting flooded, and the source of the flood is unknown. Wade and Ember journey above the city in search of the source, hoping to stop it and keep the store open.

Then the movie takes a sharp turn into full-blown romance. We watch as Wade and Ember fall in love and try to make their relationship work while keeping it hidden from Papa and Mama Lumen.

This switch to romance is where I started wondering how this movie could be appealing enough to children for them to want to watch it again. There’s a lack of clarity about the audience. Is this movie meant for kids to enjoy the stunning animation, or for adults to see a love story about two characters who seemingly shouldn’t be attracted to each other?

I think the idea for this movie might have felt fresh when it was conceived, but times have changed. Studios need to cut costs or adapt to the current trends. With blockbuster movies being released almost every week, films like this won’t succeed unless there’s something truly catchy to draw in the right audience and make them want to watch it repeatedly. The days when Pixar could rely solely on its name to make a hit are gone.