I am a Gen X-er through and through and am VERY protective of our pop culture legacy… one of our quintessential defining attributes.
Quoting films, the music, the life before the Internet, living in the moment…we connected transcendentally through this pre-Millennial way of life and it still underlies that unique quality
characterizing our navigating this Matrix Multiverse of uncharted territory we find ourselves in forging a voice smack dab in between the Boomers and Millennials.
A huge element comprising the fabric of our identity is woven into pop culture because of several factors: more disposable income, the allure and irony of the 1980s… being left to our own devices of self-discovery…the freedom of being a latch key generation having to sort it out on our own.. at this writing just saw on Instagram that we were the “feral generation”) riding BMX bikes until the street lights came on and our parents had to scream out to come home for dinner….or racing your siblings to the TV early Saturday morning for your bowl of favorite sugary cereal with epic cartoons… sneaking in a movie on HBO and all the MTV videos because your parents weren’t quite sure what all was on cable…
So, I am assuming the Easter Eggs and references in Andrés Muschietti (Gen X-er age 49) The Flash was for us. HIs first experience running as fast as he could with a dizzying sense of freedom is a perfect allegory for us running up and down the streets of our neighborhoods not having to be anywhere or do anything…running, roller skating, BMX biking, speed for the sense of liberation.
Unfortunately, in a marketing sense and from a “box office” view, we are a small portion of the demographic pie…Millennials are a little snarky towards our over sentimentality and attachment to our pop culture…Boomers are clueless and Gen Z’ers do try to dabble and may be fascinated by our antics, but were not there to live it.
The film is not a “success” YET (as neither were so many cult classics of today that were financial flops in the 80s) but I will surmise later my thoughts as to why. And though it has some definite shortcomings, it was sincere and not your typical “superhero” film by today’s standards…but it had heart and food for thought on the impending multiverse…and it has mother f-ing Michael Keaton!
So, let’s unpack my impression and explore its approach to theme and the subtext.
Yes, if you are just going for mindless entertainment, (as so many do nowadays..you may leave the theater with a ho hum attitude,) but if you like your heroes that have self-doubt and vulnerability, and homage to those that came before…The Flash is worth the watch.
Will it have sequels? I do not know where they can go from here as this following review has all the spoilers. Is this ending of an era? Or opening Pandora’s Box?
I do not know all of the Justice League Films; I do not know the comics or back stories or anything like that. I do not know of any of the scandal surrounding the lead actor, nor do I care to research it. I am looking at this individual piece of cinema from a perspective of the Zeitgeist and Generational Identity
I went to see this film on its own merit…and what it is about…
Not to nitpick action sequences..etc.
I found sincerity and subtext.
Perhaps I am having a generational bias…but this is very much a Gen X film. I also watched it several times and really ruminated on this and decided.. I like this film, a lot.
Here’s why I liked the Flash:
Soundtrack
Music is so integral to creating meaning between image and sound…esp. for us MTV generation. The Synesthesia really makes is FEEL that epic cinematic collective feeling we yearn for and expect from our pop culture.
The Raconteurs- yeah! Let’s team us with our parallel self and go kick ass to Jack White!
The Cult and Peter Cetera?! A Gen X amalgamation dream!
End credits: This Too Shall Pass
Wow..what a positive, upbeat and self-deprecating ending…and damn with all this negativity and bleakness in film out there …I’m sick of all the dark and brooding. This was sweet and I am not going to apologize for liking it. It made me feel good.
Color
Finally, a recent comic book outfit that looks like it and not dull subdued colors and dark like last The Batman…I want FUN.
Theme
As of this writing the festival’s next theme is Multiverse.
This topic in. my research is the only natural extension of Apocalypse and Revelation. Where do we go after the end? When worlds collide, time realities implode in on themselves.
I have been writing a personal project, Time Cougar with a key theme of the main character in conversation with other versions of her self and accepting that you can only be your own worst enemy. What is this paradox of the “great in between”?
The impossibility of undoing what you did in the past…even if you had physical access to the other strands of the multiverse, there are, as the film states “Inevitable Intersections of Fate.”
This idea of the Final Destination element.. while we believe we are masters of our destiny ..one can’t cheat fate, as Keaton describes so eloquently with his spaghetti theory. (Strand theory? close enough..) but the idea of even in parallel worlds the versions of ourselves magnetized to similar souls is compelling and aligns with Deja vu and what we experience in dreams or “non waking life”
So, while dabbling in the writing of Michio Kaku, I find this all sophisticated for a Hollywood superhero film and why I liked it and perhaps why others didn’t- who were expecting mindless entertainment and not wanting to (gasp! grasp pearls! THINK at a Hollywood film!)
Michael Keaton/Bruce Wayne as an older man
The chills of hearing Danny Elfman, the eye scan, the suit….the Batmobile..
But more than that…Bruce Wayne is not immortal like Diana. He is human. He has angst. This is condition is not reserved just for the young…in fact, to see that angst turn into ennui in the Batman is something I wish had a deeper dive as Bruce Wayne older is something people are dropping the ball on. Because I can tell you…the older you get, the angst doesn’t go away…it becomes more visceral. Is this an opportunity for another Keaton film about Bruce and his developing crisis of self or finding the tranquility we all seem to have been fooled into thinking we will automatically receive at middle and older age?
“The scars we have make us who we are, don’t let your tragedy define you”
It Had Heart
and a running Back to the Future joke…like he didn’t realize he fucked up the universe til he realized Eric Stoltz was Marty McFly! This would indeed be the unravelling of the fabric of time!
The reluctant and self-deprecating hero. The Janitor of the Justice League. Gen X is definitely the janitor generation having to clean up Boomer messes…
And the care Barry had for his past and future self. As much as you love your family, friends and mankind in general, you need that compassion for every version of yourself in the multiverse timeline, past present and future. This was really portrayed well by Ezra Miller.
I would like to meet future or past me and let them know it’s gonna be OK..and partner up and kick some ass to some Jack White…
Why I feel people didn’t like it:
The mainstream is a monolithic phenomenon and doesn’t know what to do with it..
It’s too complex..for a “DC” disposable hero film.
There is no real “villain..” yeah yeah Zod..but here the antagonist actually is his other self…
It’s hard to deal with real aspects of multiverse…that other versions of you are “Bizzarro” you…
and a frightening existential quandary that forces one to self-evaluate…..
A real question of quantum physics…what is that core element that defines YOU? The Self?
In a time of doom scrolling and escapism into cyber distractions, it can be uncomfortable to just sit with your own thoughts and cultivate the relationship with who you really are.
(However, a lot of people on You Tube are admitting to liking more the second viewing. I did too.)
And the problematic ethical question. Do we resurrect the past for homage? Nostalgia is a powerful thing. Both uplifting and melancholy. It can evoke may unpredictable variables.
Is it ethical to use a person’s likeness, who has passed, in films without their consent?
It was breathtaking to see Christopher Reeve on the big screen again and indeed I shed a tear…followed immediately feeling guilt…I thought to myself “was this right?” And though it fit the story (like Peter Cushing in Rogue One….) is this going to be a common practice as AI and CGI become more sophisticated? It does not seem right. I am not just talking about the legality of it… but is it right to use a person who has passed in a film? Hopefully the worlds colliding sequence in The Flash alternatively will put this to rest through the subtext acknowledging all these other versions exist and it is ok to let them go…..
But then where was Lynda Carter?! (and Val?)
And a final missed opportunity to not use John Williams Krypton’s Theme when Kara was speaking of her home…but Danny Elfman and Williams in one film, our heads might have exploded…
Conclusion
Where do go from here? Marvel and DC cross over? Quicksilver vs The Flash?
Will this be a film in the canon of superlative works like Superman 1978? It is a film of 2023. I think the point of this film is that films like Richard Donner’s masterpiece cannot fit into the present-day multiverse strand of 2023. And that is OK. But they will always be remembered and have their place in history, and the multiverse… Gen Xers love our nostalgia, but you don’t have to CGI our past or remake or reboot that which we hold dear. Just make films/ music etc. that have heart, are fun, sincere and remind us to be alive in the moment… and you got us.
