The Flash - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Flash



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I’ve been saying this for about a year now, but super hero fatigue is a thing. The 2010’s were the absolutely peak of Super hero cinematic films with Marvel leading the charge. That being said, DC certainly held its fair share of hits too, but recently we’ve been watching both major studios take some serious blows to the chest and stumbles, with The Flash being one of the most public and most salacious of the bunch. While the last few DC films have been sort of “meh, not bad”, DC/Warner have been scuttling and dismantling some of the projects in hopes to turn the ship around a bit (The Batgirl film, the massive reshoots and delays for Aquaman 2, and the very tepid response for James Gunn’s new DCU film Blue Beetle), but the film that stood out from the bunch was The Flash. Now, The Flash’s problems really weren’t due to the fact that fans were fading on super hero movies (though that does play a part), but rather due to the off screen antics of the film’s star Ezra Miller. I’m not going to go into details as everyone has google, but Ezra Miller single handedly nearly cost Warner brothers the ENTIRE movie (by all reports, Warner was considering scrapping the entire project, but too much money had been put into the film for them to really just write it off) by his many “issues” in the real world, and the film had to be delayed a full year just to see if they could salvage anything from it.

Again, with that in mind, The Flash actually isn’t that bad of a movie. In fact, there are large portions of it that are actually quite good. The entire time I was watching the 4K disc I was consciously reminding myself that this was not the train wreck I expected. Michael Keaton was back as Batman. The new Supergirl was not some gender swapped Super Man like some media outlets hypothesized, and the script wasn’t too bad. About the only thing that was really problematic in the entire movie was...well.. The Flash himself. Or to be more precise, Ezra Miller.

The film takes place with Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) trying to get his dad out of jail for supposedly killing his mother (the classic story line). He’s tried everything he could think of, and his last ditch effort with Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) turns out to be a dud, meaning his father Henry Allen (Ron Livingston) is going to stay in jail for the rest of his life for a murder he didn’t commit. Impetuous as always, The Flash does the only thing that he can think of doing. Run so fast that he reverses time so far that he comes out the day his mother dies and rights that wrong. Only thing is, he sorts of creates a paradox, altering time and events so badly that when he tries to return to the present a dark flash throws him out nearly a decade too early. Checking in on his family, Barry things that everything is OK. But unbekownst to him his meddling has altered life way more than just keeping his mother alive and his family intact. General Zod has arrived on Earth and there is no Superman there to stop him. No meta humans have ever been created, and the world is now at the mercy of a mad Kryptonian with no one to stop him.

Trying to put the pieces together, Barry and his decade younger self try to piece together as remnants of the Justice League as they possibly can, only for Older Barry to accidentally lose his powers, give his powers to his younger self, and find out that Batman is the only real “hero” left on this planet who can team up with him and try to take on Zod before it’s too late. Oh yeah, this is going to go well.

As I said, there are huge portions of this movie that I genuinely liked. The flashpoint paradox story has been told to death, but I love that they don’t focus on Zoom/Reverse Flash and him being the CAUSE of Nora Allen’s death, but rather rather on what Barry does to screw up the past. It takes a nice new spin on an age old Flash story and give us something fresh. Not only that, Seeing Michael Keaton as Batman once more (and to hear that Tim Burton Batman score in the background) was enough to make this 41 year old super hero nerd basically squeal like a 14 year old girl meeting Brad Pitt for the first time (or whoever the new hotness is. I’m too old to know who the new heart throb is). Keaton is absolutely having a BALL as Batman, and rightfully so. He’s been given a second chance to play one of his most iconic characters and he does NOT phone it in. Simultaneously, Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El is rather good. I bitterly was expecting them to pull the whole “woke” (sorry for the term, it’s the easiest thing I could think of to describe it) Mary Sue route, but she’s a genuinely great character with very good character development. Honestly I could see her playing Kara in future films if they let her. Also, those homages as the worlds collide for all of the Superman was awesome. The love and obvious respect for all of the decades and decades of past Supermen was blatantly obvious, and was just the perfect amount of nostalgia bait.

Now for the bad. The script sort of meanders and wanders a bit in the second half, and the final conclusion is sort half baked. Then there’s the CGI. We’ve been hearing for over a year that the CGI crews for these super hero movies are over worked and under payed, and I think I believe it. The movie just felt stretched thin with so many CGI scenes looking like they came from 15 years ago or so rather than 2023. Some of it (like the world between worlds) looked like it might have been intentional, but large sections of the CGI in the film looked very rubbery and almost like they rushed it (most likely reshoots and retweaks at the last moment). Then there’s the largest negative of all. Ezra Miller. Miller was always kind of cringey in his performances in the Justice League film, but an entire movie focusing on him, and not only him, but TWO hims. wow, I literally felt like screaming at the TV every time he was on screen. It sounds really bad, but a movie about The Flash really felt like it would have been a much better movie if it didn’t have The Flash in it. Yes that’s bad, and it shouldn’t be, but Ezra’s performance was absolutely ADHD excruciating, and not in a good way. I don’t know how to describe it any other way but “please, for the love of all that’s holy, put anyone but Ezra Miller in this movie”.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, some strong language and partial nudity




4K Video: Video:

The 1.90:1 framed HEVC 4K UHD disc is quite superb, with an amazing visual aesthetic that is only marred by weak CGI. The Flash was filmed with 4.5K resolution Arri Alexa cameras (with a few scenes captured at 8K with Red Ranger Monstro cameras) and given a native 4K master for this release. Sadly there is no Blu-ray in the set to compare it to, but this 4K disc is absolutely SUPERB, by and far the best feature of this release. This is an utterly beautiful transfer with razor sharp digital detail and a lovely neon color grading that really pops more than any of the other DCEU films (which tend to be much more muted thanks to Zack Snyders handiwork). However, there is some weakness to all of this great resolution. We’re not privy to seeing the rubbery look of the Flash suit, as well as some obviously crummy CGI that stands out like a sore thumb against the crisp real world. The HDR application gives a very rich and robust color tone to all of the primaries though, and black levels are just SOOOOOOOOO incredibly deep and inky. This is a perfect transfer that shows no signs of major artifacting, and I was looking for it to. All in all, this is an amazing disc..








Audio:

Given a Dolby Atmos track, I noticed that we had a volume level issue similar to what we see in some of the Marvel/Disney releases. I had to bump the track a good 8-10 DB’s from my normal settings to get it to references levels, but once AT reference levels the track sounds superb. Bass is powerful and deep, and the surrounds get some AMAZING use with all of Barry’s lightning runs, or Batman’s batplane screaming by overhead. Dialog is crystal clear as usual, and the dynamic range is simply massive. Whispers are heard lightly one moment, only for an explosion or blast of lightning to rip your ears out the next second. Overheads are used a LOT in this mix, giving the entire last 45 minute battle an absolutely encompassing feel that is eerie to listen to. There were a few times I felt the bass could have been a bit more punchy, and the dialog a TAD more clear, but those are tiny nipticks for an otherwise stellar mix.







Extras:

• "The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus" podcast – Six-part original scripted audio series featuring Max Greenfield as The Flash
• The Flash: Escape the Midnight Circus Behind the Scenes
• Deleted Scenes
• Saving Supergirl – featurette
• The Bat Chase – featurette
• Battling Zod – featurette
• Fighting Dark Flash – featurette
• The Flash: The Saga of the Scarlett Speedster – featurette (Amazon digital exclusive)
• Making the Flash: Worlds Collide – featurette
• Let's Get Nuts: Batman Returns, Again – featurette
• Supergirl: Last Daughter of Krypton – featurette
• Flashpoint: Introducing the Multiverse – featurette

Final Score: ​

The Flash is not bad. Ezra Miller makes you want to pull your own teeth out, but all of the other characters in it made for a much better watch than I initially anticipated. Michael Keaton alone was worth the price of admission, and Sasha Calle was a hugely pleasant surprise. I really almost wish that the DCEU was ending just because I would have loved to have seen them in future films. That being said, I’m not sad to see Ezra Miller’s tenure as The Flash come to an end, as I’ve always felt him the weakest link in all of the DCEU super heroes. The 4K UHD looks and sounds great, with some awesome extras, but there is one tiny nitpick that I have to point out. The lack of a Blu-ray included to make this a combo pack. I know Warner has done this for a few catalog titles, but this is the first time I can think of them taking a major blockbuster releasing and making it a single disc film. Paramount has done this for a while and it sort of chaps my bum, and Warner doing the same thing is a nerdy collector’s edition nitpick for me personally. Again, this isn’t the end of the world, but I had to get on my soap box and gripe for a second. Otherwise, this was actually a fun watch of a rather flawed film.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston
Directed by: Andy Muschietti
Written by: Christian Hodson, John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein
Aspect Ratio: 1.90:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core) English, French, Spanish DD 5.1, Italian Atmos
Subtitles: English SDH, Latin Spanish, Parisian French, Canadian French, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 144 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 28th, 2023

Recommendation: Fun Watch

 

[Travis Ballstadt]

Is this 1.90:1 all the way through, or VAR?

 

[Michael Scott]

Is this 1.90:1 all the way through, or VAR?

fixed aspect ratio. no VAR