I can’t believe I actually want to see this movie now. DC revealed that The Flash movie, the very film NO ONE wanted to go see, will have both Ben Affleck AND Michael Keaton reprise their roles as Batman, stoking the hype and reservation for it up to 100.
DC and Warner Bros. Discovery really are filled with a bunch of slimy, grimy, dirty, conmen.
Okay, I’m joking (mostly), but I can’t believe they pulled out the ultimate hype card with this movie of all the upcoming DC films and shows. Like I said, The Flash’s Super Bowl trailer revealed that both Ben Affleck and the legend himself, Michael Keaton, will be reprising their roles as the Caped Crusader in The Flash as Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen tries to undo some sort of time jumping disaster he caused.
Essentially, it’s Spider-Man: No Way Home with a horrible lead actor, none of the secrecy or shock surrounding the return of the old iterations of the legacy characters (i.e.: Michael Keaton’s Batman), and the definitive knowledge that this movie will have absolutely no bearing on the new DC projects, even if it’s a massive success.
Since DC has attached itself to James Gunn and his vision for the characters, there’s no possible chance that the DCEU, which this movie is still a part of, makes a miraculous comeback and eclipses the projects that Gunn, Matt Reaves (The Batman director) and Todd Philips (Joker director) all have in development.
As we’ve seen with Marvel Phase 4, an endless, seemingly disconnected stream of projects can and will wear down and the most devoted of audiences. And that’s exactly what will happen if somehow this movie is fantastic and inspires the Warner Bros. Discovery heads to order sequels, further clouding the “official” DC on-screen cannon and continuity.
Nevertheless, I can’t hold in my excitement anymore: MICHAEL KEATON IS BACK AS BATMAN!!!!!!!
(Warner Bros. Discovery/DC-The Flash-Official Trailer)
I know he was supposed to be in the cancelled Batgirl film, but actually seeing him back on the big screen as his version of Bruce Wayne nearly brought a tear to my eye. I LOVE Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992) as they are just so different and fantastical to the version of Batman we see today, such as Christian Bale’s Batman, Robert Pattison’s Batman, and Ben Affleck’s Batman.
Moreover, seeing how Val Kilmer and George Clooney’s abomination takes (no offense, but those movies and performances are just horrible) on the character came immediately after Keaton’s, one can put how great Michael Keaton was as Batman against those that came before and after him.
Sure, there’s still the darker tone in Keaton’s Dark Knight that most Batman takes have today (Keaton and director Tim Burton pretty much introduced the grittier Dark Knight to film audiences), but there’s also the classic comic-book fantastical element to his Batman/Bruce Wayne that very few have been able to replicate.
In my opinion, Keaton is still the best Bruce Wayne and a Top-3 Batman of all-time, while Jack Nicholson’s Joker is the third best iteration of the character, Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman is a Top-2 take on the character, and Danny DeVito’s Penguin still reigns supreme. So, in other words, I can’t wait to see him as Batman on-screen again.
The only thing that makes me a little upset with this return is that it’s coming in this movie. I’m sorry about being so cruel and critical, but this trailer cemented how bad Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen/The Flash really is. He’s way too over the top quirky and his bad one-liners, which somehow survived the years-long script rewrites and reshoots, are still obnoxiously annoying.
Plus, I’m having a really tough time looking past the real-life version of Ezra Miller, considering it was only a few months ago where he was a literal fugitive of the law for very bad things (I’ll let you look into that), to get super invested into the fate of The Flash and most of the characters of this movie.
Still, there were some other interesting reveals in the trailer, such as the return of General Zod and the introduction of a much darker/depressed Supergirl (also, why doesn’t she have blonde hair?), which should hopefully make this movie a little better than what I’m expecting it to be.
(Warner Bros. Discovery/DC-The Flash-Official Trailer)
All in all, this movie really has the potential of either being a tremendous flop of epic proportions, or it could be one of the greatest DC-inspired films of all-time. And I’m not saying that lightly or frivolously.
That’s just how unpredictable this trailer made me feel about this movie. I guess we’ll find out this summer.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Warner Bros. Discovery/DC) (The Flash – Official Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Warner Bros. Discovery/DC) (The Flash – Official Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 2: (Warner Bros. Discovery/DC) (The Flash – Official Trailer – YouTube)
