--- title: "The Flash" year: 2023 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-flash" fi1m_id: "the-flash" imdb_id: "tt0439572" tmdb_id: 298618 wikidata_id: "Q23562553" fi1m_score: 50 critics_score: 53 critics_reviews: 15 published: "2026-09-10" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:41.543244+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Flash (2023) Directed by Andy Muschietti · 2h 24m · MPA PG-13 · Action, Science Fiction, Adventure ## Identity The Flash - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-flash - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-flash - **IMDb ID:** tt0439572 - **TMDB ID:** 298618 - **Wikidata ID:** Q23562553 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0439572/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/298618, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23562553 **Fi1m score: 50** · Critics 53 from 15 reviews *In a sentence:* Barry runs back in time to fix one afternoon and the studio uses the trip to clear out its attic > Ezra Miller’s two Barrys and Michael Keaton’s grumpy Bruce Wayne carry a bright, funny first hour about a son who wants his mother back. Then the callbacks and the computer effects arrive together and the film forgets whose story it was telling. ## Synopsis Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is the Flash, and he can run faster than time. His mother Nora (Maribel Verdú) was killed when he was a boy and his father Henry (Ron Livingston) has been in prison for it ever since. When Barry works out that he could go back and change one small thing, he does, and returns to a present he does not recognise. There is a second, younger Barry who has never known loss, a Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) who gave up being Batman years ago, and no Superman waiting when General Zod (Michael Shannon) arrives in the sky. Kiersey Clemons plays Iris West and Sasha Calle plays Kara Zor-El, a prisoner the two Barrys go looking for. ## Review Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) can run faster than time, and Christina Hodson’s screenplay gives him one use for it. His mother Nora (Maribel Verdú) was killed when he was a boy. His father Henry (Ron Livingston) has been in prison for it ever since. Barry goes back to change one small thing and comes home to a second, younger Barry, a Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) who put the suit away years ago, no Superman, and General Zod (Michael Shannon) arriving regardless. The first hour of *The Flash* is a comedy about a man meeting himself. The second keeps stopping to point at things the studio owns, and it is longer. Miller is the reason the comedy works. The older Barry keeps his hands in his pockets and talks fast to get the talking over with; the younger one sprawls, interrupts, and is delighted by everything, himself included. Paul Machliss and Jason Ballantine cut their scenes like a sitcom, holding on the face that has just been insulted. A sequence in which the older Barry tries to teach the younger one to run, with predictable results for his clothes, is the loosest and funniest thing here. The scenes with Nora are the film’s quiet centre. A kitchen, a shopping list, a mother who has not yet noticed the time. Verdú plays her plainly, and Miller stops twitching the moment she is on screen. We were moved by the first of these scenes, more than we expected from a film that opens with a collapsing hospital, and the reason is that Benjamin Wallfisch’s score does almost nothing: a few notes, then the kitchen. Livingston, on a prison telephone, is patient and beaten in a way the film around him never quite deserves. Keaton earns his billing. Paul D. Austerberry’s Wayne Manor is a house in which nobody has opened the curtains for a decade, and Keaton plays a man who has been perfectly happy about that. When he finally puts the suit back on, Alexandra Byrne has kept it heavy and armoured so that he moves like someone who remembers the weight, and Wallfisch quotes the theme from Keaton’s own Batman films. It is nostalgia, plainly, and we would be lying if we said it did not land. The effects are poor, and the film cannot stop using them. It opens with a hospital wing falling out of the sky while Barry collects the infants dropping from it, and the infants are rendered like shop dolls in a wind tunnel. The space Barry runs through to travel in time is a brown bowl of smeared figures, and Henry Braham’s camera is sent back into it again and again. Zod lands in a flat desert under a grey sky that ends before the horizon does. Shannon gives a slower, sadder version of his *Man of Steel* performance, and Antje Traue, as Faora-Ul, gets less than that. Sasha Calle has a strong, angry face as Kara Zor-El, and about ten minutes to use it before the fighting begins. The second half takes turns we will not describe. What we can say is that the story about a son and his mother gets set down, and a different film picks up, built out of things the studio has made or nearly made. The first of these got a laugh from us. By the third we were bored, and by the fifth we were angry, because the film had spent an hour earning our goodwill and was now spending it on a clip show. At 144 minutes there is room for all of it. Andy Muschietti kept a gang of children in focus for the length of *It*; here he cannot keep hold of two Barrys. Most critics are split down the middle on this one and so are we. If Miller’s twitchy, likeable Barry is your kind of company, the first hour is an evening’s worth of comedy. The film will not tell you where it stops being about his mother, but you will feel the moment, and after it we would not blame anyone for going to put the kettle on. *Fi1m score 50, published 10 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews split widely on The Flash, and the disagreement is about whether it works at all rather than about details. Most critics agree on where the pleasure lies: Ezra Miller’s double performance as two versions of Barry Allen, Michael Keaton’s return as Batman, and a first half that plays as a warm, fast buddy comedy. Several call it one of the stronger DC films, with Deadline placing it among the better comic-book films in years. The reservations gather in the second half: cluttered multiverse plotting, a parade of cameos, and computer-generated effects that many describe as ugly and weightless. The harshest notices, at Vulture and The Ringer, find the whole thing soulless, a nostalgia exercise with no humanity underneath. The Guardian dissents from the praise for Miller, finding the performance a trial by the end. The consensus lands as mixed, with the positive and negative camps close in number and little agreement in between. ## Straight answers **Is The Flash worth watching?** *The Flash* is worth watching for its first hour and not much after, and we scored it 50. Ezra Miller's two Barrys and Michael Keaton's grumpy Bruce Wayne make a bright comedy about a son who wants his mother back, then the callbacks and poor effects take over. If Miller's twitchy Barry is your kind of company, stop when it stops being about Nora. **How long is The Flash, and what is it rated?** *The Flash* runs 2h 24m and is rated PG-13 by the MPA in the US. It is an action and science fiction film. **Where can I watch The Flash in the US?** *The Flash* is streaming on HBO Max, Hulu, The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $5.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Flash, and is it suitable for children?** *The Flash* is a 12A, and its violence is comic-book fighting with computer effects rather than anything graphic. It opens with a hospital wing falling from the sky, has a superhero brawl with General Zod, and turns on a mother's death, so younger children may find the loss harder than the punching. Teenagers should be fine; the effects are more likely to bore than frighten. **How does The Flash compare to Back to the Future?** *The Flash* keeps trying to remember [*Back to the Future*](https://film.one/film/back-to-the-future), and the earlier film is the better of the two by some distance. Both send a young man back to meet a parent before the worst happens, but Zemeckis plots his comedy exactly and holds it to the end, where *The Flash* sets its mother-and-son story down at the halfway mark. Watch *The Flash* for Miller and Keaton; watch *Back to the Future* for the whole film. **What should I watch after The Flash?** After *The Flash*, try [*Back to the Future*](https://film.one/film/back-to-the-future) (1985, Fi1m 92): The time-travel comedy about your parents that this one keeps trying to remember. Then [*Batman Returns*](https://film.one/film/batman-returns) (1992, Fi1m 81): Keaton in the suit when the suit was the whole point, and Gotham looked like a nightmare; and [*Run Lola Run*](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run) (1998, Fi1m 82): Eighty minutes of a woman running to fix one afternoon; no shelves, no callbacks. ### Reviews we read (23) - **Radio Times**, Dave Golder (4/5): The critic praises it as an entertainingly bonkers piece of fluff among the very best DC movies, with consistent tone and inventive humour. They single out the dual performance by Miller, Keaton's triumphant return, and geeky cameos for praise while noting some niggles like an overlong script. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/scifi/the-flash-review/) - **Screen Daily** (70/100, inferred): The critic describes an entertaining adventure that outruns familiar trappings thanks to playful humour and Keaton's supporting role. They single out Miller's compelling lead performance and the focus on Barry's emotional journey for praise, while noting it tends to be jokey rather than hilarious. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-flash-review/5182872.article) - **The AV Club**, Matthew Jackson (B-): The film is an entertaining but overstuffed adventure with inventive set pieces and strong turns from Miller, Keaton and Calle that deliver fun and joy. It ultimately feels uneven and frustrating due to narrative knots and a lack of cohesion. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-flash-movie-review-ezra-miller-michael-keaton-1850510095) - **Little White Lies**, Hannah Strong (2/2/2): The critic finds the film a disappointing, CGI-heavy multiverse caper that feels like diminishing returns for DC. They single out the ugly VFX and rote storyline for complaint while noting some appeal in the nostalgia and Keaton's performance for fans. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-flash) - **The i Paper**, Christina Newland (40/100, inferred): The critic is tired of multiverse stories and finds the convoluted plot muddled and needlessly confusing despite some witty moments. Keaton is praised as a perfect grouchy foil to Miller, but the overall storytelling impact is weakened by the parallel-universe complications. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/film/the-flash-review-please-dc-gods-no-more-multiverses-2415378) - **The Telegraph**, Tim Robey (2/5): The critic calls the film bewildering with ugly effects and a parade of fan-service cameos that make it the opposite of a reset. Miller’s double act and multiverse plotting are hard work. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/the-flash-review-ezra-miller/) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (30/100, inferred): The critic calls it a motor-mouthed mess of shoddy CGI and annoying multiverses that fails to distract from surrounding controversies. They single out some clever ideas and touching moments for praise amid the visual ugliness and weightless ending. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-flash-2023) - **Vulture**, Angelica Jade Bastién (20/100, inferred): The critic calls the film banal and a gaudy retread, criticizing its lack of humanity and reliance on uninspired nostalgia and multiverse plotting. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-flash-in-a-pan-movie-review.html) - **Empire**, Chris Hewitt: The film is one of the best in the DCEU, a witty and warm buddy comedy centered on the two versions of Barry Allen. The critic singles out the strong performances and dynamic between the Barrys, along with Michael Keaton's return as Batman, for praise while noting the emphasis remains on the hero's emotional arc. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-flash/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang: The critic finds the film initially enjoyable but increasingly sloppy, with strong energy in its time-travel sequences undermined by fan-service overload and imaginative poverty in its design. Miller delivers a witty, nimble performance and Keaton provides a highlight as Batman, but the movie ultimately stumbles in its execution. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-06-15/flash-review-ezra-miller-michael-keaton-batman) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The film fails to impress despite some diverting moments, with Ezra Miller's smirking performance becoming a trial amid a weightless CGI finale. It lacks new ideas or dramatic rethinking compared to superior multiverse entries like the Spider-Verse films. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/jun/06/the-flash-review-ezra-miller-doppelganger-superhero-is-a-gurning-smirking-mess) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney: The critic finds it enjoyable entertainment but uneven, falling short of the hype. Praises Ezra Miller's performance for bringing humor, heart, and vulnerability. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-flash-review-ezra-miller-michael-keaton-dc-universe-1235508380/) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★☆☆☆): The film is a gargantuan trove of pointlessness built on callbacks to previous DC actors and clunky sequences aimed at fan reactions. It retreats into schematic shout-outs and a chaotic third-act climax that prioritises spectacle over substance. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-flash-review-a-great-big-multiverse-misadventure-d3fjqzwht) - **Total Film**, Kevin Harley (***): The review calls the film ambitious, fun and messy, with a sparky script and strong supporting turns from Keaton's Batman and Calle's Supergirl providing flashes of fun. It criticizes the CGI excesses, Miller's mannered performance and under-integrated elements that make the tone choppy. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-flash-2023-review/) - **Variety**, Owen Gleiberman: The film starts strong with a playful, heady comic-book caper feel and Ezra Miller's mesmerizing, antic performance as the speedster, evoking Back to the Future vibes. It grows overwrought in the second half, shifting to noisy blockbuster self-importance and arbitrary multiverse bombast that undercuts its early charm. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/news/the-flash-review-ezra-miller-michael-keaton-1235634192/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film wildly fun and one of the best comic-book movies in years, easily the strongest since Spider-Man: No Way Home. Ezra Miller’s dual performance and the return of Michael Keaton as Batman are singled out as major highlights. [Read](https://deadline.com/2023/06/the-flash-review-ezra-miller-michael-keaton-in-brilliant-return-batman-1235409735/) - **/Film**, Ben Pearson (7.5/10): The critic finds the film an entertaining, funny, emotional crowd-pleaser that ranks among the best DC movies ever made, thanks to a solid script and strong performances despite some issues and fan-service moments. They single out the inventive slow-motion sequences, especially the hospital baby-saving scene, for praise. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1268511/the-flash-review/) - **Polygon**, Joshua Rivera (65/100, inferred): The Flash serves as a messy eulogy for the Snyderverse and unmade DC films, delivering a bright and imaginative buddy-comedy vibe through its time-travel premise but feeling overwhelmed by corporate nostalgia and fan-service that makes it smaller than it aims to be. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23751219/the-flash-movie-review-ezra-miller-michael-keaton-batman/) - **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (C+): The critic finds it enjoyable as a multiverse story but criticizes the time travel elements and narrative inconsistencies; praises the character moments and Michael Keaton's return as Batman. [Read](https://collider.com/the-flash-movie-review/) - **The Playlist** (C): The critic views the film as a hollow exercise overfilled with fan service and special effects that fails to make Barry Allen the true lead of his own story. They single out the shift from a personal core to bland world-building and CGI action as a major complaint. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/452360) - **Consequence** (50/100, inferred): A vaguely competent superhero adventure hampered by the star's off-screen issues and DC's baggage, it feels rote and adds little new to the genre despite some amusing elements and Keaton's presence; it is overshadowed by better multiverse films. [Read](https://consequence.net/2023/06/16/the-flash-cant-outrun-its-baggage-or-its-competition-review/) - **The Ringer**, Charles Holmes (20/100, inferred): The critic views the film as a soulless, depressing culmination of IP exploitation and nostalgia, criticizing its reliance on past references, poor CGI, and overall execution despite some early promise in simpler moments. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2023/06/20/dc/the-flash-box-office-bomb-cgi-ip-warner) - **Den of Geek**, Don Kaye (4 out of 5): The critic calls it one of DC’s best movies, praising its fast pace, character focus, humor, heart, and genuine affection for the comics and superheroes. They single out Ezra Miller’s dual performances as Barry Allen for particular praise while noting the film occasionally loses its way in a cluttered final act of CG effects. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-flash-review-dceu-finally-gets-it-right/) ## Details - **Director:** Andy Muschietti - **Director:** Andy Muschietti - **Screenplay:** Christina Hodson - **Cinematography:** Henry Braham - **Editor:** Jason Ballantine, Paul Machliss - **Music:** Benjamin Wallfisch - **Production design:** Paul Denham Austerberry - **Costume design:** Alexandra Byrne - **Producer:** Michael Disco, Barbara Muschietti - **Cast:** Ezra Miller as Barry Allen / The Flash; Sasha Calle as Kara Zor-El / Supergirl; Michael Keaton as Bruce Wayne / Batman; Michael Shannon as General Zod; Ron Livingston as Henry Allen; Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen; Kiersey Clemons as Iris West; Antje Traue as Faora-Ul - **Runtime:** 2h 24m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 16 June 2023 - **Genres:** Action, Science Fiction, Adventure - **Budget:** $220 million - **Box office:** $271 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jprhe-cWKGs ## Where to watch in the US - HBO Max: streaming, uhd - Hulu: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $7.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, ID, IE, IN, IS, IT, JP, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Back to the Future* (1985), Fi1m 92: The time-travel comedy about your parents that this one keeps trying to remember. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/back-to-the-future.md) - *Batman Returns* (1992), Fi1m 81: Keaton in the suit when the suit was the whole point, and Gotham looked like a nightmare. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/batman-returns.md) - *Run Lola Run* (1998), Fi1m 82: Eighty minutes of a woman running to fix one afternoon; no shelves, no callbacks. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/run-lola-run.md) - *Frequency* (2000): A son talks to his dead father across time and the film stays that small. - *Everything Everywhere All at Once* (2022), Fi1m 77: A multiverse that stays about one family, and knows exactly when to stop. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/everything-everywhere-all-at-once.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-flash