It was reported recently that Ezra Miller is clinging so desperately to the role of the Flash that he’s taken to writing the character’s DCEU solo movie himself. He’ll present his script to Warner Bros., and if they don’t like it, he’ll be fired from the role and replaced. It’s a shame, because Miller showed the potential to be a terrific big-screen version of the Flash.
It’s just that with Zack Snyder’s convoluted universe setup and Warner Bros.’ tampering, a lot about his characterization has been wrong. Here are 5 Things Ezra Miller’s DCEU Version Of The Flash Gets Right (And 5 It Doesn’t).
Right: Passion for the character
It’s clear from interviews and the fact that he’s currently writing a Flash movie to desperately claw back the role that Ezra Miller is a huge fan of the character and his history in the comics.
No matter how Warner Bros. have forced him to play Barry Allen (basically as a copy of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and not as the Flash himself), it’s always been clear that Miller cares about doing the character justice. The passion is there in a way that it was never there with Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman. Affleck’s heart wasn’t in it all the way; Miller’s is.
Wrong: His heroic arc
In an early action set piece in Justice League, the Flash says that he’s terrified to face the Parademons and doesn’t want to face any danger. By the end of the movie, he’s happily fighting the Parademons with the other heroes in the final battle against Steppenwolf. But there was nothing in between these two moments to explain where his newfound heroism came from.
Also, the videos that Batman saw in Batman v Superman showed that he was already a superhero, so why was he suddenly so scared? Everything about the Flash’s DCEU arc so far has been wrong – and he’s only really been featured in one movie.
Right: Showing his speed
One of the few things that the final cut of Justice League did right was depicting the Flash’s speed in an original way. Rather than follow him at normal speed and show everyone else in super slow-motion like the X-Men movies do with Evan Peters’ Quicksilver, Justice League kept everything at normal speed in a shot-reverse-shot setup to show what the Flash was doing with his super-speed.
In the prison visiting room, we see him conversing with a threatening tough guy and then, in one of the cuts to the baddie, he suddenly has doodles drawn all over his face. It was arguably even more effective at depicting super-speed than Peters’ Quicksilver scenes.
Wrong: His running form
This seems really nitpicky, but the Flash’s whole power involves running, so if his running is off-form and weird, it can become distracting very quickly – and that’s exactly what happened in Justice League. While the movie did a good job of showing his speed, it did a terrible job of showing his actual running.
And it was integral to certain scenes, like when he runs through the reincarnation chamber to use a Mother Box to bring Superman back to life. That scene was central to the plot, but the Flash’s weird running just distracted from it. Whether it’s down to the visual effects or just the way Ezra Miller runs, it needs to be sorted out.
Right: His costume
Ezra Miller’s Flash costume in the movies might not be entirely faithful to the costume from the comics, but it does suit the visual style of the franchise. An accurate depiction of the Flash’s costume from the comics might work on The CW, but it would look silly on the big screen.
The MCU has been doing a great job of taking the motifs and iconography of the superhero costumes from the comic books and giving them a makeover to have more practical use as military gear. That’s what the DCEU’s costume designers did with the Flash, and it was pretty great.
Wrong: Goofiness
The reshoots that Warner Bros. imposed on Justice League added more comedic moments for the Flash and turned him into the “zany” or “goofy” character.
Zack Snyder’s initial version of the movie had a more emotional arc for the Flash as he attempted to prove his father’s innocence, but after Snyder left the project and the studio brought in Joss Whedon to hash together an MCU rip-off, Barry Allen was recharacterized to be a second-rate Peter Parker to Bruce Wayne’s second-rate Tony Stark. He didn’t even seem like Barry Allen; he was characterized more like Wally West. It was a real mess.
Right: Barry’s maturity
Justice League seemed to set up Ezra Miller’s Flash to be a more mature version of the character, since we saw him get his job in forensics at the end of the film and he’d happily accepted his responsibility as a hero. Plus, Miller is rapidly aging, so he can’t play the dorky teenage version of Barry Allen forever.
If this was setting up a character arc in which Barry will continue to grow and mature, then we’re in very good hands with his big-screen adventures. Of course, this all rests on Warner Bros. honoring the events of Justice League and not just ignoring them.
Wrong: Dark tone
The Flash is supposed to be a light character with light storylines. The DCEU has proven that it can leave behind the dull dreariness of Snyder’s movies and deliver bright, optimistic movies like Wonder Woman and Aquaman. If a Flash solo movie was made, there’s a good chance that it would be in keeping with the tone of those two movies.
But as it stands, there is no Flash solo movie and all we have is the dark tone of Batman v Superman and Justice League, which have failed to properly service the character, because let’s face it: he just doesn’t suit that tone.
Right: Setting up his time travel storyline
Although the many Easter eggs in Batman v Superman grew tiresome as it was unclear what they were setting up and they stopped the plot of BvS dead, there was one interesting setup that piqued fans’ interest. It involved the Flash running back in time and appearing to Bruce Wayne, telling him that Lois Lane is the key and that the fate of the world rests in his hands.
This set up Zack Snyder’s original version of Justice League, which would’ve seen Batman and Cyborg team up to protect Earth from an evil reincarnated Superman and legions of Parademons under Darkseid’s role following the murder of Lois Lane. The Flash would’ve played an integral role, and it probably would’ve been awesome.
Wrong: Being the comic relief
Fans have debated the impact of Whedon’s vision versus Snyder’s in 2017’s Justice League, but it seems clear that from the beginning, the Flash was only ever included as the comic relief. He was there to throw in quips and jokes and one-liners, and also to make meta-references to the heroes to hijack the tone of the MCU.
It just didn’t work. And it meant that the Flash could never shine as a character on his own. When someone is just the comic relief, they can never have an emotional arc or any dramatic moments, and that’s what happened with the Flash.