Just came out of a late showing. Had a decent time with it. It was a fun watch but flawed in a lot of ways.
Positives:
+ It's cool to see Keaton doing Batman stuff since he was more limited to his time back then. Does cool action bits, gets to use a bunch of gadgets (even does a cool double sticky bomb trick I always wanted to see done in live action) and was overall solid. Of course, it was probably all a stuntman/CG but that's pretty much the norm nowadays. It was just cool to see him kick ass. The suit looked great as well.
+ Ezra does a fantastic job in playing 2 different versions of himself. I wish this was the first time we saw his version of the Flash because his previous showings sours his overall image going into this with the character. Him being more mature and bouncing off of his more annoying and quirky younger self in this works well. He takes the situation seriously from start to finish and the emotional aspects allowed him to show some range and have some heart to heart here and there. It's a shame about his personal life problems and I'm guessing this will probably be the last time we'll see his version of the Flash.
+ Sasha as Kara was great, with what little we got.
+ Good action
Negatives:
- You never find out who killed Barry's mom. No Reverse Flash hint? No answer to that? Really?
- The problem I do have with Keaton's Batman is that nothing about him really feels connected to his 89 self. As much as a nostalgia bait NWH was with Tobey/Garfield, both of them felt like there was a sense of continuity from where we last saw them. I didn't get that with Keaton from this. Perhaps it was because of the larger time gap but I felt like there was some disconnect there. Wish that was handled better.
- Because of that, I think the typical Flashpoint Thomas Wayne angle would have maybe worked better for this movie. Can even use Jeffrey Dean Morgan here. Letting Barry meet this dystopia version of Thomas and then having it connect back to Affleck's Bruce at the end, would have been a nice touch. It would have added more to the story and gave a little something to both Barry and Bruce's character. You even have a scene earlier on in the movie where Barry mentions to Bruce that he could save his parents, with Bruce then warning him about doing so. About how those past trauma's shouldn't define who Barry is. Have something stem from that and pay off for both characters. Alas all we get is Keaton with a doomed fate in the end.
- As much as I liked Sasha as Kara, she was wasted in this. She was just used as a plot device and had nothing else going on beyond that. Her fate in this is also a bit depressing. Big shame since I thought she would have a more stand out role. She deserved a lot better and I wish she was given more.
- Zod was wasted as well. I sort of expected it though because there's interviews of Shannon straight up dunking on this film and how little his role meant to him. He had a very "I don't give a **** about this" attitude with the few lines he had. Like the man rolled out of bed, did his lines in 5 minutes and left.
- The CG was among the worst I've seen in recent times. A lot of dodgy stuff in the final act during the desert sequence. The opening act with the microwave babies was even worse. Let's not even talk about those hideous pointless CG cameos. You couldn't even get Cage to film that part in-person when doing that? The director saying the bad CG was a choice is laughable. Straight up PR damage control.
- No cameo for Grant Gustin's Flash was also bizarre? If you're going balls to the walls with cameos, it's crazy that they didn't include him. I stopped watching the show after Season 2/3 but the dude has been the Flash for a decade now and is probably the definitive live action Flash for a lot of people. Pretty crazy that he wasn't in it at all. Ezra's Barry also got the idea of being called the Flash from Grant. Confusing decision to omit him.
- Ending is pretty weak. Especially when you know that the original ending had Keaton + Kara surviving and being there with Barry during that final courthouse scene. Instead we get some lame joke with Clooney that leads to nothing? It was weird.
Overall I'd say a 7/10. Need to digest it a bit but surprisingly, I found Ezra to be the highlight of the film, with everything else surrounding him being weaker. Going into it, I thought it would be the opposite with Keaton and Sasha saving the movie. The movie could have easily been higher had they tightened and improved some things all around.
