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THE FLASH

Producers: Barbara Muschietti and Michael Disco   Director: Andy Muschietti   Screenplay: Christina Hodson   Cast: Ezra Miller, Michael Keaton, Sasha Calle, Michael Shannon, Ron Livingston, Maribel Verdú, Kiersey Clemons, Jeremy Irons, Antje Traue and Ian Loh   Distributor: Warner Bros.

Grade: B-

It would be unfortunate if Ezra Miller’s personal problems overshadowed the young actor’s deft, imaginative performance as DC Comics’ Scarlet Speedster in “The Flash.”  Miller, who’s been doing strong work in films and television for some fifteen years now, is easily the best thing about Andy Muschietti’s movie, which starts out strong but, as is usual in superhero fare, degenerates into rote CGI action in the second half, in the process also capitulating to the nostalgia bug and multiverse mania that have been infecting the genre of late.  Happily, though, even that doesn’t totally squelch the comic tone Miller had established earlier on.

Christina Hodson, who brought a light touch to the “Transformers” franchise in her script for 2018’s “Bumblebee,” bases the plot on what’s certainly the constant in Barry Allen’s life—the murder of his mother Nora (here Maribel Verdú) while young Barry (Ian Loh) is elsewhere in the house, followed by the wrongful conviction of his father Henry (Ron Livingston) for the crime.  It’s been a central element in Flash mythology that since he can travel faster than the speed of light, he might be able to zoom into the past and fix things—though in this case his friend and mentor Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), who knows something about the traumatic loss of parents, advises him against it because of the butterfly effect, the law of the unintended, potentially catastrophic, consequences of time travel.

But after a literally whirlwind prologue in which Barry rescues a bunch of babies threatened by a disaster at a Gotham hospital while Batman and some friends foil the escape of a bunch of bank robbers, he gets the bad news that his hope for new evidence that could exonerate his dad has been dashed.  That persuades him to take the dangerous step of attempting the jump into his past.

Naturally it all goes wrong.  He finds himself not where he hoped to land—his house on the morning of his mom’s murder by an intruder—but in an alternate world where Barry Allen (also Miller) is a goofy college student of eighteen and his mother is still alive and well.  But there is a crisis nonetheless: General Zod has arrived on earth (via footage repurposed from “Man of Steel,” plus newly-shot material) and there is no Superman to oppose him.  Frantically the out-of-place Allen sets things up for his young doppelganger to get Flash powers (unfortunately, losing his own in the process), and the two then enlist this world’s retired Batman (Michael Keaton) to help them restore Barry’s super-speed and find the missing Superman.  The Kryptonian they locate, however, is instead Supergirl Kara (Sasha Calle).

Defeating Zod, however, takes the two Flashes back to the time-and-space arena where Barry wound up in his wrongheaded original jump, and their attempt to correct matters results in a nostalgia trip in which different TV and movie iterations of famous DC characters (and one from a movie that was never made) make brief appearances.  This whole segment may be considered an example of elaborate fan service, and will probably fare well with long-time viewers.  But in fact it’s rather a mess in narrative terms—the editing by Jason Ballantine Paul Machliss falters here—and the effects in it aren’t so great either.

The effects supervised by John “DJ” DesJardin in most of the earlier action sequences are better, but only in the prologue, where the Flash deals with the hospital disaster, are they really outstanding—the concurrent Batman section is mediocre.  Not much better are the battle sequences to free Supergirl from captivity later in the film, and those against Zod and his minions in the film’s last act, both of which also demonstrate the essential banality of Benjamin Wallfisch’s score.

The technical aspects of the picture, in other words, do not set a new standard, though Paul Denham Austerberry’s production design, Henry Braham’s cinematography and Alexandra Byrne’s costumes are perfectly fine.  But in actuality, the best special effect in the movie is the double performance by Miller, who differentiates between the two Barrys with great comic flair; he makes them a strong pair of characters, and a great deal of fun.  But the actor invigorates the movie’s comic set-pieces not only when in duplicate—the sequence in which the two Barrys combine to recreate the accident that gave the “real” Flash his powers is a hoot—but when in individual mode (like a coffee shop scene at the very start).  Miller’s scenes with Barry’s parents and with Kiersey Clemons, introduced as his future fiancée Iris West, show considerable range as well.

Keaton also demonstrates his comic chops as Bruce Wayne/Batman, but those have long been well-known.  Further down the list, the cast is not as impressive.  Calle makes a fairly passive Supergirl, and Shannon’s talents are wasted as Zod, just as they were in “Man of Steel.”  Affleck brings a low-key charm to Bruce Wayne at the start, and the capper at the close, when Barry returns home, is a cheerful surprise, one that would seem to dictate the direction any sequel would have to take.

“The Flash” is one of the last films in the first wave of the so-called DC Universe, and it’s one of the better entries.  But it does makes one yearn for a time in which the very concept of a multiverse, a terrible screenwriting crutch, didn’t exist.  And it makes one hope that every superhero movie will not become a nostalgia trip for comic-book obsessives.       

On the other hand, it also makes one look forward to further starring vehicles for Ezra Miller.

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HEROES OF THE GOLDEN MASK

Producers: Gordon McGhie, Troy Arthur Taylor, Michelle O’Reilly, Ziaoming Yao, Luo Yang, Tang Ziongxing and Simon Li   Director: Sean Patrick O’Reilly   Screenplay: Jim Kammerud, Brian Smith and Sean Patrick O’Reilly   Cast: Patton Oswalt, Kiefer O’Reilly, Jayne Eastwood, Byron Mann, Ron Perlman, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Christopher Plummer, King Lau, Osric Chau and Zeus Mendoza   Distributor: Gravitas Ventures

Grade: D

How can one not love a movie in which the villain taunts the heroes with the words, “You are but a grain of rice on my plate”?

You can’t help but laugh at such a line, and that’s only one of many gems in this animated adaptation of John Wilson’s 2018 YA novel “The Ruined City,” which was advertised as Part 1 of series called “The Golden Mask” that apparently never continued.  It’s a good bet that the movie will be a one-off, too.

The hero of the piece, if you can call him that, is teenager Charlie (voiced by Kiefer O’Reilly), a streetwise orphan living in some American city.  He’s a smart-alecky Artful Dodger sort, a pickpocket supposedly working for nasty boss Rizzo (Christopher Plummer, using a raspy voice in his last screen role) but not bringing in his quota.  Rizzo says Charlie owes him tens of thousands of dollars for raising him.

In medieval China, the city of Sanxingdui, ruled by benevolent King Yufu (King Lau) is under attack by a warlord named Kunyi (Ron Perlman), who covets the Jade Blade, with which he can conquer the world.  But the city is defended by the five heroes of the golden mask, who have been chosen by that artifact and endowed with special powers by wearing one.  Their leader is gruff Jiahao (Byron Mann), with telekinetic ability; the others are his daughter Li (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), who unleashes energy arrows with her bow; Aesop (Patton Oswalt), a likable lug with a mighty hammer; Zhu (Osric Chau), who can turn into the various animals of the zodiac; and Zuma (Zeus Mendoza), whose weapons are magical balls.

When Jiahao is killed in Kunyi’s latest assault, Yufu charges Li to locate his chosen successor.  Grabbing the mask, she passes through a portal that lands her in America, where the mask fastens on Charlie, who’s initially reluctant but reckons that perhaps the gold in the masks can provide the riches he needs to pay off Rizzo.  So he allows himself to be transported to Sanxingdui, only so that he can steal the masks.

What follows is the predictable arc of Charlie gradually warming to his new colleagues—as well as Helen (Jayne Eastwood), who acts as a mother to them all—and accepting them as his new family (with special affection for Li, of course).  The process involves lots of action sequences, especially after Kunyi kidnaps Helen and the crew must go off on an odyssey to rescue her, a journey that requires them to face off against various monsters Kunyi releases and a bunch of slithery spirits called hungry ghosts.  It all might come off better if the animation from Canada-based Arcana Studio (this is a Chinese-Canadian co-production) weren’t so clunky, Jason Cooper’s editing didn’t let things go limp in the action sequences, and the script didn’t resort so often to annoyingly “clever” one-liners.

Most of those are spouted by Charlie, who’s actually a pretty obnoxious brat with a quick, smarmy resort to virtually anything anybody says to him.  His cheerily selfish attitude pretty much destroys whatever good will the picture wants to create toward him in the audience.  And heaven help the parents whose kids watch “Heroes of the Golden Mask” and then want to imitate him.

Voicework is passable, though young O’Reilly’s snidely know-it-all attitude is pretty insufferable, and his turn to sincerity not much better.  The blowsy score credited to producer Gordon McGhie, Eric Xin Hu and George Streicher doesn’t improve things.

To sum up, this is a bargain-basement kids’ animated adventure inferior to stuff one can find on cable networks like Disney or Nickelodeon, let alone the streaming services.