The Flash
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: June 16, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 55 Critic Reviews
Positive:
28
Mixed:
22
Negative:
5

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
ABC NewsPeter TraversJun 16, 2023
Mad trippy or catastrophic? This DC superhero epic is actually a mix of both, dragged down by exhausting multiverse hopping but flashy fun on the wings of captivating star Ezra Miller and the grumpy comic perfection of Michael Keaton as a Batman on the ropes. Read full review
60
VoxAlex Abad-SantosJun 16, 2023
The Flash existing as a completed movie is an achievement in and of itself. That it’s kinda good and has fun moments is a feat. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 15, 2023
I liked The Flash well enough while watching it. But thinking and writing about it and everything that has gone down has been dispiriting — real life has a way of insinuating itself into even better-wrought fantasies. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellJun 14, 2023
The Flash is good, and occasionally flirts with excellence, but anyone who goes in heading the game-changer that was promised may be left feeling a touch short-changed. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeJun 14, 2023
It is still a thundering mess that ends with the usual boring battle in a CGI sky. But, on a scene-by-scene basis, The Flash passes the time better than Gunn’s own puzzlingly lauded Suicide Squad. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJun 6, 2023
Blighted by development problems and a star whose downward spiral has been widely dissected by all, this superhero blockbuster emerges just as confused as predicted. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJun 6, 2023
The good barely outweighs the bad here, at least enough for me to give The Flash a marginal recommendation. A lot of the reviews of The Flash from early screenings called it one of the greatest DC Comics movies ever made. Maybe in another universe that’s true. In this one, I thought it stumbled across the finish line. Read full review
60
Total FilmKevin HarleyJun 6, 2023
Muschietti directs confidently, notably in an opening sequence that betters both Justice Leagues for fun. What’s less persuasive is the CGI, an eyesore that’s particularly gaudy when the finale’s ‘secrets’ drop. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyChristian HolubJun 6, 2023
Rather than the beginning of a cool, new idea, The Flash now feels like it should be the last word on movie multiverses. Read full review
58
ColliderRoss BonaimeJun 6, 2023
Cameos and fan service are fine to have, but the story has to be there to back them up, and it’s not quite there with The Flash. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 14, 2023
Keaton is the one who brings both effortless gravity and subtle levity to a film that, without him, wouldn’t have much of either. Read full review
50
The PlaylistNick AllenJun 6, 2023
It has taken so long for a feature-length The Flash to finally hit theaters, and he’s too late. Barry is barely the lead character of his own movie. Read full review
50
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 6, 2023
The trouble with The Flash is that as the film moves forward, it exudes less of that “Back to the Future” playfulness and more of that mythological but arbitrary blockbuster self-importance. Read full review
49
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJun 6, 2023
It’s hard to imagine a film with less strength of conviction than The Flash, a time travel movie about why it’s bad to retcon the past, but which exists entirely to convince the audience that retconning the past, present and (potentially) the future of the DC superhero franchise is a super cool thing to do. Read full review
45
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeJun 20, 2023
If The Flash proves anything, it’s that the fans won, and that’s a loss for everyone else. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 15, 2023
Keaton’s performance — sly, affectionately cranky, subtly reverberant — is certainly one of The Flash’s highlights. But it also reveals, with depressing clarity, the imaginative poverty of the movie’s design. Read full review
40
CineVueChristopher MachellJun 15, 2023
A basically entertaining, but flimsy and shallow object, The Flash may not be the final entry in this long-beleaguered franchise, but it might as well be. Read full review
40
Little White LiesHannah StrongJun 14, 2023
The heavy reliance on CGI is noticeable, particularly because the work is quite ugly (the area from which Barry is able to access the past is a jagged kaleidoscopic eyesore) and while the film benefits from not having a sludgy abundance of fight scenes, the ones it does feature are still largely indistinguishable from any other film. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyJun 9, 2023
Enjoyment of The Flash hinges on two things: how much Ezra Miller sprinting about you can realistically withstand in one film, and whether multiverses seem cool any more, a year after we just flogged them to death. I wish you the best of luck. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleTrace SauveurJun 6, 2023
After the fact, The Flash feels like the ultimate case in point as to why James Gunn and Peter Safran have been brought in to course-correct the trajectory of the DC enterprise. According to them, this has been retrofitted to be the first of a few transitory films as we exit the DCEU and move into a newly established DC Universe. Here’s hoping they pull it off, because I don’t know how many more of these I can take. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 6, 2023
Some entertaining moments can’t hide the fact that this latest product of the DC Comics universe doesn’t exactly fly past. Read full review
40
Screen RantMolly FreemanJun 6, 2023
The Flash is a passable multiverse superhero movie, but no amount of DC cameos can make audiences forget the awful off-screen actions of Ezra Miller. Read full review
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