The Flash

➤ Rated PG-13
➤ Theaters

The Flash is supposed to be Earth’s fastest superhero, so it’s a little ironic that DC Studios has arrived at Hollywood’s multi­versal party a little late.

In The Flash, Ezra Miller returns as Barry Allen, the speedster in a red suit. Despite being part of the Justice League, Barry is an insecure young man who still suffers from losing his parents more than a decade earlier. After running faster than the speed of light, Barry discovers he can go back in time. He imagines that if he changes just one little thing, he can save his family.

We all know what happens next. Time traveling to solve one problem leads to a host of others that fragment the timeline and endanger reality itself. Barry teams up with an alternate, cooler version of himself, and they convince Michael Keaton’s Batman to come out of retirement to save the day. Sasha Calle shows up as Supergirl.

The Flash earns its PG-13 ­rating with strong language and partial nudity, both of which are played for laughs. DC films usually suffer from taking themselves too seriously, but not this one. The Flash is all about jokes and cameos. In fact, DC should have taken the script a little more seriously. The studio seems to have asked how it could cram 70 years of various movie and TV adaptations into one film, and then devised a shaky plot to justify it. The visuals don’t make up for the weak writing. Some of the speed scenes are inventive, but at times the computer-generated imagery looks sloppy.

I admit there’s a certain thrill that comes with seeing Michael Keaton once again proclaim, “I’m Batman,” but nostalgic fan service yields the only thrills. The story and effects just aren’t up to speed.