DCEU: Flashpoint Worst Choice For Flash Movie
DC Comics’ Flashpoint is one of the greatest superhero epics to have been ever written. Undoubtedly with DCEU moving forward with its Flash movie, most believe that the storyline that will form the crux of the story will be Flashpoint. At first glance, it looks like a stroke of brilliance. But if you look closely, you will know that choosing Flashpoint as the entry point for a Flash debut movie is a bad idea. And we have some really credible points to substantiate that claim.
Okay now imagine this – you have been a Marvel fan all your life or at least you know what the Marvel Cinematic Universe is and what the superheroes are all about. You know who they are and their backstories are quite popular amongst your circle. The heroes come together in The Avengers of 2012 and finally have one last ride in Avengers: Endgame in 2019. But what if Marvel showed you Avengers: Endgame first and then went in reverse order, showing Infinity War next and then moving on to Age of Ultron. No fan would be able to make heads and tails out of it. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is essentially what the Flashpoint storyline looks like.
The storyline of Flashpoint is where the Flash discovers that he does not have any powers due to him meddling with critical events in the past via time travel using his speed force powers. As a result, the world he lives in now is completely different from the one the fans were used to – Bruce Wayne is dead, Superman was never there, the Amazons and the Atlanteans have engulfed the world in a devastating war and the world never had any Flash.
The Flashpoint Paradox was so successful because it implored and explored the already existing DC fans that were aware of what had already transpired with the DC Universe. They knew how things were and with Flashpoint, how different things could be. As a result, when things did turn out to be so different in the alternate timeline created by the Flash, the fans really loved the twists and turns. And that is where the problem is.
The DCEU has a fan base that has a very little population of people who actually know what the DC Universe was before Flashpoint. The majority of the fans are casual moviegoers who were just here to watch the movie and have some fun. If you start throwing curveballs at them from the very beginning of the movie, they would not be able to identify the differences in the old and new Flashpoint Timeline, and as a result, will never be able to understand the essence of the Flashpoint storyline it-self. Warner Bros. Studios might be going in for a very risky gamble that has a very less probability of paying off.
For the Flash movie to work, it first needs to set up the superhero and his surrounding universe in a firm manner. The supporting characters, his back story, his flaws, his strengths, his history and relationships – anything and everything that is related to the Flash must be explored in depth for the fans to really know the character. The movie cannot just throw everything at the audience and expect them to figure it out during the course of the movie’s runtime. That was how many of the DCEU movies failed because the fans failed to absorb so much in so little time. We hope DC is not repeating the same mistake again.
The last movie to be released under the DC banner was Joker. The official film synopsis for the movie reads:
Forever alone in a crowd, failed comedian Arthur Fleck seeks connection as he walks the streets of Gotham City. Arthur wears two masks — the one he paints for his day job as a clown, and the guise he projects in a futile attempt to feel like he’s part of the world around him. Isolated, bullied and disregarded by society, Fleck begins a slow descent into madness as he transforms into the criminal mastermind known as the Joker.
