The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
The Flash: A Dazzling Dive into the DCEU's Latest (and Possibly Last) Blockbuster
Join Natey & Katy as they dissect this flashy new adventure, taking a closer look at its star-studded cast and navigating the controversies surrounding some of its actors.
In this spirited discussion, they weigh the merits of CGI cameos versus archived footage, touching on how the movie's digital representations of iconic characters like Christopher Reeves' Superman and George Reeves' Batman may impact their legacy. Be prepared for some wild twists, such as the film's opening sequence involving a baby in a microwave. Don't miss out on their lively conversation about this entertaining addition to the DCEU!
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough Together. Fun will be had by all. This is Nadie and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone And welcome to a brand new episode of Nadie and Katie at the Movies. I'm your host, nathan aka Nadie, of course, and with me, as always on this journey of movies, is my good friend Katie. Hi Katie, how are you?
Speaker 3:I'm doing great actually.
Speaker 2:That's good. I'm glad that you're doing great.
Speaker 3:You're like you're waiting for what I was eating.
Speaker 2:The movie that we're about to talk about is The Flash. Now, by the time this episode drops, this movie has been out for a little bit over a week And I thought I'd explain real quick why we drop the episodes when we do. The reason we drop the episodes when we do is because we are very kind people and we want to avoid spoilers. So we don't want to just review a movie a couple days after we go see it. We'd like to give it time to breathe a little bit, even though, with this movie, a lot of things have already been released about it. Basically, everybody knows what happens in this movie. But again, we just like to take our time because we want to make sure everyone has a chance to see the movie before we review it, even though the point of reviews is to make up your mind if you're going to see it or not. But anyway, without any further ado, let's jump right into The Flash. But, of course, before we jump right into it, we got to do the synopsis.
Speaker 2:The Flash is about Barry Allen, who uses his super speed to change the past, but his attempt to save his family creates a world without superheroes, forcing him to race for his life in order to save the future. The Flash stars Sasha Calley as Supergirl. She was in Young and the Restless. That's basically the only thing she's known for. This is like her first big thing. Also, it stars Ben Affleck as Batman slash Bruce Wayne. Ben Affleck has been in Argo, air and a bunch of other movies. This movie also stars Ezra Miller as Barry Allen slash The Flash. Ezra Miller has been in The Perks of Being a Wallflower and some other stuff. It also stars Michael Keaton as Batman slash Bruce Wayne. Michael Keaton has been in Birdman, the Founder and, of course, spider-man Homecoming. When I saw the trailer for this, stuff had already come out about Ezra Miller, so I was kind of reluctant about seeing this movie. Katie, i don't know, do you know any of the things that have been reported about Ezra Miller?
Speaker 3:I had not heard a ton about Ezra. I know that Ezra goes by they-them pronouns now And I know that there's been some trouble with the law. So I looked up a little more and yeah, there's like some It's not like a speeding ticket We're talking about. Ezra's was choking. A woman was possibly kidnapped, a child like through a chair at a woman. It's pretty bad actually. And now Ezra's going through like some mental health crisis and getting help which, if you pay attention in the beginning of the movie they kind of think a joke about. Did you catch that?
Speaker 2:Nathan, yeah, i actually saw this with my wife and I actually turned to her and I said that was a funny joke and she didn't get it because basically, what the Flash says, maybe you should go seek some mental help, because The Justice League isn't really good at that and I should know, and you know they made a point to have the line say and trust me, i should know, or something or, trust me, i think the purpose in that was probably because everyone that was a part of this movie probably knows that there are movies at risk because everyone is not sure how to feel about Ezra.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, i kind of thought that was a half-hearted, clever attempt at saying hey, we know Ezra has some mental health issues. Put that in the back of your mind and just watch our movie. I think they're trying to own up, to acknowledge it and then say let's just move on, which I kind of did appreciate, and the fact that it was coming from him means that he's obviously okay with people being aware of that.
Speaker 2:That line may not be so on the nose, though If you know a lot about the Justice League characters, a lot of them come from trauma, and so a lot of them might be dealing with mental health issues themselves because-, oh, that's a good point Like Batman, comes from trauma. Wonder Woman, kind of Superman, his planet was destroyed. Aquaman he lives in the ocean and people pollute it, so trauma is everywhere for these characters.
Speaker 3:So I don't know if it was so much written because of that.
Speaker 2:I just think it was kind of funny that that was in there.
Speaker 3:I bring up the point too that I don't know that I wanna kind of get right into the movie and what our thoughts are. However, I think the dangerous thing here is when you know too much outside of the movie, it really does affect how you see the movie. So if I had never researched anything at all about the drama between how many directors they had, or the actors and actresses and the choices and what company bought this, so they're allowed to say that blah, blah, all the inner workings of that I really try to put outside of my brain so I can just enjoy or not enjoy the movie. But I would say in general, I liked this movie.
Speaker 3:I think the reasons I liked it were because it does the thing I want a movie to do I laughed, I cried, I was surprised, And so that was a big win for me. That being said, I don't think it was a fantastic movie, But the more I sit and think about it after viewing and the more I incorporate it into, maybe, the future of DC, it makes me a second guess. So what were some things you liked?
Speaker 2:I'll say this despite the things I knew about Ezra going into this movie, I think Ezra's performance was probably one of my favorites. I thought they did a really good job portraying the character. I know a lot of people's complaints was that they were miscast as Barry Allen slash The Flash, and I think they did a really good job with having two versions of this character. They had the one that we've known in all the other DC movies and then they had one from the past who was slightly more annoying than the one that we have been shown before, and so he kinda had to come to terms with the fact that, yeah, he's super annoying and maybe he should, you know, calm down a bit, and so I thought they did a really good job doing that because it did help that characters kind of calm down and not be as annoying And take up the mantle of a actual superhero.
Speaker 2:And going into that, i would say this is the first, and this is kinda sad because this is supposed to be, you know, the last one in the DCEU, but this is the very first DCEU movie that actually felt like a comic book movie. Before this you had Man of Steel, which I loved. Man of Steel, you had Man of Steel, you had Wonder Woman. All these movies were very dark and gritty and didn't feel lighthearted and fun. I mean, they were not and again, i'm not saying they weren't good movies, but they didn't feel like a comic book movie.
Speaker 2:I stayed in the last episode that we did that. I was watching all of them in chronological order And so I was able to rewatch Aquaman, which my first sitting of Aquaman, i didn't like it. My second sitting during that chronological watch, i was like you know what this one actually feels like a comic book movie too. But I think the Flash actually finally found what the DCEU should have been the entire time Fun, exciting, likable characters, intriguing story. And it stinks that this could be the last official DCEU movie and it's leaving us with like man. That's what it should have been the whole time.
Speaker 3:I think that your spot on one of the best performances in the movie was definitely Ezra. I think that the Barry stuff I almost forgot that it's the same actor. I mean they kudos to the editing that you're literally watching the same actor carry himself through a wall having this deep dialogue. I'm curious how they film that, because I really think it could flop if it wasn't a good actor, one who's truly able to act, not looking at another person, because they're supposed to be looking at themselves. So I'm sure they had a stand in. But yeah, I thought it was incredible, completely flawless. At no point did I think, oh, look at how they've edited this, which to me is impressive.
Speaker 3:And the other thing would be I liked all the characters, like you're saying, but where I felt like a negative was that I didn't get enough time to even really connect with Supergirl or even the bad guy. So we have the bad guy come in I think he was in another DCEU movie but the whole ending sequence where they fight spoiler Supergirl dies and also so does Spider-Man, And so it just felt weird like why did you bring them in this movie just to have them die? Like it seemed too quick. What was the point in Supergirl being there, Other than some kind of fan service. Same with Batman. I think they were afraid this movie was gonna flop. So they're like, let me get some Like just bring Batman in to have like clickbait, to have fan service, and then we'll just kill him off in the end.
Speaker 2:Well, the whole story of flashpoint. You know It wasn't a surprise that they had all these big cameos Michael Keaton's Batman Even though you just called him spider-man out, and if you caught yourself saying that and also Sasha cows, supergirl, i it made sense for them to be there. It also made sense, even though it was sad, to kill off Michael Keaton's Batman because His was strictly just supposed to be, like you said, fan service cameo. Sasha Callie's supergirl surprised that they killed her off because They could still use her in the future for DCU Movies, because they are planning a supergirl movie. That I was kind of surprised. But then again, you know he goes back and he changes stuff again and we'll get into the cameos for that. Which kind of brings me back to another.
Speaker 2:Like I actually enjoyed all the non CGI cameos. I loved Gal Gadot's cameos, wonder Woman I thought that was hilarious. With the lasso of truth, i liked And I'm gonna say this, i didn't like Ben Affleck's Batman before. But just like I said, with this whole movie I think they finally got then Affleck's Batman right, and Now that's probably the last time, even though apparently he's supposed to be an Aquaman too. But those two movies could be the last time we ever see him as Batman and they finally got him right, and that that just Makes me very frustrated.
Speaker 2:And then, of course, the big non CGI cameo at the end, which I thought I thought was completely random and was funny, because If you know the backstory of this person's time in the DC universe, then yes, it's funny. But Ezra goes back in time, he gets his father off being in jail And he goes back and he thinks everything's hunky-dory. He sees a car drive up He thinks it's been Affleck's Bruce Wayne, and who gets out of the car? spoiler alert George Clooney's Bruce Wayne Gets out of the car and everyone in the audience was completely silent because either they didn't get it or they didn't think it was funny.
Speaker 3:Well, and it's funny that you say he was kind of a flop of a Batman, because it reminds me of Star Wars, that when we had our Star Wars series and we interviewed several people, everyone's gonna be biased towards what they grew up with. So I am young enough that George Clooney was the Batman for me. I know that Michael Keaton was like right before, like he was when I was maybe in elementary school, so I remember some of my brother's friends having like toys of that realm, but the one that I actually remember first watching was the George Clooney one. So to me he was my original Batman. So I didn't have any problems with him. Like that was the Batman and Robin. You know Arnold Schwarzenegger playing Iceman or whatever his name. So I didn't find a problem with his Batman. I would agree with you the cameos were definitely fun. Uh, and I wish a Wonder Woman had spent more time. To me She has carried a lot of the DC universe So I'm glad they like threw her in there, but I wish we had seen more of her.
Speaker 3:I noticed that you're very intentional to say the real life cameos and I think that's because You must not have liked the CGI version of cameos. But here's why that fell flat for me, three reasons. Number one the CGI was disturbing looking I. Whether the directors have tried to say it was intentional, i don't care if it was, it's just looked weird. Number two it felt odd. It didn't make sense why it was happening. There was no explanation for why. And number three Unfortunate timing. I just saw the spider-verse Where I felt like we just did that same thing. So it felt very, very much like who copied who. I just watched this happen, and especially even the spider-man, the live action one where toby comes back and andrew garfield. It's just like wow, is this all our movies are? now? not only are we doing remakes, but now we're doing remakes where the movie is relying on Mentioning previous movies because again, we don't feel confident enough what we're making. I can't stand that.
Speaker 2:That was probably my biggest dislike was those horrible King zit Non-justifiable. There's no way. There is no way you can justify how bad that CGI looked. There was no Point because, going back to across the spider-verse, when they showed Miles, the different versions of Spider-Man, they showed comic book clippings, they showed just still pictures from the other movies. They did all these other things to show these different versions of Spider-Man. Okay, why in the world would you think it's a good idea to CGI? Christopher Reeves, george Reeves, is Batman.
Speaker 2:Whoever the flash version was supposed to be there. You know, there's these, this big question of who. Who was that as the flash? They think some people think it was the guy from the TV show the flash, some people think it was the original TV show flash. The fact that no one knows who that was supposed to be means it was a bunch of poop.
Speaker 2:The only one I thought was cool even though again, it was CGI was Nicholas Cage's Superman, because there was that Superman movie that Nicholas Cage was supposed to star in. Tim Burton was supposed to direct it and he was literally supposed to be fighting a giant spider robot Who I think. Who I think, was supposed to be Brainiac. I thought that was cool that that was shown, but at the same time it was still CGI. And then you hear reports that both him and Helen Slater, who played the original Supergirl, were actually asked to come in and film stuff. So I'm like, why in the world would you not use that? and why? it's a little thing, a word I like to call archive footage. You could have used archive footage of George Reeves Batman. You could have used archive footage of of Christopher Reeves Superman. You did not have to make them look like these dumb cartoon characters.
Speaker 3:What if they had a rights to it or something?
Speaker 2:maybe they were like I mean, i'm sure they do because you know it's all under DC, so I'm sure they have the rights. But is it right to do that and make them look stupid? I'm not one of the people say, oh, they should have done that. It makes it makes Christopher Reeves Memory of Superman tainted. I know, i don't think that at all, i just think it looks stupid. And then people were saying that the the CGI Henry Cavill as Superman, that that's our last memory of Henry Cavill. Superman is him CGI, shirtless, jumping towards something. That's the last time we're gonna see him as Superman. So I think that was kind of like a spit in the face to him.
Speaker 3:But right, okay. Well, it's just so interesting. They must have run out of money at the end, because We were saying that in the same breath that we just complimented how ridiculously impressive it was that they were able to Edit together two versions of Barry. So that's, i think, the only thing that makes me confused, like was it intentional.
Speaker 2:Hold on, you were the one who was impressed by that. I never said I was impressed, i thought that looked terrible too.
Speaker 2:Because you can tell if you're paying attention. You can tell who the real actor is and who is computer animated. It looked crappy. The CGI would just look ridiculous and it's not like this hasn't been done before. It's been done in TV shows and it looked better than that. It just doesn't make any sense. Why. Why the CGI looks so Bad? and here's the thing you're gonna say it's justifiable that some of the CGI look bad. Well, tell me where it's not justifiable that the CGI look bad?
Speaker 3:because you can't tell me that every single moment I'm like man that looks crappy, that that's justifiable on that note, let's skip ahead to maybe another part that I think you'd want to talk about, which is the beginning of the movie. You have this big sequence. It's kind of your first experience of what the flash is capable of doing. There's like a building collapsing, babies are flying through the air. Nurse slither, it's wild. So the CGI was, agree, terrible. There's a baby in a microwave at one point. What did you think of that whole scene?
Speaker 2:again. This is something that I knew about going in and And before when I went in I had my apprehensions about it. I was like I don't know. I actually thought it was funny. I thought of course the CGI looked terrible, so that kind of took me out of it. I thought it was humorous. My wife who was sitting next to me, did not think it was humorous whatsoever.
Speaker 3:She did not like it maybe it's a mom thing, because I'm, i was in the same boat. Like The humor was kind of lost on me on, like the dementedness of think, like just just even making the hint that there was a possibility That babies would be flying through the air and die just be splattered on the ground. Like that's not Funny to me at all. I would agree with her. Like that made me just cringe and yes, i'm, i know the whole time they're gonna get saved.
Speaker 2:But just even the thought that it could happen was like ah and speaking of the fact that my wife went to go See this movie with me, that brings me to my segment called Elizabeth likes and dislikes Michael Keaton as Batman. She said she liked him. My wife also did. Very much disliked the Baby scene.
Speaker 3:I have a few more dislikes. Now that I'm on a rant man, i think I'm losing point, and this is a losing points as we talk Because I've got two big things and one of them is more overarching. I like to speak directly to DC and Marvel. I just want there to be one universe where everything is happening, because it is too Chaotic to understand. Like I spent the last, probably the last third of the movie.
Speaker 3:It felt like I was can so confused, like so is Supergirl really dead? is she not? did we? we didn't even catch the bad guy, or did we because I never got Official closure? like we got the implication there was closure there because we went back in time, but then he doesn't go back in time because he still changes something about his dabs. I just can't stand all that confusion.
Speaker 3:And there was even a poke fun, kind of, at Marvel where Batman is trying to explain how the multiverse works. You know it is kind of hunting. It's not like this which he's talked about, the Marvel universe. I'm just done with a say. I felt the same way about spider-man. I just want there to be one universe. So that's my first critique, and then I think the second one would just be please stop relying on old stuff. Please, just make new stuff. I'm talking to all of you Disney and Pixar and Border Brothers, all of you, just please make new content and stop Relying on the past. I'm so done with it. I just want to watch a movie that I could understand, every reference moving forward.
Speaker 2:I agree with that, and it kind of wraps up everything at the end where it kind of reveals that This version of the flash is now stuck in the George Clooney DC universe. So that kind of tells you that Possibly, ezra Miller may not play the DCE, whatever, dcu, whatever they want to call it. He may not play that version of the flash in the future. So we shall see going forward. I think we're basically done with what we thought about this movie. So that is the flash and we did not go through it in a flash. We took our time because this is a pretty big summer movie. Katie, one out of six stars, what would you give?
Speaker 1:the flash.
Speaker 3:I Started with a five. After our conversation I think I dropped down to a four. I do want to say One final positive, because it's an Oreo. You got to start good, hit the middle in the end. I do want to say I Did genuinely laugh. I felt like most of the jokes Worked for me and I found myself laughing out loud in the theater. And as well as the emotional parts, i think that when things got serious, especially with Ezra speaking to his mom at the end, i had some tears streaming down my face. So I have got to give it a positive rating for that. In fact, i might even bump it up to a 4.5. But all that to say still can't give it a perfect because of the confusion at the end and the lack of good graphics.
Speaker 2:I will say, before I say my rating, that the middle of the Oreo is everyone's favorite part. So why would I? don't understand you. So I'm gonna go ahead and give you my rating. I'm also going to give it a 4.5. I'm gonna give a 4.5 because I also Agree that I enjoyed Ezra's performance. I liked Michael Keaton as Batman. I liked the new Supergirl I hope she does return and That CGI bucket of crap, that whole thing. I don't even understand why. No, that's why I can't give it anything higher than a 4.5. So that is the flash. Our next homework assignment, speaking of new and original ideas Pixar just came out with Elemental, so we'll be reviewing that new Disney Pixar movie. Next episode Katie.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to nady and Katie at the movies. Feel free to leave us a review so people can find the show. Follow us on all our social media platforms And if there's a movie that you want us to watch, feel free to contact us at nady and Katie at gmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great day.
