Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) is still haunted by the death of his mother and the fact that his father has been wrongly imprisoned for the crime. So when he discovers that his superpowers as The Flash allow him to run fast enough to go backwards in time he cannot resist the opportunity to right those wrongs. But of course the ripples of that one change through time and space create a timeline filled with its own challenges. 

The Multiverse has already been explored in the Marvel Universe in film and television so now it is the DC Universe chance to put their spin on the idea. It is only complicated somewhat by the apparent disarray that has led to DC appointing Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn to reboot the entire DC Universe which means everything happening here may well be discarded. Although arguably that gives The Flash more opportunity and licence to do something a bit different. 

The plot on the whole is intriguing. Barry creates a new timeline which now has a younger, more immature version of himself, none of the Justice League and a Batman played by Michael Keaton. For audience members old enough to know, Keaton played Batman for Tim Burton films in 1989 and 1992, a fact I had to explain to my children after the film. Keaton’s Batman then joins forces with Barry and Barry to search for Superman given that General Zod (Michael Shannon) has just landed on earth with the intention of terraforming it into a Krypton-like planet. 

The result is some really clever and interesting ideas that requires some previous knowledge of DC film history. Ezra Miller is good in a dual role and Michael Keaton is exceptional as Batman. Whilst on the whole the tone of the film is very much that of a comedic nature. At no point is anything allowed to get too serious and if it is starting to then I guarantee a joke will not be far off. 

So far, so good. Unfortunately there are as many, if not more negative points to discuss. 

The CGI is absolutely terrible. I had seen the trailers before the film but expected the finished product to be better as often trailers are put out before everything is finished. But I am sad to report that the film regularly looks appallingly bad. The opening sequence where Barry is saving people in peril from a collapsing hospital is actually laughable whilst key moments throughout look unfinished. 

The result is that almost all of the action sequences are completely unsatisfying and I would argue that with the exception of Batman related scenes they are all a huge letdown. A big problem when this film is called The Flash and not Batman. 

The next issue is that a key new character should have been Supergirl (Sasha Calle) as seen in the trailers but unfortunately she barely does anything other than appear and fight. And her interactions with Zod live entirely on how much knowledge you have of Man of Steel released in 2013. 

Whilst the multiverse plot is pushed to the limit where the whole exercise feels like nothing matters anyway. An issue Marvel have also experienced with their forays into this plot line. If everything just boils down to clever cameos and it all can be thrown away and started again why should we care? 

Which brings us to the cameos, which I think bring a frisson of excitement to fans. But when the CGI is this bad they just seem insulting. Film and DC fans should have felt excited by these rather than thinking they were playing a videogame from circa 2000. 

So it’s a mixed bag. Overall I enjoyed the overarching idea, I just found myself repeatedly let down and wondering why it felt half finished. 

As for post credits scenes there is one at the very end.