The Flash First Reactions Are Super Excited: ‘Meets And Surpasses The Hype’

It’s been a long road to the big screen for the Flash’s standalone movie. But while you still have to wait another month to check it out, CinemaCon attendees were treated to one of the very first screenings of the movie on Tuesday night. And, well, there were some extremely positive responses.

One of those positive responses came from none other than GameSpot Senior Editor Chris Hayner, who declared that “Keaton delivers everything you want” and that the movie actually “meets and suprasses the hype.”

Fandom Managing Editor Eric Goldman was similarly happy coming out of the screening, specifically lauding its originality. Goldman said The Flash actually had great moments that he “hadn’t seen in a million other superhero movies” before.

Meanwhile, we had Erik Davis from Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes called The Flash “an all-timer” that put him “in tears at the end.” And Heroic Hollywood’s Umberto Gonzalez declared that it’s the “GREATEST DC movie of the last 30 years” that wasn’t made by Christopher Nolan and said that it “breaks incredible new ground.”

And there were plenty more reactions in that vein from other members of the film press.

But not ever response was fully enthusiastic. Longtime film reporter Jeff Sneider enjoyed the early parts but thought it ended up falling apart as it went on.

The Flash sees Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) attempt to travel back in time to prevent his mother’s death when he was a kid. Apparently he succeeds, but there were pretty dire consequences: the Justice League he knew no longer exists, but the threats they fought still do.

The Flash arrives at a pivotal moment for the DC Comics movie franchise in our world, where it has meandered aimlessly since the release of Joss Whedon’s Justice League back in 2017. Late last year, James Gunn and Peter Safran took over DC Studios right around when Black Adam was bombing in theaters, and then last month the sequel to Shazam! bombed even harder.

The Flash always represented an opportunity to reset the DC movieverse with its multiverse plot–it creates a way to introduce a new Batman or Superman for the DC movie franchise, for example. Though we’ll have to wait until the film hits theaters on June 2 to find out exactly what shape Barry Allen will leave the DC movieverse in.

CinemaCon brought us plenty of other updates on the upcoming DC slate of films, with new looks at Blue Beetle and at the sequel to Aquaman–and a new, final trailer for The Flash, to boot.