The Flash: Twitter Is Still Blasting 'One Of The Worst Shots In Movie History'
2023's "The Flash" was widely lambasted when it came out, at least partly for its use of substandard VFX and for tastelessly resurrecting deceased actors for cameos in one of the movie's most confusing moments. Xoop's review of "The Flash" called all this out, in addition to some muddled storytelling. But a year after the film came out, it's still getting derided online, and one scene in particular has continued to accumulate a ton of hate.
On X (formerly Twitter), @Fdmdarkshadow uploaded a clip from the movie's climax where the two Flashes, both played by Ezra Miller, along with Supergirl (Sasha Calle), speed into a war zone against General Zod's (Michael Shannon) forces. The caption says it all: "One of the worst shots in movie history." The post has already received over 15 million views, and the responses all seem to agree that the shot is horrendous. X user @1998Wens reposted the clip while writing, "I'm not kidding or being ironic ... but this literally looks like a real-time cutscene changing to gameplay."
This is just one of several embarrassing CGI moments in "The Flash," as the characters look cut-and-pasted into an inorganic environment. It's all the more disappointing as this was clearly meant to be an iconic team-up shot but just winds up looking weird and off-putting. With "The Flash" being one of the last films in the DC Extended Universe, it's sad it had to close things out with a disheartening thud.
VFX artists do astounding work with proper resources
The DCEU's "Flash" film had a long, twisted journey to the big screen. It was originally slated to come out in 2018 before being repeatedly pushed back, with numerous directors and writers attached over the years. Given the state of the visual effects, it really seems like the movie could have used a bit more work. But by the time "The Flash" was in post-production, the DCEU was shutting down to make way for a new cinematic universe spearheaded by James Gunn and Peter Safran.
As far as the look of the scene being roasted on X, the VFX artists really shouldn't be held responsible. The work was done by Wētā FX, which has done stellar work on the likes of "Avatar," "The Creator," and "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes." The Wētā artists, however, may not have had as much time to work on the effects for "The Flash" as would have been ideal. One VFX artist for "The Flash" even took to TikTok to discuss how the team was significantly overworked on the movie, while mentioning "Avatar: The Way Of Water" as an example of how amazing VFX can look with enough time devoted to their completion.
Hopefully, the new brass at DC Films learn some important lessons from "The Flash" debacle and give these artists everything they need to make movies look astounding without working themselves into exhaustion and embarrassment.