Really, really terrible film. Typical, shitty DC fare. They’ve really ranked their own brand with everyone except comic book fans. More casual observers, who are aware of the characters more loosely but were never into reading comics, know that DC films are generally just fecking appalling.
WW was okay, and got plaudits for the whole female empowerment perspective, but they trashed that with WW84 which was one of the worst comic book movies of the last decade. The Joker was obviously good, even if it was the least comic booky comic book film ever, and the Suicide Squad reboot was good too. The Batman garnered plenty of plaudits from fans, even though I personally thought it was pretty gash. But apart from that, it’s just trash from that studio. And they’ve exhausted goodwill it seems. Like a two year campaign to see the synder cut, which was just six hours of the same shit, drawn out and shot in a crap format.
The Flash looks like it’s going to absolutely bomb. Had a pretty poor opening weekend by tent pole standards, and is now looking at a 72-73% drop off, which would make it one of the biggest second weekend drop offs ever. I guess some sympathy goes to the studio for the Ezra Miller factor, but if the film was great, I suspect much of the effect would be overcome.
Hopefully this means a complete reboot and rethinking of the entire franchise. They can dump just about all the actors, cut ties with any remaining shitty writers and directors, and with Gunn in charge, maybe just maybe stop the halfwitted suits from meddling in every production and Final Cut. Although I doubt a studio with the track record of WB/DC Can genuinely avoid the temptation to shoot itself in the foot somehow.
The entire DC slate is about as good as Marvel’s Phase 5, which is widely derided as being absolutely appalling, and largely nonsensical. Just like Marvel should’ve taken a one to two year gap after then end of Phase 4, to give audiences a chance to breathe and build some anticipation towards a new era - instead of just churning out endless, shitty content which has eroded a lot of goodwill they built - DC should take some time to pause and create a sense of separation with what has come before. They need to not only produce something completely new - as in their entire universe - but they need audiences to understand that it’s a completely fresh start from all the shit that has come before.
The Flash is the perfect example of this. A film that most people I know are happy to see when it comes to Max, rather than paying to go to see at the cinema. Those who have seen it at theatres are either die hard fans, or looking for something to do with their kids. Outside of those groups, I have rarely seen a big comic book tent pole generate less interest and excitement.