Is The Flash still worth watching?

So the midseason break is ending and our favorite shows are getting started up again so I figured I would try to put up a few summary blogs to help those that have been on the fence about certain shows.  First up is the CW’s Arrowverse’s The Flash. The Flash had a pretty weak but light hearted beginning four years ago and has been criticized in its second and third season for having an all-around overly dramatic theme.  The show is targeted at a younger audience so that makes sense but it really hit fans of the comics harder than the show runners anticipated and it looks so far like they are trying to fix that.

The Flash, or Barry Allen, has been a long time staple of humor and levity in the DC comics playing the polar opposite to the Batman in the Justice League. However even though Grant Gustin, the actor in the title role, has displayed a natural sense of comedic timing they seem to have been ok with the shows tendency to stick to more dramatic plot lines. This isn’t any form of comic blasphemy though since Barry’s storylines, while very funny, do tend to come from dark places. His mother was killed at a young age and his father was blamed for the murder. He grew up an orphan and because he is so plucky in nature he is a character whose value as a sacrifice is much higher than other characters leading him and others who have held up The Flash mantle to have been regularly sacrificed in the comics.

The first few seasons really did a good job developing the rest of the characters though. The supporting characters get plenty of story lines and most of the time they are pretty engaging.  The Villains have also had major chances to really flush them out and making it more enjoyable when they drop in randomly like in the comics. Some have even done so well that they became fan favorites and crossed over to the good side like Captain Cold, Heat wave, and Killer Frost. One actor, Tom Cavanagh did such a good job playing Harrison Wells that they have brought him back over and over as different versions of the character from different dimensions, getting better every time.

However, the problem of the Broody Flash still remained. But the finally of season 3 had Barry being punished by the Speed Force, the source of Barry’s power, in order to balance it before it could destroy the world. The Speed Force held him captive until he returned in the Season four premier. I know it’s not that big of a deal but they added a catch where time was different in the Speed Force causing a change in Barry’s behavior upon his return. Basically they treated it like a character reset, he has a new found appreciation for life and has been slowly adding more humor and levity to the series.  The Big Bad is also unique this season.  The Thinker is a being with unimaginable intelligence and he is constantly one step ahead of the hero’s. Also his motives are not well known, but he has had enough screen time to be somewhat relatable leaving a lot of fans questioning if he even is a bad guy even though he has so far completely destroyed Barry’s life.

The cherry on top for the series though is that it is in the Arrowverse. Now, I’m not that big of an Arrow fan, I keep meaning to catch up on it but it never feels like I have the time. The same goes for Supergirl. But with the Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash doing so well they have been able to do a couple of four episode crossovers that bring the full casts of all four shows together to pull off a huge story line in one week.  The action levels in these episodes are off the charts, rivaling the action seen in the marvel movies and really matching the pace of comics. So if you have been interested in The Flash or any of the other series in the Arrowverse, I would strongly recommend getting into them but especially the Flash!  You well be able to find something for everyone with its wide variety of ever growing characters and story lines that will keep you wanting more every week.

The Rise of Wonder Woman

This summer was a series of major hit and misses at the box office. Huge productions that had big hype and great marketing fell flat and movies with massively talented casts like Mother floundered opening weekend. The Dark Tower and IT were two of Stephen King’s greatest works, both of which were long considered to not be viably able to transfer from book to screen. Both movies were well cast and shot, had excellent marketing, and looked amazing in trailers, but IT broke box office records and the Dark Tower never seemed to get out of the gate.

Movie goers appeared to be using the power of their wallet to make sure movie makers knew that their budgets were limited and fans were only going to pay to see movies that promised more of what viewers wanted to see.  Dark Tower’s story is amazing but not widely known whereas IT already had a made for TV movie. So viewers went to see IT because they knew what it was about. Meanwhile, movies like Mother and Dark Tower looked great, but we never got a feeling for what the movie was actually about. With so many flops movie goers were only coming out to see something they already wanted to see.

Amid this minefield, one unlikely film rose up and not only claimed the top spot, but also made film history while changing the current landscape of cinema.  On paper, Wonder Woman should have never succeeded. A comic book heroine with no major fan base taking place in the failing DCU and directed by a woman with no prior experience directing action movies. Several times in the past Wonder Woman failed to even get greenlit so for it to dominate a Summer blockbuster season was a complete surprise. So what about Wonder woman made it stand out so much?

              Well, for starters it was extremely well written. The story spends just enough time on origin backstory to fill in viewers before moving on to its epic action scenes. This helps keep the viewers interested from the start. It spends small periods developing the side characters in between series of eye popping visuals. The only fault in the story is the incredibly small amount of effort taken to flush out any of the antagonists. Most of the action centers around Wonder Woman fighting the Germans soldiers (this was WWI so no, not the Nazis!) so the story did not need it as “War” was the antagonist at its core though.  However, it would have added a whole different level of interest in the story had we had more time to really have a tangible bad guy. There are the German officer, a scientist, and Aries.  The Germans had no depth and are completely forgettable. Aries isn’t revealed until the climax and it’s not even shocking, more so rather a letdown since the character quickly dissolved to just a flashy CGI effect.  In the end you don’t get the feeling that there ever really was a boss battle but rather than a series of events that led to the conclusion.

The acting is not amazing. That being said, it doesn’t need to be. The characters are all played very well and this is a comic book movie, not Shakespeare, and that’s a good thing. The characters and acting are great filler in between the real star, the action.  The cinematography and score were designed for high paced, visually amazing action scenes and it shows. The action moves just fast enough to keep you on the edge of your seat but not so fast that like Transformers you end up missing small bits and getting an overall unmemorable feel to it.

But what made this movie stand out apart from all of the others?  We had been promised a remarkable season of high octane movies and with a few exceptions we were left wanting. This movie not only met those expectations but set a new standard as well. Prior to its release viewer weren’t really open to the idea of a lead actress in a major action or superhero role.  Women have dominated the lead roles of horror movies and have started to own almost half the lead roles in comedies as of late showing that viewers already wanted to see women in what used to be male dominated roles. In fact, several action movies in the last couple of years tried to be the first big hit with a female lead with varying levels of success but Wonder Woman not only succeeded but broke the record for highest grossing super hero origin film beating out the likes of Ironman, Spiderman, and Batman Begins.

Audiences embraced the change with open arms.  On playgrounds across the country young girls and boys alike are choosing her character to play superheroes. Grown men are wearing her image on shirts, no longer bothered by the stigma of liking female characters being associated with lower masculinity. This opens the doors for so many great stories featuring strong female leads to be given a legitimate chance at being greenlit effectively changing the way make movies.