The disastrous superhero movie Stephen King called “heartfelt, funny, and eye-popping”
It’s a risky gambit telling anyone who’ll listen that a certain movie is among the best ever in its chosen genre before the general public has had the chance to see it for themselves, but at least Stephen King was suitably won over to sing its praises before it came crashing back to earth.
Having been lodged firmly in development hell for almost a decade, it was far from plain sailing for The Flash once cameras actually started rolling. Beyond star Ezra Miller’s well-publicised misdeeds that had many calling for their removal, the film went through extensive reshoots and several lengthy delays.
Still, the prospect of seeing Michael Keaton suit up as Batman for the first time since 1992 was enough to generate plenty of excitement, with anticipation slowly being raised by a string of bizarrely unconnected figures taking time out of their day to hype up The Flash to a level it ultimately failed to reach.
Producer Barbara Muschietti – the sister and creative partner of director Andy – revealed to Total Film that not only did one of the biggest stars in Hollywood love the movie, but he went out of his way to call them up and tell them. “In the case of Tom Cruise, he called us, talked for 15 minutes, praising Andy, praising the film,” she said. “And it just feels very good because we really work very hard to make these movies.”
Guardians of the Galaxy director and freshly-appointed DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn was in the exact same boat, going on record calling The Flash “one of the best superhero movies I’ve ever seen,” an opinion that was also shared by Jaden Smith of all people, who said the film “changed my life”.
King would join the love-in, too, although not without prefacing his comments by clarifying that “as a rule I don’t care a lot for superhero movies”. However, in his own words, “this one is special”. The legendary author would praise The Flash for being “heartfelt, funny, and eye-popping,” signing off by saying, “I loved it.”
Warner Bros was so confident in The Flash that it began holding advance screenings weeks before its theatrical release, which backfired spectacularly when a lot of people discovered the end result was nowhere near as spectacular as Cruise, Gunn, Smith, or King had proclaimed it to be.
In fact, the DC Comics adaptation ended up as one of the biggest box office bombs in history, with estimates indicating it ended up in the red to the tune of around $200million. Not only was it nowhere close to being one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, but it was an unmitigated financial catastrophe that resolutely failed to live up to the standards espoused by King.
