The new DC Comics film The Flash, starring troubled American actor Ezra Miller, has garnered criticism from critics.
Miller's arrests multiple times and subsequent mental health treatment cast doubt on the superhero's eagerly anticipated first solo movie.
Both The Times and The Guardian gave it two stars; The Guardian described the character as a "gurning, smirking mess.".
Evening Standard, however, praised it as "one of the best superhero movies of the 21st Century so far.".
Miller, who identifies as they/them, avoided prison in January after pleading guilty to trespassing illegally at a neighbor's home.
They received a probationary period and instructions to get sober and continue receiving mental health treatment.
Miller portrays Barry Allen, also known as The Flash, a police forensic investigator and Justice League member with superhuman speed.
The main character goes back in time to mentor his younger self while also averting the death of his mother, for which his father was wrongfully imprisoned.
Kevin Maher called it "a great big multiverse misadventure" in an article for The Times.
By giving their Flash "a line that appears to address the elephant on the screen," the producers, according to him, were trying to get around Miller's well-publicized personal and legal issues.
"Our hero advises a traumatized eyewitness to consult a mental health professional when faced with that situation. The Justice League still needs to improve in that area, Maher said.
In the context of a morally dubious film that focuses primarily on revising the cultural canon of an entertainment conglomerate, the phrase "Trust me!" is said after a saucy pause and a half-turn to the camera. ".
Older superheroes make brief appearances in the movie as well, including Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck's Batmen and Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman.
There were "spectacular and surreal visions of the various iterations of DC superheroes," according to Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, "and the final appearance from an almost forgotten version of Bruce Wayne gets a laugh.".
However, he continued, "This is not a movie with any new ideas or dramatic rethinking, and - at the risk of reawakening the DC/Marvel sectarian wound - nothing to compare with the highly praised animation experiment in the most recent Spider-Man films.
"This intellectual property's intellect is eroding. ".
Clarisse Loughrey of The Independent gave the movie three stars and described it as "muddled, poignant, and - because of Ezra Miller - morally tricky.".
There's "no real sense" that Miller's movie's release or cancellation would benefit anyone, she claimed in her essay. "In both cases, Warner Bros. gets to absolve itself of all accountability and put its emphasis on the fate of its product rather than the people it employs. ".
The writer's examination of grief, however, and Miller's dual performances, which helped elevate "a character whose only defining characteristic used to be 'irritating,'" were both praised by the critic. ".
The reviewer David Fear for Rolling Stone was more enthused, calling it "by far the best movie to come out of this modern, post-Nolan Warners/DC collaboration" (referring to director Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight trilogy).
In addition to doing a fantastic job in his role reprise, Keaton also understands how to fit into this convoluted storyline in a way that, strangely enough, aligns him with what The Flash is attempting to accomplish as a whole. ".
Fans will "enjoy the flashes of greatness," according to The Evening Standard's Charlotte O'Sullivan, and The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney described the movie as "enjoyable entertainment, even if it spends more time spinning its wheels than reinventing them.".
He went on to say that Miller, the movie's "troubled star," "turns out to be the film's chief asset, bringing humour, heart, and a vulnerability not often seen in big-screen superheroes.". ".
The Flash, according to Variety's Owen Gleiberman, "exudes less of that Back to the Future playfulness and more of that mythological but arbitrary blockbuster self-importance.".
Although he did enjoy the beginning of the "entertainingly heady comic-book caper of time-warp heroism and identity," in the end, he came to the conclusion that "none of it makes a lot of sense.".
He continued, "The multiverse of possibilities that opens up by toying with the past becomes an excuse to throw everything but the sink from the Batcave at the audience.".
Beginning on June 16, The Flash will be available in UK theaters.
