I just watched this 81 minute animated movie and was so surprised by it that I felt compelled to give it a quick review.
Okay, I actually fell asleep the first time with my son lying on top of me, then I woke up and watched it again when he was in bed, but that's not commentary on it being boring. Quite the contrary!
I had considered renting this before, but seeing it was Flash-based, I thought, "Nah, Flash stinks." He's quick but boring, his rogues gallery is lame, he is lame. (Just never got into that character, as you can tell.) But what I do really like to see is alternate universes and DC Elseworlds, new takes on familiar characters and timelines. And that's what Flashpoint is all about. Between the Flash and his enemy the Reverse Flash (see, told ya: lame!), the timeline itself gets distorted and the resulting reality is a very dark one. This movie is actually ultra-violent with a lot of death in it (almost more than I'd expect on a PG-13 rating). The characters are fundamentally different from the norm. For example, there's a war raging between the Atlanteans and the Amazons that's already destroyed most of Europe! This movie/story not only makes Flash not seem so lame, but even makes Aquaman into a bad ass. (I often refer to him as Aqua-Pud, another character I' like to see made cool, but he just never gets there.) The whole thing is apocalyptic in scale and is almost an hour and half of gritty, guilty fun.
In summary, this one made me reconsider my biases against some long-standing DC heroes. It takes place in the New 52 Universe, so Cyborg and Captain Marvel (is he even called that anymore?) are in there too (another old man gripe I'll save for another time) and are used in new and exciting ways. The animation has a definite Anime style to it, to the point where some characters are so muscled that you expect their tiny heads to pop off, but it still looks and moves great. If I were to offer a tagline, I guess it'd be this: Ultra-Violent Bad-Assery in the DC Universe. I plan to read the source material now as well.
Okay, "gotta run."
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