The bottom line is that this is a well written and well voice acted movie that is worth your attention. It’s the time travel movie that asks the age-old question: if you could change the past, would you? Or should you? It’s a question that the Flash in Justice League -The Flashpoint Paradox tries to answer with horrific results.
The screenplay by Jim (James) Krieg, based on the original story by Geoff Johns, is solid and tells a tale which allows the Flash, a much underrated hero in the DC animated world, to shine. This is a violent movie and probably should be rated R for its blood and violence as opposed to its current rating of PG-13. Yet, the gore in this movie does not detract in any way from this strong outing by the DCAU’s new supervising producer, James Tucker.
The DC universe is full of tragic heroes. These are the heroes who stepped forward because something tragic happened in their past and they felt helpless to prevent it. Perhaps the most famous of all of these tragic heroes is Batman whose parents were murdered in front of him when he was eight years old. This movie puts Barry Allen (the Flash) in that category as he, as a youngster, is unable to prevent the death of his mother. As a result of using his superpowers, to go back in time and prevent her death, he inadvertently creates a new world. It’s a world in which Wonder Woman (Diana) has killed Aquaman (Arthur)’s wife; the infant Superman is never found by the Kents in Kansas; Abin Sur never finds Hal Jordan to give him the ring to become a Green Lantern; and Bruce Wayne is killed as a child in a failed robbery, and it is his father who becomes Batman and his mother who becomes the Joker.
This movie is about choices and how the decisions we make (and don’t make) affect our lives and the lives of those around us. The theme running through this movie is the serenity prayer: accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can and the wisdom to know the difference. We witness the Flash learning that difference and that’s what makes it a good movie and worthy of your time. This DCAU video is worth adding to your library.