CW's The Flash pilot episode review
For those who are not familiar with Flash, it is a tale of Barry Allen (at least in this CW series) who were struck by lighting and gain the ability to run at super speed. Following the same formula as Arrow, the series will followed the journey of Barry becoming a hero and protecting the city.
Flash has several difficulties before its debut; the leaked pilot, the huge success of Arrow, and the appearance of Quiksilver on the big screen through X-Men : DOFP, also budgetary (I'll go to that in a moment). However , I think yesterday episode managed to prove that at least for now, they have overcome the first two.For this review, I'll address the problems while pointing out scenes from the episode that supported it.
First, the leaked pilot does not seem to hurt the viewers as the rating has been proved high today. One thing that helped is that pilot shown on TV is always different from the original version especially with the additional three minutes to set up a big question of Harrison Wells. One good example of this is Heroes. The original pilot is one and a half hour long with an unsettling scene of Muslim terrorism (yes, you better believe) and the pilot shown on TV is 44 minutes long and the rest is shown in the second episode.
Secondly, Flash faces the need to at least stand side by side with Arrow after its huge second season. However, Andrew Kriesberg, the creator of both Arrow and Flash has took a very decision to completely differentiate the story tone. One best comparison is this show is Superman : TAS and Arrow is Batman : TAS. Flash is a very bright ,flashy (no pun intended) story and shocking most action happened in a day while Arrow maintain its dark and gritty story. To have this show and the very end of their spectrum I think allow them to grab different audiences and at the same time allow Arrow's fan to enjoy something that is entirely different. Though, I do wonder how they gonna balance this tone during their crossover episodes.
Thirdly,to quote from Nick Mason of The Weekly Planet, "This is a story of a guy who can run at super speed and the super speed effect must be good ," . Quiksilver in X-Men : DOFP has put a limit on howgreat a super speed special effect can be. Of course, The Flash under TV budget could do those kind of special effect. However, I do think what it is done on the pilot episode was satisfying enough for its portrayal. The additional of lighting streaks while his running and several slow motion scene throughout the episodes gives us the impression of "This quite good". However, this is a heavy special effect series with more and more metahuman appearing so I wonder could, again, their budget keep up with that.
Finally, the budget. This one of the flaws that I see in the series right now. I do think that because a lot of the budget will be use for the super speed special effect, everything else has to be tone down a little. There several scene involving Weather Wizards that the special effect look cheap. While some people might miss it but I am afraid that this would become more and more obvious in the future.
Other good points are mostly in term of performance. Grant Gustin does really well in portrayign the bumbling side of Barry Allen though I do think he is too small for The Flash. Rick Cosnett who played Eddie Thawne which most people said is more close to the look of Barry Allen. However, after watching the pilot, I do think people would change that opinion because he manage to portray this prick detective really well. Everyone else is fine in their performance. Cisco Ramon seems a little bit annoying and it is nice to see John Wesley Shipp (the old Flash in the 90's series) as Barry's dad.
It's still to early to predict Flash's success but I do think they hit a good start. For this pilot episode, I give it 4.0 out 5.0 because the pilot manage to set up interesting thing for future episodes as well as keep the audiences intrigue for it but suffers a little bit of characterization and special effect.
What do you think of The Flash debut episode ? Do you like it, hate it, or don't care about it ? Leave your thought in the comment section. Stay tuned for Arrow's review tommorow as well as more updates from us. Be sure to like us on Facebook at Comikrew Studio and keep following us for more news here at Comikrew Studio !!
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