Fans are angry over tasteless superhero cameo in The Flash

The Flash, the final film in the original DC Universe as envisioned by Batman v Superman director Zack Snyder, is now out in theaters. Is it a worthy ending to this rocky run, or a reminder of why we’re leaving it behind in the first place?

Well, the reviews are actually pretty good, be it from critics or audiences. But one aspect is giving some fans pause.

Let’s talk about cameos. Beware SPOILERS below.

Which celebrity superheroes appear in The Flash?

Like pretty much every superhero movies out there today, The Flash is about the multiverse. It involves Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) messing with the timeline and then having to skip from one universe to another in an attempt to fix it. This means he gets to meet alternate versions of famous superheroes, some of whom we’ve already seen in the trailers. For instance, Michael Keaton returns as Batman, a role he hasn’t played since 1992’s Batman Returns.

We’ve also learned of other cameos that Warner Bros. Discovery was trying to keep under wraps, like the fact that Nicolas Cage briefly appears as Superman (he was going to play Superman in the ’90s but the project fell apart).

Now that the movie is out, we know about even more cameos. The movie ends with an appearance from George Clooney as Batman, a role in played in 1997’s Batman & Robin. Even more surprising, we briefly see two versions of Superman: one played by Christopher Reeve and the other by George Reeve. We also see a version of Batman played by Adam West.

Fans think that reanimating Christopher Reeve for The Flash is “beyond tasteless”

The issue is that all three of those actors have been dead for some time; they were reanimated and put into superhero costumes using modern CGI technology. This has struck some fans as ghoulish, not to mention poorly done. The reanimation of Reeve, who first played the Man of Steel in 1978’s Superman, got a lot of attention in particular. A sampling of opinions from Twitter:

• @CQuill97: “There is so much joy, warmth and charisma in this performance. There is so much of Christopher Reeve in this Superman. Bringing him back as a lifeless CGI puppet is beyond tasteless.”
• @SlNEMATIC666: “What an absolute insult the Christopher Reeves’ memory too. Looks like some PS2 graphics”
• @F_UT_U_RE: “Brandon Routh is literally supposed to be Christopher Reeve’s stand in. His movie was a continuation of Reeve. Why wouldn’t you just use him instead of a dead CGI puppet? Especially such a kind, warm man like Christopher Reeve.”
• @shadowknightdk: “You can hate CW but that’s a fact that they respected Christopher Reeves Superman in every way possible instead of cgi’ing him”
• @patrolwasp: “Christopher Reeve, I am so sorry”

It is kinda creepy that these actors are in this movie without their content, which is impossible to obtain. Still, as technology gets better, we can probably expect more of this kind of thing.

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