‘The Flash‘ (2023) has been widely criticized for more reasons than one. Some are even calling it the prime example of what went wrong with DCEU and why it might be the end of decade long franchise. One of the topics why the movie came under scrutiny was the distasteful cameos by various versions of Superman, one of them being the late Christopher Reeve’s version.
Flash was the amalgamation of many multiverses of various DCEU heroes. But the movie had too many concepts at once, and DC in itself has very loosely connected universes, add to that Ezra Miller‘s controversies which make the movie nothing more than a hot mess, leaving much potential unexplored.
Christopher Reeve’s Family Didn’t Know About His Cameo In ‘The Flash’
James Gunn‘s ‘The Flash‘ consisted of multiple incarnations of Superman, Batman and Supergirl. Christopher Reeve portrayed Superman in the late 1970s and was adored dearly by the fans of the franchise. He suffered a life-altering injury while horse riding and was deemed paralyzed. The fans of DCEU are calling out his latest cameo in the movie as he has been deceased for two decades now which means his likeness was a product of CGI and are calling it disrespectful to the actor.
In an interview with Variety, Reeve’s children namely Will, Matthew, and Alexandra during the discussion of ‘Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story‘, a documentary on their father revealed that they hadn’t watched ‘The Flash’ yet nor were they aware of their father’s appearance in the movie. This added fuel to the fire, with fans calling it grossly disrespectful to Reeve’s legacy and professional acting career. Though the production house was in its full rights to use his likeness, people are still talking about how his family could at least have been informed.
An X user commented, “What an absolute insult to the Christopher Reeves’ memory too. Looks like some PS2 graphics,” calling out the badly done CGI job. Whereas others thought it would be a disdain to use his image in the first place commenting, “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.”
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Other Cameos Of Superman Are Also Falling Subject To Scrutiny
While ‘The Flash’ was successful in its inclusivity of much-anticipated portrayals like Michael Keaton’s Batman, it had a recurring issue with its Superman heroes. George Reeves who had played the the man of steel before Christopher Reeve also had an appearance in the movie and was reprimanded by the fans for the same reasons as Christopher’s. The movie makers were called out for not employing live actors’ versions for the cameos and the audience found the usage of dead actors as offensive even if meant as a tribute.
Nicholas Cage’s cameo was allegedly a mix of AI’s generative techniques and footage from his dropped movie ‘Superman Lives‘. He said in an interview with Wired that his portrayal was not something he had hoped to be and indicated displeasure with the bad job done at his cameo. He revealed that, “When I went to the picture, it was me fighting a giant spider. I did not do that.”
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