The Flash was not a rousing success. After years of delays and off-screen controversies, the DC film debuted to negative reviews and a disastrous performance at the box office. It’s expected to cost Warner Bros. at least $100 million, and even though the film’s theatrical run has come to a close, fans have continued to find details and inconsistencies that make its reputation worse.
An eagle-eyed Reddit user posted a screenshot of the film’s pivotal multiverse sequence, in which the Flash (Ezra Miller) looks at different iterations of DC superheroes. One of these iterations is Batman from the 1960s TV series, but as the screenshot makes abundantly clear, the VFX department forgot to add a crucial little detail: bat-ears.
While this particular version of Batman has less obvious ears than some of his successors, anyone who’s watched the TV series knows they are visible. Whether it’s an instance of the character being so far away or so shrouded in darkness that the ears simply don’t appear up remains to be seen, but either way, it’s a big problem.
As some of the other Reddit users pointed out, a Batman without discernible bat-ears is simply a guy in a black suit (aka Manman). Nevermind the fact that the actor who played Batman, Adam West, died in 2017, and therefore was brought back to life in a manner that many fans deemed morally questionable (the same goes for the late Superman actors who appear: George Reeves and Christopher Reeve).
This is only the latest instance of The Flash‘s truly abysmal CGI being brought to the spotlight. Zack Mulligan talked about his experience working on the film in a series of TikToks, and what he revealed is that the VFX artists were being overworked. “VFX artists are forced to work relentless hours over time, almost every day, including weekends,” Mulligan revealed. “Studios could easily space out their projects to give these super-talented and hard-working artists more time to work on the film. But that’s just not in the best interest of the shareholders.”
Despite the criticisms, The Flash director Andy Muschietti has been adamant about the fact that the cameos and nods to the past came from a place of true fandom. During a Q&A with Geeks of Color, Muschietti talked about how excited he was to revive the characters he grew up watching.
“The Hall of Fame of great characters and actors that play these characters, there’s so many,” he explained. “The list was endless. We had to choose. We had to pick. Lynda Carter was one of them… [Marlon] Brando and Burgess Meredith, Caesar Romero, all the classics. We grew up watching the series. Our first Batman was Adam West.”
While it’s difficult to knock the director’s enthusiasm, there’s definitely a disconnect between the feeling he was attempting to recreate on the screen, and the feeling that most DC fans came away with. The Flash did not click on many levels, but we’re hoping the Bat-ears mishap doesn’t foreshadow what’s in store for Muschietti’s upcoming Batman film, The Brave and the Bold.