Despite all of the contradictory hype and controversy surrounding the release of The Flash, I vowed to judge the film on its own merits, without considering the infighting at DC/Warner Brothers, the vitriolic opinions of the online "fan base" or the influence it will have on future DC movie releases. So, setting aside the politics of Snyder and Gunn, Cavill, Affleck and Gadot and, of course, Ezra Miller, I settled in with a friend to watch The Flash. And let's be honest, I was rooting for a win, because I'd much rather watch a good flick than a bad one. Early claims that it was "one of the best superhero films of all time" even raised my hopes a bit.

Well, it didn't live up to the accolades. While parts of the movie were entertaining -- and some of the performances were even great -- The Flash overall is a mess. It has high ambitions but falls shy of its mark.

The movie begins with a superhero team-up, with Batman (Ben Affleck) calling on the Flash (Ezra Miller) for assistance during the destruction in Gotham of a hospital wing where a deadly virus has been stolen. While Batman's scenes chasing down the villains are pretty exciting to watch, the Flash is given a comical montage with falling CGI babies, a therapy dog and some gross snacking.

Then we get to the heart of the movie. Flash's alter-ego, Barry Allen, is sad because his father's appeal of his earlier conviction for the murder of Barry's Italian mother (Maribel Verdu) is likely to fail. So he indulges in a bit of grief-running, as one does, and in the process discovers he can literally run through time.

He instantly masters the ability with pinpoint accuracy and decides, despite Batman's warnings, to go back and save his mother's life, thereby rescuing both his mother from death and his father (Ron Livingston) from prison. But of course he creates a paradox, and he ends up interacting with a younger version of himself with long hair, no powers and an annoying laugh but, on the other hand, a healthy mom and dad at home. Older Barry also realizes it's the same day that he got his powers in an accident combining lightning and chemicals but, since Young Barry isn't working in the lab where the accident occurred (not having his mother's murder to motivate him into a life of crime-fighting), Older Barry takes him to the scene and recreates the accident -- granting Young Barry powers, yes, but losing his own, as well as a tooth.

Then General Zod (Michael Shannon) attacks the planet, in what was the foundation for 2013's Man of Steel. (Barry apparently, quite coincidentally, got his powers at pretty much the same time that Zod invaded Earth.) This time, however, there is no Superman to stop him. For reasons unknown, there's also no Wonder Woman, Aquaman or Cyborg. There's only Batman, but when the Barrys get to his mansion, they find an old hobo version of Michael Keaton's Dark Knight, rather than Affleck's, awaiting them.

Hobo Batman, who in this reality has turned Gotham into a crime-free paradise and, hence, is now redundant as a hero, now lives as a bum in his decaying mansion. He passes on the Barrys' request to help them find the missing Superman ... for a minute or two, after which he agrees to fly them to a Siberian gulag, where the Kryptonian appears to be imprisoned. Once there, however, instead of Kal-El they find his cousin Kara Zor-El (Sasha Calle), whom they rescue. She rejects their request for aid against Zod ... for a minute or two, after which she flies gallantly into battle.

The fight doesn't go well, and the Barrys go back in time to try to fix things, repeatedly, creating more and more and more time variations and paradoxes and, eventually, threatening to collapse the multiverse itself. Disappointingly, DC's version of the multiverse, unlike Marvel's, is conceived as a massive arena, where we see minute variations on events as well as alternate versions of heroes (including George Reeves, Christopher Reeve and Nicolas Cage as various Supermen, Adam West as Batman and Helen Slater as Supergirl).

That's all I'll say about the plot, but it's not satisfying, particularly given all the hype that DC has piled on this release. If this is the final chapter of the so-called Snyderverse, it's a poor send-off; if it's the first chapter of Gunn's shiny new DCU, it's off to a bad start. Oh, and there's a lot of subpar CGI work in this one, too.

As Barry Allen, Miller is painfully weird and off-putting -- even more so as his younger self, who channels Tom Hulce's Amadeus Mozart with a giddy, high-pitched titter that's like nails on a chalkboard. Affleck is great in his brief appearance as Batman -- presumably his last -- as is Gal Gadot in a brief, ultimately pointless cameo as Wonder Woman. The only real reason to watch The Flash is to see Keaton in action as Batman again. (And, if anything, Keaton's performance in this movie made me even sadder that we missed out on seeing his return in the discarded Batgirl movie, where Keaton was set to make his initial return to the character.)

I'd almost say it's worth watching for Calle's edgy performance as a variant Supergirl, but while I thought she was very good in the role, the movie didn't give us enough backstory on the character to care that much about her. She deserved more ... and, who knows, maybe she'll pop up again in Gunn's new DC universe.

In the past two decades or so of superhero movies, there have been films I've loved and films I've disliked. I can't think of one, honestly, that disappointed me as much as The Flash.