Nicolas Cage Reveals Just How Much The Flash Butchered His Dramatic Cameo

Summary:

• One of the most embarrassing aspects of the movie was its terrible CGI
• The "exciting cameos" turned out to be a cheap exploitation of nostalgia
• Nicolas Cage's appearance as Superman was originally planned as a dramatic scene, only to be completely changed after filming

The Flash was the most catastrophic embarrassment for the DCU in recent years, one from which the cinematic universe will never recover, at least until it is finally rebooted under the direction of James Gunn.

It was completely obliterated by both critics and fans for a multitude of reasons, one of which was the absolutely horrible CGI effects that looked straight out of an early 2010s video game.

In a rather hilarious turn of events, the film's director, Andy Muschietti, tried to soften the backlash by saying that it was apparently an intentional choice, as the hero experiences everything differently after entering the Speed Force.

However, this only made things worse, as the fans did not accept the explanation at all, and continued to mock the effects, now even more intensely.

The Flash’s Problematic Cameos

But one particular scene that relied heavily on CGI caused even more controversy, and it had nothing to do with the quality of the visuals.

The scene where Barry sees several other universes with characters from previous movies based on DC Comics collapsing wasn't taken lightly by fans due to the fact that multiple now-deceased actors were recreated with CGI, including George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, and Adam West.

While the filmmakers couldn't have just invited the old actors to return, as their MCU competitors did for Spider-Man: No Way Home, for obvious reasons, fans found the use of their likenesses disrespectful and a cheap way to exploit nostalgia.

However, it seems that not all of the cameos in the aforementioned scene were created using only computer-generated graphics.

Trading Drama For CGI

Nicolas Cage, who appeared there as one of the versions of Superman, revealed in an interview with Yahoo! Entertainment that he actually visited the set to film his part.

He portrayed the alternate version of the hero from the canceled Superman Lives, which was supposed to be directed by Tim Burton himself but never saw the light of day, with the only photo of the actor in the iconic suit remaining on the Internet ever since.

But even though Cage spent three hours in the flesh on the set, the actor mentioned that the final result bore no resemblance to the scene he actually starred in.

The original scene showed Superman (with Cage even actually dressed in the suit) overlooking the destruction of the universe, which was a bit of a challenge for the actor, who had to convey "the feelings of loss and sadness and terror" with just his eyes.

For some reason, the scene was then drastically changed to show Superman fighting a giant alien spider that looked as cartoonish as other CGI-created parts of the movie.

This only further proves how tragic the movie's disastrous flop really was, as it was such unnecessary additions that ultimately buried the film, which could have been good even with the terrible CGI.

Throughout the entire running time of The Flash, there are scattered remnants of a truly great superhero movie, with great acting and heartfelt moments, but in the end, it was all undone by turning the movie into a clown show instead of an epic conclusion to the "old" DCU.

Source: Yahoo! Entertainment