The Flash Review: “All-Star Team Up”

The Flash continues on a pretty good streak, provided you can accept we’re on Silver Age track, veering a little close to Batman 1966.

Title: “All-Star Team Up”

Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
Written by Grainne Godfree and Kai Yu Wu

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen / The Flash
Candice Patton as Iris West
Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon
Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells
Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West
Danielle Panabaker as Caitlin Snow
Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak
Brandon Routh as Ray Palmer / Atom
Amanda Pays as Dr. Tina McGee
Emily Kinney as Brie Larvan / Bug-Eyed Bandit
Marlo Franson as Bill Carlisle
Theresa Wong as Lindsay Kang

Premise

Robo-bees attack key scientists, but the Flash gets a little help from Starling City.

High Points

Valdes and Routh have good deal of fun as Ramon and Palmer. Ramon also appears to have some abilities of his own that will play a key role in the story. (We have no idea if his visions represent special abilities; perhaps half of the DCTVerse is having dreams of alternative realities).

This week offers faint hope that the Atom might start to resemble, you know, the Atom, instead of a wannabe Tony Stark.

Low Point

A science firm wouldn’t allow their products to be weaponized, despite the financial rewards they would reap. And no one else would exploit this technology, either.

I can accept the Fastest Man Alive teaming up with the Atom, but not this.

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6

Effects: 5/6

Acting: 5/6 Candice Patton takes a lot of flack but, honestly, her character’s decisions and motivations only loosely make sense, and that’s more the fault of the writers.

Story: 4/6

Emotional Response: 5/6 I enjoy the nerd references as much as the next viewer— maybe more. However, a certain number of obvious references, like the camp, can fall at cross-purposes with the more serious character elements. Joss Whedon can pull the balance off (usually), but he’s in short supply. The creators of Flash need to tread a little more carefully.

Production: 6/6 Production values are high, and they’re attempting some clever cinematography, by regular television standards.

Overall: 5/6

In total, “All-Star Team Up” receives 32/42

4 replies on “The Flash Review: “All-Star Team Up””

  1. After Cisco’s episode, I kept waiting for the same thing to happen to Iris. Or maybe it already has and her behavior was calculated based on that.

  2. I dunno. Normally I’d be all over an episode where Felicity shows up, and yeah the interactions between Ray and Cisco were good, but the rest of the episode was kinda dumb.

    The Flash can’t outrun some robot bees? Really? And he can’t find his way out of a building??? Also defibrillators do not work that way. Also I find it hard to believe nobody had a device capable of generating an EMP lying around.

    • Yeah I agree the bees seemed like a poor Flash counter with so many ways he could destroy or evade them. Plus Cisco not having a gadget to jam. freeze or what not them. Sure I liked the girl geek on girl geek throw down, but still….

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