With a slew of superheroes getting there own movies these days it's hard to imagine a time where they only appeared on TV. Which is actually the case the episode that i'm going to be reviewing for you all today as while yes granted The Flash did later get his own big budget movie to quote Green Lantern from Teen Titans Go To The Movies "we don't talk about it" with this episode proving that this character can be done and done right if you have the right people working on it and so then me as I review the episode that has a totally original title with the episode in question being called simply just "Pilot" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when a man who can control the weather starts to commit crimes in Central City a new hero must emerge to stop him before it's far to late. Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad at the very least in of pilot episodes as this episode does have alot of things to set up and still tell a good story and while the plot might be a little bit on the weaker side of things when compared to later episodes of this show considering that this was the first episode of the show then the plot was about as good as it was ever going to be and while yes granted the shows plots especially in this first season would get alot more better that doesn't mean that this episodes plot isn't good with only a few very minor issues in regards to the plot like the fact that as was mentioned it is pretty weak with it also being something that's not really all that focused on all that much which is most likely a result of the episode having so many things to do that there just wasn't enough time left over to focus on the plot of the episode this does have the adverse effect of making this episodes plot feel alot more like an afterthought rather then something that was it's main focus with this being something that would have been very easily fixed in the edit for the episode for the episode and yet no one who was making this show thought to bring up this point as you should always lead with your best foot forward and this episodes plot the best one that they more then likely could have gone with with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Grant Gustin as Barry Allen , Candice Patton as Iris West and Danielle Panabaker as Dr. Caitlin Snow. Also starring in this episode is Rick Cosnett as Detective Eddie Thawne , Carlos Valdes as Cisco Ramon , Tom Cavanagh as Dr. Harrison Wells , Jesse L. Martin as Detective Joe West , Michelle Harrison as Nora Allen , Chad Rook as Clyde Mardon , Patrick Sabongui as Captain David Singh , Al Sapienza as Detective Fred Chyre , John Wesley Shipp as Dr. Henry Allen and Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen / The Arrow.
Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in al honesty not that bad. As just like with the plot this episodes acting is about as good as it was ever going to get with the fact that's a pilot episode and those typically don't have good acting in them as the episodes main actors are still trying to find there respective characters and while this episode much like the rest of the show does have some decent acting in it with a special shout out going to Tom Cavanagh who is equal parts creepy and charming at the exact same time it would have been foolish to expect this episode to have the kind of acting that you get in later episodes of a show and while this episodes acting does get alot more better as the episode goes on there are still moments where you can tell that they didn't have enough time to do a second take as the acting would appear wooden with the best actor in this whole entire episode being Grant Gustin who simply is Barry Allen with him managing to capture the charm and warmth of the character from the comics and yet still make the character his own and heck when it was announced that The Flash was getting a movie many people wanted him to play the role as he's just so good as the character something that does prove over and over again in this show and in this episode with this episode acting really being helped by the fact that this episodes script is just so good that all this episodes actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come only of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the really greats that really are currently over at BOT VFX. Now then in of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us un this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as while yes The CW does have a habit of having really bad CGI in alot of their shows with this one being of no exception to that rule here there are also some pretty decent looking effects for the time thrown in there as well with the particle accelerator explosion looking really good even for the fact that this episodes effects where made on a TV show budget and that they didn't usually have a quick turn around time but even with all of that mind there are still some pretty bad lookin effects thrown in there as well as the fog effects that the villain of this episode uses whilst they do look decent there also effects that have aged horribly as well with the same thing also being used for the effects on the opening of the secret door as they just look so fake and cartoony that it was hard to take them seriously in this live action setting and while yes with a TV show you do have spread your effects budget across several episodes and so you can't have good looking effects all of the time in every single episode this is something that really should have been taken into given the fact that this was always going to be a very effects heavy show and yet because it wasn't and because of the fact that the effects budget for this show was so small it does mean that for as many good effects in this episode that we do get we also get several equally bad looking effects in this episode as well.
This episodes villain Clyde Mardon does make for a decent enough first villain for Barry Allen and the team to come up against. As while he won't ever be as threatening and as tough as some of there later villains he is threatening and strong enough to be the first villain of a TV show as the character is the kind of character that would only work in a very early episode of the show as that's when the hero is going to be tested the least due the fact that there just getting their powers and with Clyde pretty much just being a bank robber and really nothing more then that he doesn't really need to be a really strong and threatening villain as all he needs to do is be a able villain and that's exactly what he is he's able and while yes it might have helped the show if they did have a slightly more stronger villain like for example Captain Boomerang as then we could get to see if Barry really does have what it takes to be a hero where as here the only thing that he has to do is a create a circle and that's really it which again is fine for the first episode of the show and given just how weak of a villain that Clyde is in the first place it does make alot of sense that Barry wouldn't have to do all that much work to take him down but at the same time tho much like with the plot you do want to lead with your best foot forward and what better way to do that then to give Barry a villain that will actually test him and make him question if he actually has what it takes to be a hero ad while Captain Boomerang might not always do that he is a stronger villain and one that's also alot more well known on top of that then what Clyde Mardon is or ever will be on top of all that.
There was one thing about the scene where Barry gets his powers that really bugged me and that's the fact that for no reason whatsoever even tho he knows that this potentially very dangerous thing has just gone of and if causing lightening to form above him. Barry still things that's wise not only to stand directly beneath it but to also hold on to some chains as it strikes him this wouldn't be an issue if the makers of this episode added in a line to explain what he was even doing over there in the first place and what he was doing holding those chains in the first place but they don't and there for it looks like that Barry stood where that lightening was going to hit because of the fact that he just wanted to get hit by lightening and he was holding those chains for no good reason which if that is the case then it makes Barry look a little less smart then what we know him to be and while this is a very minor nitpick as his origin was still pretty well done with the makers of the episode even taking the time to show us the audience things that could potentially help the electricity from the lightening bolt reach him in the first place it's that one little nitpick that undoes alot of that good work as up until that point the writing from a setting things up point of view was handled really well and yet it felt like that they had to get t the scene with him being hit by lightening as fast as possible and so they just had him act weirdly out of character seemingly for no reason whatsoever when it would have made more sense to have his work bench be directly underneath where the lightening hits him as then you don't have to explain why he was stood there as you could just say that he was stood because he was busy working away on something at the time of the accident and that's really it.
While this show does have a pretty weak villain what it doesn't have is weak side characters as this episode does spend alot of it's running time also setting up the shows side characters as well as it's main character. While yes Barry will always be the main character of this show as the show is quite literally named after his alter ego that doesn't mean that the side characters get short changed as they don't with all of them getting there own moments to shine all throughout the episode and while yes none f this episodes characters are that well developed that is something that's only natural as this is the first episode and therefor of course none of the episodes characters are going to be that well developed but at the same time tho for characters like Joe who's outburst at Barry does come out of nowhere it would have been to see that tension build up within him all throughout the episode as then it would have felt more natural that he would snap at Barry when he things that Barry's gone to far but due to what we see in the episode it is something that does come out nowhere as does the fact that Wells knows alot more about Barry Allen then what he's letting on as while it is a great twist that he's from the future there still should have been something in his dialog that makes you question just what his true motives are in the first place with both Cisco and Caitlin being pretty much as well formed as they were ever going to be in this episode with both of them making an effort to befriend Barry and Iris is just there to be the love interest in this episode with her character being so pointless to the plot of the episode that she could have been removed from the episode entirely and nothing would have been missed which does make it feel like that she was only added into the episode because of the fact that she was in the comics and not because she had an active role to play in the plot of the episode.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running tome of exactly forty for minuets and thirty three seconds. Which is pretty much the exact grand total running for an episode of this show to have with this episode having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time the issue is is that not only does this episode not really use it's running time all that wisely bey developing it's plot and characters all that well but that it does feel like that it's trying to do to much as it has so much more stuff to set up like it's has Barry and his origin has to introduce all of the side characters as well as the plot of the season and yet still tell a good plot in it's first episode and it's can't do all of that with it's current running time and as a result of that is the fact that the plot can't be developed all that much as it has to set up Barry as a believable character and it can't set up the rest of the side characters because of the fact that it has it's own story to tell with these issues being ones that could have been fixed if the episode was an hour long as then it could have done all of those things then some if it had the longer running time that it really did need and yet because it doesn't it does mean that the episode as a whole does suffer because of it as now nothing gets the chance to be that developed and heck if the makers of this show did want to set up alot of things in this episode then what they should have done is held off on introducing things like Iris and even the main plot of the show until the next episode and just focus on setting Barry and some of the side characters and in telling a good story and that's really all they'd have do to do but I really will it that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is an action show that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presentwd to us in this very episode well then in all honesty i in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. With this episodes action mainly being Barry running to form a circle around Clyde and that's really it and while yes there is technically a car chase scene around the middle of the episode they both seem oddly tame for a superhero show which in this case is something that does work from a storytelling perspective as Barry is just figuring out his powers in this episode and so he's of course not going to know what it is that the can do with them and he's of course not going to know that he can hit someone really fast because he's not been put into a situation where he would need to know all of that information and with that in mind this episodes action is alot more better then what it really had any right to be as it gives us a chance to see Barry use his brain instead of his brawn and seeing him figuring out a solution to defeating Clyde Mardon for good does make for an entertaining scene as it is something that this character would do and it's something that sets this character apart from say Batman or Superman for example both of whom use there brawn instead of their brain but at the same time tho it would have helped this episode out a little bit bit if it's action was alot more entertaining to watch because as things are it's action does seem like it's on the weaker side of things in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall whilst this show might have gone downhill as the seasons went on this is still a really good episode of the show as it gives us a really good representation of just who not only The Flash is but also who Barry Allen is as well something that THAT live action movie just couldn't do as that movie was more focused on spectacle then storytelling where here in this epsiode it's the opposite that's true in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now the i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 7 out 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official DC Extended Universe fandom wiki page , the official Arrowverse fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Arrowverse fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with really alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Arrowverse fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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