Post by Salzmank on Apr 17, 2019 18:44:05 GMT
So, on Shazam!. Spoilers, obviously
I didn’t like it—which is unfortunate, as I absolutely loved the first scene. The director, David F. Sandberg, apparently specializes in horror, which doesn’t surprise me at all: the first scene is for all intents and purposes a mini-horror movie all its own. It grabbed my interest right away and was genuinely spooky, with the empty car, the windows freezing, even the statues of the monsters in the cave. It’s one of the best superhero movie openings I’ve seen, to be honest—also, I’m sure it was partly inspired by the Dan Aykroyd/Albert Brooks opening of Twilight Zone: The Movie, one of the great movie openings irrespective of genre.
I also really liked the adoptive family; the concept seems fairly clichéd, but they all make their characters immensely appealing. The little girl in particular is a real find (and has good comic timing to boot). Mary and the parents also stand out in my mind.
The two major problems, for me, are Zachary Levi and the script. I absolutely hated Levi—I didn’t find him funny at all, and he doesn’t play the Batson character anything like the way the kid does. He’s whiny and obnoxious and acts like he’s all of 6. Did no one realize the disconnect between the characters? Can you imagine for an instant kid Billy acting as superhero Billy acts—in particular standing in front of City Hall and having pictures taken with him for money? It’s perfectly fine to do such a character, but it doesn’t fit with the Billy character. Did two different writers split the kid parts and the superhero parts?
The story has no idea where to go. We have scene after scene of Billy/Shazam/Captain Marvel running from the bad guy, and then the bad guy finds him again, and then he runs again. Over and over. It’s played for comedy and might have been OK once, but as the movie goes on it seems more and more like an excuse because the writers couldn’t think of how to plot the thing.
Mark Strong is the least interesting superhero villain since Justice League’s baddie. (He’s not as bad as the JL villain, but then again I think that villain is the worst superhero movie villain I’ve ever seen.) What should be a great sequence—where he takes his revenge on his dad and brother—is ruined by poor directing choices (we shouldn’t have already seen the monsters killing the board of directors for the scene where the guy outside hears all the commotion) and poor special effects (the monsters are boring and look unbelievably phony). Strong has an excellent scene early on where we learn his obsession, and then that plot element is sped through (the whole movie feels sped through: bad guy releases mons… Quick! Move on to wizard calls Bil… Quick! Move on to monsters attack boa…).
The climax is nothing but uninspired blow-’er-up stuff. And it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and the direction is weak, and the dialogue is weak. Then they all turn into superheroes! OK…? So much for all that chosen one schtick, huh? (Speaking of the wizard—Djimon Hounsou, who plays him, seems like he was in a different movie. He gives a performance so hammy that Tod Slaughter would have asked him to rein it in.)
I laughed at a couple of the jokes. The one where Strong’s monologuing and Capt. Marvel can’t hear him is funny. That’s pretty much it. The cameo near the end is nice. I guess.
Sorry. I didn’t like it at all. Kyle Smith, with whose review I nearly completely agree, compares Shazam! to its detriment with Spider-Man: Homecoming, a similar movie that had several flaws (mostly dealing with the Spidey character) but also had a great twist, an even better suspense sequence, and and a script that actually advanced the story rather than repeating the same gag half a dozen times.
It’s getting great reviews, and it’s great that people like it. Unfortunately, I’m just not one of those people.
I didn’t like it—which is unfortunate, as I absolutely loved the first scene. The director, David F. Sandberg, apparently specializes in horror, which doesn’t surprise me at all: the first scene is for all intents and purposes a mini-horror movie all its own. It grabbed my interest right away and was genuinely spooky, with the empty car, the windows freezing, even the statues of the monsters in the cave. It’s one of the best superhero movie openings I’ve seen, to be honest—also, I’m sure it was partly inspired by the Dan Aykroyd/Albert Brooks opening of Twilight Zone: The Movie, one of the great movie openings irrespective of genre.
I also really liked the adoptive family; the concept seems fairly clichéd, but they all make their characters immensely appealing. The little girl in particular is a real find (and has good comic timing to boot). Mary and the parents also stand out in my mind.
The two major problems, for me, are Zachary Levi and the script. I absolutely hated Levi—I didn’t find him funny at all, and he doesn’t play the Batson character anything like the way the kid does. He’s whiny and obnoxious and acts like he’s all of 6. Did no one realize the disconnect between the characters? Can you imagine for an instant kid Billy acting as superhero Billy acts—in particular standing in front of City Hall and having pictures taken with him for money? It’s perfectly fine to do such a character, but it doesn’t fit with the Billy character. Did two different writers split the kid parts and the superhero parts?
The story has no idea where to go. We have scene after scene of Billy/Shazam/Captain Marvel running from the bad guy, and then the bad guy finds him again, and then he runs again. Over and over. It’s played for comedy and might have been OK once, but as the movie goes on it seems more and more like an excuse because the writers couldn’t think of how to plot the thing.
Mark Strong is the least interesting superhero villain since Justice League’s baddie. (He’s not as bad as the JL villain, but then again I think that villain is the worst superhero movie villain I’ve ever seen.) What should be a great sequence—where he takes his revenge on his dad and brother—is ruined by poor directing choices (we shouldn’t have already seen the monsters killing the board of directors for the scene where the guy outside hears all the commotion) and poor special effects (the monsters are boring and look unbelievably phony). Strong has an excellent scene early on where we learn his obsession, and then that plot element is sped through (the whole movie feels sped through: bad guy releases mons… Quick! Move on to wizard calls Bil… Quick! Move on to monsters attack boa…).
The climax is nothing but uninspired blow-’er-up stuff. And it goes on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and the direction is weak, and the dialogue is weak. Then they all turn into superheroes! OK…? So much for all that chosen one schtick, huh? (Speaking of the wizard—Djimon Hounsou, who plays him, seems like he was in a different movie. He gives a performance so hammy that Tod Slaughter would have asked him to rein it in.)
I laughed at a couple of the jokes. The one where Strong’s monologuing and Capt. Marvel can’t hear him is funny. That’s pretty much it. The cameo near the end is nice. I guess.
Sorry. I didn’t like it at all. Kyle Smith, with whose review I nearly completely agree, compares Shazam! to its detriment with Spider-Man: Homecoming, a similar movie that had several flaws (mostly dealing with the Spidey character) but also had a great twist, an even better suspense sequence, and and a script that actually advanced the story rather than repeating the same gag half a dozen times.
It’s getting great reviews, and it’s great that people like it. Unfortunately, I’m just not one of those people.