Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023) is way better than the first Captain Marvel (he’ll never be Shazam in my head canon!) movie. If nothing else, Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren are much stronger villains than Mark Strong’s Sivana and the uninspired Seven Deadly Sins. The movie also has cool, homicidal unicorns. Unfortunately it also has Zachary Levi returning as Shazam, the superhero, as opposed to Shazam, the wizard (Djimon Honsou). That’s the first thing bugging me.Levi’s performance is supposed to embody the idea that the Big Red Cheese is no different from Billy Batson, except an adult body. Instead, Cap comes off far more immature than Billy (Asher Angel) and much less tough-minded. I can buy that Shazam (the hero) is Billy but that shouldn’t equate to “he’s a kid who happens to be in Superman’s body” (the comics fall prey to this too). One of Shazam’s (the hero) powers is the wisdom of Solomon, and Solomon is to wisdom what Hercules is to strength. That’s automatically a game-changer, something the first issue of Mark Waid’s new Shazam run touches on.
The movie tries to lampshade all this, pointing out Billy doesn’t have, or doesn’t use, the wisdom of Solomon when he transforms … but why not? Because it’s funny, duuuh, which is not enough of a reason.
A second thing that bugged is Cap being able to tap the lightning in his body and wield it like he was Lightning Lad. That doesn’t work for me, any more than when the CW’s Flash hurls speed energy like an electrical attack. Or the CW’s Supergirl and Superman who seem able to use heat vision as if it were an energy blast. Over in the MCU, they mishandle power bolts too. Dr. Strange and the Scarlet Witch in Multiverse of Madness often looked like they were projecting Green Lantern-style energy constructs. Shang-Chi’s father in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings just uses the rings to blast crap, with none of the diverse effects the Makluan rings have in the comics.
This is a minor thing, I know, but it does bug me and hey, this is my blog post.The Lego Batman Movie (2017), on the other hand, won me over by parodying one of my least favorite 21st century tropes (I don’t know if that was their intent but that’s how I received it). Lego Batman is already a good send-up of 21st century Batman as the hard outsider who plays a lone hand; in the Lego movies the Bat is a borderline paranoid. This is a guy I can easily believe would pull the Tower of Babel stunt.
Early on in the movie, the Joker challenges Batman to admit the truth: the Joker is his raison d’etre. The reason he never rests, his greatest challenge, the center of the Bat-verse, his nemesis. Batman replies that a)his greatest foe is Superman; b)he’s not into shipping: “Joker — you mean nothing to me.” This crushes the Joker’s spirit and drives him to revenge, and who can blame him? In almost 80 years of battling Joker Batman’s never once given out with “I hate you!” Small wonder the Joker ends up getting even by liberating the Eye of Sauron from the Phantom Zone (I fully realize this movie is major product placement but I still enjoyed it).
At the climax, when Bats needs the Joker’s help to stop the apocalypse, Bruce breaks down and confesses that yes, the Joker is his nemesis, his everything, the thing that keeps him going, the one foe he will battle for eternity. The Joker melts, Gotham is saved.
The whole thing mocks (at least in my eyes) the dreadful idea that the Joker sees himself as Batman’s twisted soulmate; he doesn’t want to steal, doesn’t want to kill, his only motive is hurting the Bat (as in the godawful Three Jokers). That doesn’t make him more terrifying or more complex, it makes him pathetic. It’s a trope I’m happy to see mocked.
#SFWApro. Joker cover by Dick Giordano
I really liked the LEGO Batman. https://www.rogerogreen.com/2018/08/13/movie-review-the-lego-batman-movie/
Yes, I’d agree with your review.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Lego Batman was mocking that on purpose.
The lightning / power bolts thing bugs a lot of people. Some have compared the Flash’s use of it to lightsabre fights. I’ve got a friend who’s annoyed (rightly) that all magic on screen these days might as well be laser guns; as opposed to, say, Merlin vs Madam Mim in The Sword In The Stone.
I saw a review of the Harry Potter movies pointing out that every spell, no matter what it is, no matter how it is in the books, causes a flash of white light and an explosion. The reviewer called it a failure of imagination and adaptation.
Basically, my thing is, if you’re going to adapt something, why not make your adaptation recognisable to the thing you’re adapting?
A shit-ton of people are convinced they can do better than the book/know what works/don’t talk to them about fidelity! Like the comic book movies that avoid looking too comic book because that would be juvenile (not so common a view these days, happily).
Don’t even get me started on comic book movies / superhero comics that were ‘above being comic book movies / superhero comics’ or fantasy that was above being fantasy…