Lots of things happened this week, good things for my
professional development and mental health. Lots of good, grown up stuff. And
then I watched Shazam and realised I barely cared about grown up stuff.
A quick sum. A wizard is getting too old and weak to contain
the seven deadly sin monsters who had wreaked humanity in the past and needs to
pass his magic powers on to a worthy ‘champion’. During his search he stumbles
onto a lonely, rejected child who is not deemed worthy at the time. He is never
deemed worthy, actually, and therefore becomes the villain. Sorry if that was
misleading. But then he meets this other child, this boy who lost his parents,
a loner, a runaway from foster homes and he becomes the champion. And if he
says ‘Shazam’ he turns into a tall, handsome Zachary.
This movie was brilliant. I was a bit biased as Zachary Levi
is one of the most likeable people in Hollywood and I have recently re-watched
the second season of Marvelous Mrs Maisel, where he was perfect. And so much
better than stupid Joel. But I had a much stronger counter-bias which is that
DC has pretty much fucked up all of its superhero movies in the DCEU.
Therefore, I can safely say that I have a balanced opinion about this movie and
all should agree. The humour was fantastic, light and immature, as it should
be. Extra points for keeping the original costume regardless of how ridiculous
it looked in the year 2019. Characters were very, very likeable, meaning the
main character, the foster siblings and the foster parents. And Santa Claus. Look
out for the little sister, who is going to melt your heart from her very first
scene.
And all the ‘comic book’ stuff were ‘comic book stuff’. Yes,
the villain and the wizard do not get a sufficient back-story and are
charicature-esque. But I mean, how much back-story can you give a white-bearded
wizard to make him relatable without spending seven books, eight movies, a
play, two prequels (to date) and multiple unnecessary tweets? And the villain
looked like he had a difficult childhood; how would I have enjoyed his defeat
if he was relatable and I felt bad for him? I hope this is not a spoiler, I
mean even for Avengers: Endgame we all know Thanos has to lose, right? Right?
He has to. If he doesn’t, I am quitting the movies. All of the movies. Okay,
maybe the seven deadly sins could have been better (much better) CGI-d or taken
a note out of Fullmetal Alchemist and had more character, but mehh, they were
way too ugly anyway.
And the big surprise of the evening was that this was an
emotional movie. Emotionality was always lurking in the background, the
protagonist is a delinquent foster child with a good heart, his best friend is
a foster child with a disability, they are outcasts and bullied at school; that
is all there. But it is shoved down your throat, begging you to focus on how unfortunate
and scarred the protagonists are, as in some other, uhum, movies. But when the
time is right, emotionality hits you in the face. Followed by some beautiful,
immature, funny scenes.
So is this hope for DC? Did they finally get it right or
will this just be an exception to the Snyderisms we have had to put up with? A
friend of mine suggested that the movie was good because of the lower budget.
As Shazam is not a famous superhero, there was more creative freedom, more room
for risk. I hope that is not true. I hope they finally sat down at DC’s
fortress of solitude, their Batcave, their headquarters, pinpointed what Marvel
did well, hired James Gunn and will now reboot the universe. And while I
mourned for Battfleck, and will do so until the superhero genre is fully
saturated, I welcome this change if it comes with Shazam and his aesthetic in
the Justice League.
Let me also put this out there, while I love Disney and all
it has done for superhero movies, this could easily turn to a Lex Luthor
situation with Disney having full control over blockbusters and us mainstream
viewers depending on (1) whatever mediocracy they put out and (2) Oscar’s
season. Part of it is already happening. As much as a liked Captain Marvel, it
was not Winter Soldier. It was not a love-project for someone, it was not an
original perspective. It did not need to be. From the 34 characters that will
be or be referenced in Avengers: Endgame, she was the only one we had not met;
of course we would watch her movie. We would watch her movie even if she wore a
helmet that looked like a chicken’s head. Again, kudos for original costumes.
How am I talking about the MCU again? Shazam deserves better. Shazam was
awesome. Pretty decent soundtrack too.
It is good for us to have some healthy competition among the
comic book movie giants, trying to out-do one another. We will get the better
movies, more thought-out scripts, interesting directors and justice for Batman.
I will be so disappointed if this ends up being an unexploited, momentary
genius, but on the bright side, I will always have things to complain about on
this blog. Bright side for me, that is.
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