The real Billy was only a Debbie Downer with his new foster family, when he was tricking the cops at the beginning he was just like Levi's interpretation.
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Shazam! Spoiler Thread
- Thread starter Penguin
- Start date
The real Billy was only a Debbie Downer with his new foster family, when he was tricking the cops at the beginning he was just like Levi's interpretation.
Just watched it and...meh it's an okay mediocre movie, though I got bored and will probably end up forgetting it.
Maybe, but then I guess we didn't spend enough time with fun Billy to make Levi work, imo.
Yeah, I found myself pretty bored during the 2nd half.
I really liked this movie. I say I think it's among my favorite live-action super hero movies. It was that good. There were a few minor things I would've changed though. Dr. Sivana was kind of flat and they could have shown a little more with his relationship between his father and his brother so when he went for the kill it would've felt more emotional. I got the idea and it was contrast with Billy as in how he was connected with his new family, but it was also a little similar because he found out his birth mother didn't really care for him. It would've just been a little nicer if we got more of the family struggles with Sivana.
I also would've made Billy a little younger. I think in the comics he's usually like 10 or 11. I would've made him 13 at the youngest and if they plan on using the character for more films I would think you'd want them to stay looking like a kid as long as possible. I also was expecting the Seven Deadly Sins to actually manifest themselves in the city beyond their physical bodies like people committing random acts of murder, theft, gluttony, etc, but that might've made it too dark when it already got quite dark in some scenes already. I knew my theater was freaking out when he threw his brother out the window suddenly. I also did not see that crash coming. They were parked on the side of the road what was with that truck driver? He had to be drunk or something. It was not the child's fault.
Really good shit though and I did not expect them to bring the Marvel family out the gate. That was really cool and I did not expect Megan Good. I was like is that fucking Megan Good? in the theater.
I'm so excited and shit I'm not even paying attention to grammar. Fuck it.
I'm eager to see where a sequel could go. It's weird Rock was cast as Shazam like years ago, but they didn't even end up using him and this Black Adam solo movie is weird. I dunno. I think villain movies are weird. I doubt I'll see that Joker movie.
I also would've made Billy a little younger. I think in the comics he's usually like 10 or 11. I would've made him 13 at the youngest and if they plan on using the character for more films I would think you'd want them to stay looking like a kid as long as possible. I also was expecting the Seven Deadly Sins to actually manifest themselves in the city beyond their physical bodies like people committing random acts of murder, theft, gluttony, etc, but that might've made it too dark when it already got quite dark in some scenes already. I knew my theater was freaking out when he threw his brother out the window suddenly. I also did not see that crash coming. They were parked on the side of the road what was with that truck driver? He had to be drunk or something. It was not the child's fault.
Really good shit though and I did not expect them to bring the Marvel family out the gate. That was really cool and I did not expect Megan Good. I was like is that fucking Megan Good? in the theater.
I'm so excited and shit I'm not even paying attention to grammar. Fuck it.
I'm eager to see where a sequel could go. It's weird Rock was cast as Shazam like years ago, but they didn't even end up using him and this Black Adam solo movie is weird. I dunno. I think villain movies are weird. I doubt I'll see that Joker movie.
Hmm, I thought I read hye's one of the strongest telepaths rivaling even Martian Manhunter?
Saw it yesterday in theaters and really liked it. The art style credits scene was perfect t too.
One of the biggest caveats I have for the movie is near the end of, definitely could have cut a lot of scenes. Especially some comic relief near the end felt overdone like catch phrase stuff. But the scenes vs the villian felt like it was being done over and over again. They just flew to a new place and started over fighting. It just felt kind of repetitive , and could have just isolated it to one or two set pieces.
The slow mo, when Billy lifts head out of water to say Shazam was sooooo bad. Should have got rid of that scene, it just felt weird when everything else was shot cleanly.
One of the biggest caveats I have for the movie is near the end of, definitely could have cut a lot of scenes. Especially some comic relief near the end felt overdone like catch phrase stuff. But the scenes vs the villian felt like it was being done over and over again. They just flew to a new place and started over fighting. It just felt kind of repetitive , and could have just isolated it to one or two set pieces.
The slow mo, when Billy lifts head out of water to say Shazam was sooooo bad. Should have got rid of that scene, it just felt weird when everything else was shot cleanly.
I think they're trying to distance from the whole universe thing, maybe? The title card implies a shared universe.
You've already tried this with the "small DC logo" logic lol. Stahp it. There are more references to the DCEU in Shazam than any other solo movie so far. Sandberg said it was up to him and he just chose not to use it. The title card does not imply a shared universe whatsoever. It's used in the DCU shows as well.
edit: I may be imagining what Sandberg said. I remember it in my head but no idea where I read it from.
I went into the theater to see this, thinking it was gonna be an ok film, and left with about the same feelings.
The four aspects of the movie (Billy embracing his new family, his search for his mom, the villain's story, and the Shazam antics) had positives but seemed lacking.
Billy's interactions with the other foster children were so limited outside of his superhero persona that I never felt the familial bond between them. They all had such little dialogue and screen time shared between them. The exception being Freddy, who got the most bonding time with Billy, but again, that was mostly with his Superhero persona.
This wouldn't bother me as much if I felt like Asher Angel and Zachary Levi were playing the same character but I didn't get that either. Apart from the intro, teenage Billy seemed so dour and one note for most of the movie, while Shazam was incredibly goofy and lighthearted. Maybe if there was more screen time for the younger version that showed off more of his lighthearted traits for the adult version to match up with, I would've connected more with the character's journey, but it just wasn't there.
Also, the villain's story was pretty average. I felt like I'd seen the same plot a million times already in other superhero films. The only thing that makes it stand out from others is the darker tone. The opening scene felt so mean spirited and off that I thought I was watching something from a Zack Snyder DC film. There were definitely some tonal issues throughout. We go from goofy Shazam antics to Silvana's demons (?) ripping the heads off of people and killing his family. I think going more light-hearted would've helped for the sake of consistency.
The one highlight of the film was its humor. Zachary Levi knocked it out of the park as Shazam. The scenes with him and Freddy were incredibly entertaining, and while I thought the relationship between the two wasn't handled as best as it could've been, those scenes were great in isolation.
I'm definitely still looking forward to a sequel. With the origin story out of the way, maybe more time can be devoted to the aspects I felt were lacking. Regardless, I thought this one was just ok.
The four aspects of the movie (Billy embracing his new family, his search for his mom, the villain's story, and the Shazam antics) had positives but seemed lacking.
Billy's interactions with the other foster children were so limited outside of his superhero persona that I never felt the familial bond between them. They all had such little dialogue and screen time shared between them. The exception being Freddy, who got the most bonding time with Billy, but again, that was mostly with his Superhero persona.
This wouldn't bother me as much if I felt like Asher Angel and Zachary Levi were playing the same character but I didn't get that either. Apart from the intro, teenage Billy seemed so dour and one note for most of the movie, while Shazam was incredibly goofy and lighthearted. Maybe if there was more screen time for the younger version that showed off more of his lighthearted traits for the adult version to match up with, I would've connected more with the character's journey, but it just wasn't there.
Also, the villain's story was pretty average. I felt like I'd seen the same plot a million times already in other superhero films. The only thing that makes it stand out from others is the darker tone. The opening scene felt so mean spirited and off that I thought I was watching something from a Zack Snyder DC film. There were definitely some tonal issues throughout. We go from goofy Shazam antics to Silvana's demons (?) ripping the heads off of people and killing his family. I think going more light-hearted would've helped for the sake of consistency.
The one highlight of the film was its humor. Zachary Levi knocked it out of the park as Shazam. The scenes with him and Freddy were incredibly entertaining, and while I thought the relationship between the two wasn't handled as best as it could've been, those scenes were great in isolation.
I'm definitely still looking forward to a sequel. With the origin story out of the way, maybe more time can be devoted to the aspects I felt were lacking. Regardless, I thought this one was just ok.
Damn, it's kinda wild how he could forget about that seeing as how standard it is.
But also
It's wild I didn't even notice and thought it was there.
I mean is it really? I think it started with WW? So there's been maybe 3 movies and hes probably watched them only once each. I doubt he sees it very much. It is funny how nobody else thought to tell him though lol. Shows how little impact it has
Loved shazam. Damn glad I didnt take my 6 year old though, he wouldn't have made it through the first scene, much less the board room. My theater had the bass cranked up so far whenever a Sin talked it shook the building!
My sister in law had a kid at 18, not married. Her daughter carries the baby daddy's last name (he ditched her a few months after birth). So makes sense to me that "Batson" was the father's name and Billy never knew the moms last name, thus she was fairly untraceable, especially if no one cared to look.
I really want a Marvel family film now. Hard to see the original kids lasting for sequels (will they eventually age into their hero selves?) but damn was it fun.
My sister in law had a kid at 18, not married. Her daughter carries the baby daddy's last name (he ditched her a few months after birth). So makes sense to me that "Batson" was the father's name and Billy never knew the moms last name, thus she was fairly untraceable, especially if no one cared to look.
I really want a Marvel family film now. Hard to see the original kids lasting for sequels (will they eventually age into their hero selves?) but damn was it fun.
"Levi didn't act like the kid" was kinda the point I thought. Even a dour kid thrown into an adult body with magic and super powers is gonna let the edginess slip, I would think.
He and Freddy started to bond more once Billy's shell was gone as Shazam. And even then, the movie was smart enough to recognize Billy's shortcomings and self centered attitude would still be there, leading to how his attitude creates the rift between him and Freddy.
He and Freddy started to bond more once Billy's shell was gone as Shazam. And even then, the movie was smart enough to recognize Billy's shortcomings and self centered attitude would still be there, leading to how his attitude creates the rift between him and Freddy.
I imagine we'll get Shazam cameos with just Levi. But turning off and on the power was such a focal point of the movie it'd be hard to imagine "just Shazam" for a whole film. Does it wear off? What if he sleeps? Can he even remove the costume at all? Some clearly defined limitations (yeah yeah, comics are not known for that!) would help develop the character I think.
That's basically what Miracle Man is. There's a nice interview with Niel Gaiman about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isLW0TTB2R0
One thing I appreciated is how the scene just before Billy gets abandoned is actually pretty different the two times they show it. The first time you watch it, his mom is all warm and plesant, and is clearly Billy's idealistic memory of that day. When they show the scene from the mom's point of view, she's cold and clearly at a breaking point. I also think the colour grading was a warm yellow the first time, and a cold blue the second time. Neat touch.
I felt the same at first, but the more I thought about it I feel like it works better not showing the face anyways. All the audience needs to know is that it's Superman, whoever is playing him isn't really relevant. It'll stand the test of time better rewatching this movie in 10-20 years when it's just a faceless Superman at the end instead of Cavill or whoever else might play Supes in the future.
I think the first half is much stronger than the second half, though I think the visit to his mother is a great scene.
Overall, I liked it. I thought it dragged a bit, but it was fun and funny and endearing, and much better than anything the DCEU has produced since at least WW.
Overall, I liked it. I thought it dragged a bit, but it was fun and funny and endearing, and much better than anything the DCEU has produced since at least WW.
Wouldn't the police seek her out though? It's not like he's a baby that doesn't remember what his mom looks like. Also isn't child abandonment a crime in and of itself anyway?
I'll agree that Levi and Asher seemed like two totally different characters, but I think that's the cost of adapting Geoff John's troubled Billy Batson and still wanting the classic idealistic kid-like Captain Marvel persona. I never really liked Johns' New 52 interpretation of Batson, though I understand how dated the old one is. But yeah, as he grows up, he's going to be less kid like and it would kind of defeat the purpose.
I was a little surprised at the age of the actors that they got to play the superheroes as well. They made them all look much younger, and obviously they acted younger, but they're all going to age as well.
That board room scene did seem a bit out of place, and it was the one scene that was probably not appropriate for my kids (though the mom part had a bigger emotional impact).
Yes, I noticed the same. Very well done and did a beautiful job of showing how we idealize our parents/our past etc as children.
I was hoping based on the trailers to be able to recommend this to my sister for my nephew to see but I don't think I can do that because of the board room scene, that was a bit much.
I finally got around to seeing this and ended up hating it. I feel bad being the one to shoot a film down, which is why I feel so utterly confused by what I watched, it felt like I saw a completely different movie from everyone else. Usually my opinions don't differ too greatly from the RT scores so really, I was shocked. Girlfriend didn't like it at all either.
Firstly, it seemed really strange how out of sync Asher Angel and Zachary Levi were in their performances, didn't feel like they were two halves of the same character at all. Shazam acting vapid and weird and letting things get to his head wasn't telegraphed by how Billy acts without his powers at all.
Sivana's goals weren't clear at all and him being a character motivated by envy was never conveyed, at all. Just a stiff performance without any kind of emotion at all. The conference room scene where he gets revenge or whatever, there's almost nothing to that at all and we never really get to stew in the fact that this is a guy whose been hunting for the powers of Shazam at all, and when the two finally meet there's almost nothing to it at all. We don't really get to see what the sin's motivations are at all either, nothing is developed at all.
A lot of people spoke of an emotional payoff at the end of the film but I didn't feel it at all. When the rest of the family gain their powers it felt weird and unearned, save for Freddy, who I was convinced was going to have some sort of emotional scene with Billy. But it never happens, save for the cafeteria scene which comes after all is forgiven. Just about every emotion or event driving the characters never gets the time or energy or pacing it deserves to feel anything at all. Even something as simple as a more pronounced musical score could have helped here. Anything.
At the end of the day the only endearing thing I found about the movie was it's humor, which, if consistent would be fine. Humor carries plenty of movies and I guess at the end of the day you could consider the genre of this film as comedy or even parody, but only about half of the jokes landed for me and I went in more than willing to be meet the film halfway.
Firstly, it seemed really strange how out of sync Asher Angel and Zachary Levi were in their performances, didn't feel like they were two halves of the same character at all. Shazam acting vapid and weird and letting things get to his head wasn't telegraphed by how Billy acts without his powers at all.
Sivana's goals weren't clear at all and him being a character motivated by envy was never conveyed, at all. Just a stiff performance without any kind of emotion at all. The conference room scene where he gets revenge or whatever, there's almost nothing to that at all and we never really get to stew in the fact that this is a guy whose been hunting for the powers of Shazam at all, and when the two finally meet there's almost nothing to it at all. We don't really get to see what the sin's motivations are at all either, nothing is developed at all.
A lot of people spoke of an emotional payoff at the end of the film but I didn't feel it at all. When the rest of the family gain their powers it felt weird and unearned, save for Freddy, who I was convinced was going to have some sort of emotional scene with Billy. But it never happens, save for the cafeteria scene which comes after all is forgiven. Just about every emotion or event driving the characters never gets the time or energy or pacing it deserves to feel anything at all. Even something as simple as a more pronounced musical score could have helped here. Anything.
At the end of the day the only endearing thing I found about the movie was it's humor, which, if consistent would be fine. Humor carries plenty of movies and I guess at the end of the day you could consider the genre of this film as comedy or even parody, but only about half of the jokes landed for me and I went in more than willing to be meet the film halfway.
I caught Shazam yesterday and thought it was fairly good like a 7.8/10. But man I really didn't like Zachary levi as Shazam. The role called for a Chris hemsworth type dude who actually is big and can be funny.
Also I found the family stuff to be really sweet. Overall I think shazam would've benefitted more from being a procedural TV show that focuses on the family life as well as him being a hero. But it doesn't have enough hot adults to be on CW
Also I found the family stuff to be really sweet. Overall I think shazam would've benefitted more from being a procedural TV show that focuses on the family life as well as him being a hero. But it doesn't have enough hot adults to be on CW
Just watched it and I laughed my ass off with the mall battle.
I mean, at the end is a full on CGI-fest for the special powers shit, but when Shazam is in the dressing room figuring out how to escape then Sivana opens the door and grabs him felt like I was watching a WWE promo/scene rather than a full on super hero movie.
And you know what, I loved that a lot, felt humourous as hell and then the piano thing, plushie and Batman throwing? Fucking hilarious, aside from a couple of issues I did like it a lot.
I mean, at the end is a full on CGI-fest for the special powers shit, but when Shazam is in the dressing room figuring out how to escape then Sivana opens the door and grabs him felt like I was watching a WWE promo/scene rather than a full on super hero movie.
And you know what, I loved that a lot, felt humourous as hell and then the piano thing, plushie and Batman throwing? Fucking hilarious, aside from a couple of issues I did like it a lot.
I don't remember if I posted here already but I saw it a couple weeks ago, was plesantly surprised that they did the Marvel/SHAZAM family thing here, I wasn't expecting it until the possible sequel with Black Adam.
Watched it a week ago and the kid was a better actor than Levi. Villain had too many pointless scenes like the board meeting. There wasn't enough focus on the foster family actually. Overall decent movie but Wonder Woman was better despite its weak ending and Aquaman was much more entertaining. At least it didn't enter the trashfire territory of BvS/SS.
Really late to the party but I absolutely adored this movie. Zachary Levi killed it. It's been mentioned a few times but the only thing that was off was that Asher Angel felt a bit more mellow and sour as a kid that didn't really come through as Shazam where Zachary played him slightly more jubilant. Other than that it actually did genuinely feel like Batson was actually becoming Shazam. And Mark Strong was gold but really should have been weaved into the story more because they kept him out of the picture for quite a while. Hell I don't think that Billy even learned Sivanna's name the entire movie save for presumably after his capture. Loved the Mister Mind stuff and the allusion to Black Adam truly hyped me up for the future movies.
Pre-Shazam I would have said that Man of Steel was the only good film from the DCEU (I don't hate WW but the end ruined that film for me). Now though I'm happy to say that Shazam is and should be DC's new quality standard. Every future creative endeavor for the franchise should hopefully match or surpass it, I'm hoping.
Pre-Shazam I would have said that Man of Steel was the only good film from the DCEU (I don't hate WW but the end ruined that film for me). Now though I'm happy to say that Shazam is and should be DC's new quality standard. Every future creative endeavor for the franchise should hopefully match or surpass it, I'm hoping.