Shazam! 2

[IMJ]

The Rock did do his own passive $#!( talking about Shazam. Honestly it's an epic fail on the Rock's part. It looks like a power play which looks bad to begin with. And then it was a failed power play. And now it's a failed power play that trickled over into a failed power play resulting in collateral damage.

[Andrew NDB]

And it's interesting because when you go back far enough, the Rock was going to play Shazam. It was when he posed "who should I play? Captain Marvel or Adam?" to the fans that he changed over to Black Adam.

But I think he just finds the muscle suits and corniness of the movie that actually resulted as insulting to his work(out) ethic.

Also... back to the time it took to make this, needlessly. Imagine it you're a kid in middle school who saw this in the 8th grade. Shazam 2 would be coming out when you're in college! They f***ed up.

[oldmanwinters]

Got around to seeing this one last night and... I feel about the same way as I did after watching Ant-Man 3. As in, well, that was one way to kill 3 hours (because of the 20 extra minutes of previews). I think I'm starting to miss the days when superhero/comic book movies were "special interest" entertainment instead of another one being cranked out every month with the hopes that every film will make $300 in domestic box office gross.

And just like Ant-Man 3, I found myself surprised to forget that certain things did or didn't happen in previous franchise installments. I actually thought Billy's foster parents knew all about the kids' powers by the end of the first movie. Somehow, I had forgotten all about the Staff of Atlas as being anything more significant than the MacGuffin of the 1st movie. Beyond Billy, his handicapped best friend, and the two girls, I couldn't remember anything about the other two boys. Also, I still don't remember the names of anybody but Billy, Mary, and... Jeff, er... Freddy.
Perhaps most importantly, I had thought the first movie settled the question of character names, but... this movie really hammers home the idea that nobody knows what to call the Shazam crew at all.

The first movie was criticized by fans for being content to do its own thing without concern about building up the DCU but this movie goes hard on the opposite side, dropping heavy references to other superheroes throughout the film (but not Black Adam, unless you count poster-credits scene #1).

Now I have fondness for Captain Marv... eh, "Shazam!" as a character, even if it's a casual fondness because I've never read significant runs of his comic book backlog and only watched a few of his 70s tv episodes through digital stream. But it's weird that the movie seems to treat everything about the character as a joke. Even the Wizard Shazam seems fed up with the whole tone of this movie when he repeatedly regrets giving the powers to an untrained Billy... for some reason?

I thought bringing emphasis to Billy's lack of mastery of "The Wisdom of Solomon" was the right way to go with this film, but even that is played for one big gag without much of a payoff. Is "Solomon" really the hardest name for him to remember/pronounce correctly as opposed to Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury?

So much of this movie's humor feels the same as Quantumania. Characters stutter over their sentences as they attempt to over-share everything (maybe that's what the writers thought teenagers do?). And then they toss some profanities/vulgarities in there to ensure some cheap audience laughs. And when the runtime is expiring, a hero resolves to sacrifice himself and the movie expects us all to sober up for a minute or two until we realize it wasn't that big of a loss. Dialogue relies heavily upon references to other pop-culture IPs (Fast & the Furious, etc.).

Visual Effects look good enough to me. The wooden dragon was fun but I really liked the beasts' birth effects when they invade the city. The unicorns did leave an impression on me.

Most unrealistic part of the film was probably the fact that the secret Shazam clubhouse run by overgrown teenagers apparently has a cable TV service and that they all crowd around watching CNN News.

Because I went on Tuesday discount night and had a VUDU/Fandango voucher code, I ended up seeing the movie for a grand total of 25 cents!

Spoiler:

At the very end, I had no idea how the good guys were able to get back to the god realm of Atlas to bury Billy after they all lost their powers and the staff had been extinguished. There was a comment earlier in the movie that only the Shazam crew were able to access the wizard's lair, through which would have been their only doorway into the other realm. Plot hole?

Spoiler:

Also, that high school teacher who was forced to jump off the roof is still dead (REALLY dead) but nobody seemed to care about it after the initial shock value.

[Andrew NDB]

Ouuuch. Production budget of 125 million (40 million more than the first movie), and it's week 3 and it's only at 48 million domestically, 56 million internationally. This is definitely going to lose some serious money.

At least the Rock can feel somewhat justified in his maneuvering. This is going to do significantly worse than Black Adam.

[Sumac]

Another stone on the grave of the DCEU 2.0.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Another stone on the grave of the DCEU 2.0.

Not necessarily, as this could easily be chalked up to "old money." Still, between this and Black Adam bombing it definitely spells the end of this whole corner of the DCEU until it's recast/rebooted, whereas if it'd succeeded a Shazam 3 at least could have been realized in the post-Gunn DCEU.

[AquaParade]

I'm pretty sure Zaslav, Gunn, and Safran knew that these films were a lost cause at this point. Probably didn't spend too much on marketing.

They are shepherding these movies out the door and preparing for the new.

[Galactus]

Even if this is the remnants of a failed cinematic universe I doubt WB would have wanted this to actually lose money. Not to mention if it had been a decent hit Gunn could have folded it into his new DC universe. This property could easily have fit into his 'Gods and Monsters' theme

Personally I think this and Black Adam could have been successful if they had actually combined the two. Black Adam positioned itself as the alternative to a comic book movie landscape that largely doesn't exist. Like Black Adam's big thing that separates him from other superheroes is that he kills people...except all the DCEU heroes kill their enemies, they exist in a dark desaturated world. I think the only exception was the Shazam family and it would make total sense for that to be premise for Shazam 2. Billy and the other innocent kids face against the dark version of themselves. They empathise with him but don't condone him killing. Plus on a practical note you could combine the smidgen of good faith people had from the first movie and the last of the Rock's star power and they could have done decent numbers.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Galactus

Like Black Adam's big thing that separates him from other superheroes is that he kills people...except all the DCEU heroes kill their enemies, they exist in a dark desaturated world.

Ah but that's the problem. Black Adam was never a hero, he was always a villain. He gets away with it because the average normie doesn't know who he is, but saying 'Black Adam is different cause he kills people' is like saying 'Joker is different cause he kills people'.

It was doomed from the start. If we ever got Shazam VS Black Adam, the audience wouldn't know who to root for.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by Galactus

Even if this is the remnants of a failed cinematic universe I doubt WB would have wanted this to actually lose money. Not to mention if it had been a decent hit Gunn could have folded it into his new DC universe. This property could easily have fit into his 'Gods and Monsters' theme

Personally I think this and Black Adam could have been successful if they had actually combined the two. Black Adam positioned itself as the alternative to a comic book movie landscape that largely doesn't exist. Like Black Adam's big thing that separates him from other superheroes is that he kills people...except all the DCEU heroes kill their enemies, they exist in a dark desaturated world. I think the only exception was the Shazam family and it would make total sense for that to be premise for Shazam 2. Billy and the other innocent kids face against the dark version of themselves. They empathise with him but don't condone him killing. Plus on a practical note you could combine the smidgen of good faith people had from the first movie and the last of the Rock's star power and they could have done decent numbers.

No studio ever wants to lose money but this isn’t a surprise for WB and in all likelihood had no effect on their future plans. I don’t think Gunn was ever interested in folding in Shazam to “Gods and Monsters” but who knows.

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Not necessarily, as this could easily be chalked up to "old money." Still, between this and Black Adam bombing it definitely spells the end of this whole corner of the DCEU until it's recast/rebooted, whereas if it'd succeeded a Shazam 3 at least could have been realized in the post-Gunn DCEU.

DCEU was a limp duck for the last few outings, even if Aquaman 2 and Flash are successful, it won't be enough to save any of it. Hopefully they will be able to do it right on the 3rd try.

I am much more fascinated with DC characters, than Marvel ones and seeing WB ****ing it up is fun to a degree, but I finally want something good from them, which is not Batman or Batman-related.

[Andrew NDB]

Saw it on TV. Man, that was awful. None of the jokes landed. Bad guys were WEAK. The only bright side was the Mary Marvel actress looking absolutely stunning in every shot.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Saw it on TV. Man, that was awful. None of the jokes landed. Bad guys were WEAK. The only bright side was the Mary Marvel actress looking absolutely stunning in every shot.

See, I was honestly wondering if there was a decent movie in there somewhere that we knew was going to get lost anyway to:

-abandoned continuity
-John Wick 4 competition
-deviation from the comic source material

[Andrew NDB]

It's just a big bloated repeat of the "I don't think I'm worthy" story.

[oldmanwinters]

I think it's funny that Shazam 2 and The Super Mario Bros Movie hit theatres a few weeks apart and both try their hand at including a "Holding Out for a Hero" montage.
But I think Shrek 2 is still the king of that hill.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

I think it's funny that Shazam 2 and The Super Mario Bros Movie hit theatres a few weeks apart and both try their hand at including a "Holding Out for a Hero" montage.
But I think Shrek 2 is still the king of that hill.

Nonsense. Short Circuit 2.

[Coola Yagami]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Nonsense. Short Circuit 2.

Literally the first time I ever hold this song. Second time was probably during a Chipmunks episode.

[IMJ]

Oh geeze the Short Circuit flicks - haven't had those come to mind in decades. "Hey LASER LIPS! Your momma was a SNOWBLOWER!"