Shazam! Fury of the Gods | March 17 2023 | Sandberg returns to direct. Will Sinbad return? | Get vaccinated!

[SpiderByte]

Agh, I hope it's not really as bad as reviews sound but the big common thing is that Billy and Shazam have totally different personalities andnoerformances, which was pretty true in the first movie but it sounds like it's really, really distractingly blatant here.

Edited March 16, 2023 by SpiderByte

[MightyDargon]

1 minute ago, SpiderByte said:

Agh, I hope it's not really as bad as reviews sound but the big common thing is that Billy and Shazam have totally different personalities andnoerformances, which was pretty true in the first movie but it sounds like it's really, really distractingly blatant here.

I think it's more jarring here because "kid" Billy is now technically an adult (wasn't his actor 18 at the time of filming?)

Edited March 16, 2023 by MightyDargon

[Dragoncaine]

5 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

Quantumania is 47-48. Let's hope Shazam gets a last minute surge to keep it in the high 50s.

We have like 300 more reviews to go. Outlook not so good, imo. And I adore the first movie.

[SpiderByte]

13 minutes ago, Mojoguy said:

Levi will be doing Tangled 2 in a few years

He already did the Tangled TV series 

[Saul Goodman]

It's gonna go down steadily throughout the weekend like WW84.

[MightyDargon]

Just now, Saul Goodman said:

It's gonna go down steadily throughout the weekend like WW84.

Now would be a good time for the "look how they murdered my boy" gif.

[SpiderByte]

6 minutes ago, MightyDargon said:

I think it's more jarring here because "kid" Billy is now technically an adult (wasn't his actor 18 at the time of filming?)

True, but in the first movie a common criticism was that Angel and Levi's performances didn't really feel like they were actually the same person and if that difference only has gotten more prominent...I can see how that'd make the movie not work.

 

And to be fair there have been versions where Billy and Shazam are actually separate people switching places when they transform but it doesn't sound like that's what they're doing.

Edited March 16, 2023 by SpiderByte

[ChipDerby]

I sad

[MightyDargon]

6 minutes ago, SpiderByte said:

True, but in the first movie a common criticism was that Angel and Levi's performances didn't really feel like they were actually the same person and if that difference only has gotten more prominent...I can see how that'd make the movie not work.

 

And to be fair there have been versions where Billy and Shazam are actually separate people switching places when they transform but it doesn't sound like that's what they're doing.

I interpreted it as Shazam was the part of Billy's personality that was withdrawn because he was a depressed foster kid. But again, that makes less sense when he's not really a "kid" anymore. Shazam should have changed with Billy's age somewhat.

[poweranimals]

I mean it's gotta be better than Black Adam, right?

[ChipDerby]

I don't remember much of the animated films Shazam is in, but I thought I recalled it being almost the opposite. Shazam was the more serious version of Billy. Whereas these films seem to flip that?

[AJG]

#PrayforBlueBeetle at this point too.

[AJG]

4 minutes ago, ChipDerby said:

I don't remember much of the animated films Shazam is in, but I thought I recalled it being almost the opposite. Shazam was the more serious version of Billy. Whereas these films seem to flip that?

 

Geoff Johns changed Shazam when they rebooted the comics a couple years back. That version is more in line with the live action films.

Edited March 16, 2023 by AJG

[poweranimals]

4 minutes ago, AJG said:

#PrayforBlueBeetle at this point too.

Oh, that thing is toast.

[Saul Goodman]

58% RT now

[ChipDerby]

I think in general audiences and critics are looking for something that feels fresh. So if you're making a sequel, it has to feel like it's bringing something new, or doing something never before seen. NWH brought that, TGM brought that, A2 brought it, etc etc. Shazam apparently didn't.

 

I think Flash will bring that, we haven't seen anything from Blue Beetle, so it's hard to say. Ditto Aquaman.

[dudalb]

And what did we learn today, kids?

That predicting a movie's reception based on the early reviews and comments is a big mistake. The early reviews are all from small websites, which pretty much are "geek" sites and are prodispsed to like "geeky" films, and give a very skweered view of how a movie it going to be received.

[Mulder]

1 minute ago, dudalb said:

And what did we learn today, kids?

That predicting a movie's reception based on the early reviews and comments is a big mistake. The early reviews are all from small websites, which pretty much are "geek" sites and are prodispsed to like "geeky" films, and give a very skweered view of how a movie it going to be received.

Except literally everyone was saying that in this thread though.

[AMC Theaters Enjoyer]

7 minutes ago, ChipDerby said:

I think in general audiences and critics are looking for something that feels fresh. So if you're making a sequel, it has to feel like it's bringing something new, or doing something never before seen. NWH brought that, TGM brought that, A2 brought it, etc etc. Shazam apparently didn't.

 

I think Flash will bring that, we haven't seen anything from Blue Beetle, so it's hard to say. Ditto Aquaman.

 

I generally agree with your point, audiences are starting to expect better, and they should. But I don't really see what Flash is bringing that's new. It's doing a similar thing to NWH, only with a legacy character that younger audiences aren't as familiar with, in a much less popular universe, and a leading character that (this incarnation at least) isn't well liked and was last seen in an unpopular movie.

 

Other than that though, your point is good. Mediocrity is just not gonna be accepted for the forseeable future. "Good enough" isn't anymore, if you know what I mean.

[AMC Theaters Enjoyer]

Anyways, on the topic of Shazam, I'm probably safe in saying that I saw a test screening of it last summer. I was into the film, thought it did the family dynamic well and liked how the supporting cast got more to do this time. Villains weren't as good though, and I had similar issues with it in terms of tonal balance that I did the first film. But I found it good, if overly-long and thought it had the makings of a crowd-pleaser. Guess I was wrong. Tomorrow I'll see the final cut, interested in how it turned out.