Shazam!

[Fritzo]

It really felt like they had two different directors in it. It was like a Marvel guy was doing most of it, and then they hired the Walking Dead director for the horror scenes. Tossing the dude out the building window to his death, biting off that person's head, the scariness of the CGI monsters, the bodies slamming against the white-tinted class in the office with the screaming...it just didn't fit at all. They could have done that thing where the bad guy looms over the dad, the monsters close in behind him, and it fades to black as you hear a single scream...I think something like that would have fit in with the rest of the story a lot better.

I was also kind of hoping they were going to do something more with the 7 deadly sins, which is why I think this could have been an excellent Netflix series...like actually have the sin-monsters tempt the Shazam & his family, or do more with temping the bad guy & so on. It's a pretty good idea, but the monsters were just kinda smoke gargoyles.

I had the same thought- this would have been a top-notch Netflix or Amazon series. The whole Shazam story line changed in 2012 in order to make the character more unique- the "Gods" thing belonged to Wonder Woman and he was too similar to Superman power-wise. Now he's more of a Thor/Spiderman type of character and his backstory involves morality and battling wizards.

 

[BoomerD]

To me, it looks pretty bad...but I'm the old curmudgeon who didn't like Deadpool...

Sadly, I remember reading some if the old, original Shazam comics. They were fun.

 

[BudAshes]

Here is a pretty good review of the movie by Red Letter Media:

 

[SHaines]

I dug the movie quite a bit. I think the mix of a couple pretty intense/horror elements added to the overall experience, but agree that the tonal shifts weren't handled deftly.

My feeling was that this was a clever script based on some existing comic book lore and the director just didn't quite hit the mark in a couple places. The big CGI monsters weren't very interesting (seven sins) and there is a bit in the final showdown that could have been played as an epic "superhero" moment, but it was played for the easy joke ("say my name"). The joke worked, but I do enjoy epic moments in superhero movies. Most of the ones in Shazam! were also in the trailer.

Anyway, for what it's worth, I definitely recommend it.

 

[Kaido]

Crossover comic:

https://imgur.com/gallery/f77OLwI