Shazam! (2019)

Shazam! You can tell when a studio is confident in their film when allowing reviews 2 weeks before it's wide release and DC Films rightfully should be confident. This is one of DC's best movies to date. If this is the direction DC is going, then they are trending upwards big time. Shazam's origins is exactly how a kid would react, go about discovering his powers, and learning to be a hero. The movie pokes fun at some superhero tropes, most notably a scene with Mark Strong and Zachary Levi during the final fight. The jokes are funny and land every time. I haven't genuinely laughed in a DC movie like that in a long time. CGI is excellent. The movie keeps it's comedy roots with Shazam, but also keeps it a bit dark as well. Blends both the dark of the DCEU and comedy of Shazam very well. I believe there was some nods to Black Adam, but they never actually say Black Adam.

Let's talk about Shazam! Zachary Levi is the perfect embodiment of the character. His acting in on point and he plays a 14 year old kid who gains superpowers perfectly. I thought he did a better job playing a kid than the teen actor did. The teen actor, Asher Angel, does a very good job as well. For me, when he is Billy Batson, he is a bit unlikable. However, as soon as he transforms into Shazam, he is the best character. Shazam is not over powered. He struggles to fight the main bad and still hasn't discovered his full potential by the end of the film. His character has great character development with more room to grow.

Now, my favorite character in the film is the best friend of Billy Batson, Freddy Freeman who is played by Jack Dylan Glazer. His acting is phenomenal. He can play the comedic part and dramatic part perfectly. Honestly, he steals the entire movie for me.

Mark Strong as the main villain, Doctor Sivana, was was legit scary. His first scene after getting his powers actually caused some horror movie level anxiety. Mark Strong is at his best. They show his motivation, but his is essentially a stock supervillain origin and craving power motivation.

The rest of the cast is great as well. The kids were funny and they all get do some special stuff in the film that I didn't think would happen until the sequel. Story was pretty simple, not much risk taking, but it does it's job. Overall, the film was top notch and is a well put together film, both in the filmmaking aspect and the fan aspect. I highly highly recommend this film. 9/10.

2 credits scenes. One sets up a sequel that I'm not quite sure who the character was. 2nd one is a joke, which is a nod to DC fans. There is also a Superman cameo, but you do not see Henry Cavill's face. Hope that doesn't mean he is out as Superman.

Captain Marvel (2019)

Captain Marvel. First things first, the tribute to Stan Lee at the very beginning introduction was absolutely lovely. It pulled at my heartstrings. The Marvel Studios opening theme, but instead, it shows clips of Stan Lee's cameos.

Do you need to see it to understand End Game? Doubtful. First end credits scene is from End Game and the second one at the very end is not important.

With that out of the way, it is a lot better than I thought it would be. I am glad to report that. Ending fight scene was visually cool. De-aging CGI of Sam L. Jackson was spot on. You couldn't even tell it was CGI. The CGI overall is pretty good. Overall, the acting was sufficient. This is more of a fresh faced Fury than the one we know, but that is gonna happened due to the fact this is his first encounter with aliens. Ben Mendelsohn was great and the show-stealer, Jude Law and Sam L are great as always. And that is all I really have to say about that.

There are a plethora of plot holes that could have been explored such as how did so and so get this item. A big plot hole is that this is the first time Fury dealt with aliens, so how does that explain him saying the events of Thor was the first time he knew of aliens? This movie has plot holes that affect previous installments of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It is as if the writers and directors haven't watched a single MCU film prior to making this. The comedy was mostly a miss. It wasn't cringe bad; I just didn't laugh for most of it, from all the characters. The audience in the theater did laugh at many of the jokes. They cheapen how Nick Fury looses his eye. It was a joke on the internet about how he loses his eye and that's exactly what they did. They cheapen how the Avengers got their name. It would make sense, in universe, but disrespects the legacy of the Avengers. They seem to be retconning previous story elements to shoehorn Captain Marvel to lead the Avengers post Endgame. Soundtrack was decent, but then the song by No Doubt in a fight scene made it worse. The fight scene itself was good though.

As for Brie Larson's Captain Marvel, honestly, she was great in the beginning. Snarky, quick witted, funny, and actually had a personality that we didn't see in the trailers. It, then, just stops and she becomes that character in the trailer. She has character development and is not good at every thing right off the bat. She learns how to control her powers so when she goes OP in the end, it's not out of nowhere. She does get her ass handed to her. There is hope for this character, just not in this one. As for Brie Larson's acting, I think she phoned it in for most of it. She was Kirsten Stewart level wooden. Thing is, she had flashes of great performances during this film so I know she can perform, but then it goes bye bye. Russo Brothers may be able to fix this, but Brie Larson just doesn't fit the character well.

Here we go, the politics. I didn't want to look at it through that lense, but the movie marketing kind of forced me to. Yes, there is feminist drops everywhere, but it isn't a constant beating over the head. Captain Marvel herself doesn't seem to be a feminist, well, at least, amnesiac Captain Marvel isn't. She was born in the 1970's, so obviously, I can see some of that being true, but I will say they were cringe. Smile more, etc etc. It was the stereotypical sexist men, but I can overlook that since doesn't affect the movie. What does affect the movie is when you dumb down or belittle the male characters to make the female characters look strong. Spoilers...For instance, how is a 90's earth woman gonna lecture a technologically advanced alien on astrophysics? How is calling a woman a young lady an insult? Not even taking it into account that is said by an alien. It is that kind of stuff that affects the movie. You don't need to sacrifice other characters to make the women look strong. Every male character suffers from this.

Overall, it is below average. Not bad, not good, nothing spectacular, nothing we haven't seen. Despite the length of the bad over the good, I stand by my opinion of the movie is better than I thought it would be. It has times of greatness and for the most part I enjoyed it, even with the many eye rolls. I am not gonna recommend or not recommend. If it interests you, go see it. If you can't stand politics in movies, then I suggest sit this one out. 5/10.