Shazam/Captain Marvel

[KageRyu]

@Whill, the Shazam live action series you mention in the first post is available on Tubi.
I vaguely remember liking it as a child, but when I tried to watch now it shows its age too much for me. Way too 70s for me now. It's a shame, I tried to resist growing up, but it has happened after all.
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[Whill]

[KageRyu]

I vaguely remember the Isis show as well. I had thought I had seen that listed on Tubi too, but it does not seem to be showing up now. I did not watch that much as where I grew up it was often on against another show I much preferred, Jason of Star Command.
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"There's a set way to gain new Force Points and it represents a very nice system, where you're rewarded for heroism, not for being a poor conductor to electricity." ~Jachra

[Whill]

I saw Black Adam tonight. It was hard to understand a lot of dialogue so I will definitely watch it again when it comes to home video, so I can watch it with captions.

My first impressions of it? It is a super action-packed extravaganza, but the plotline feels undeveloped, as if the action sequences were all planned first and some storyboard editor came up with a thin plot to link them all together. Some of the jokes fell flat.

I like the Justice Society characters but none of them really get their due since so much of the focus is on Black Adam. Hawkman was really cool as realized, but his power level remained unexplained as he was shown going toe to toe Black Adam multiple times, a being more powerful than than Captain Marvel. I'll have to get out and read the four issue comic book tie-in series I collected.

The titular character didn't seem like much more than a collection of trailer movie lines. His full background is revealed by the end of the movie, and there is a bit of character development, but there is a particularly cringy summatory statement made by a character about Black Adam at the end that really doesn't do much to explain what an anti-hero is or differentiate him from a villain.

And the movie's antagonist was much less developed than the JSA. And there is a character from Suicide Squad in this film, and I was like, WTF is she doing there?

At this point I feel it is safe to say that Black Adam was better than Suicide Squad, Birds of Prey, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Suicide Squad. But that isn't saying much.
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[CommanderFocs]

[garhkal]

I am wondering, what's everyones thoughts on Shazam 2??
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[Whill]

There is lots of reorganization and rebranding going on since Discovery bought Warner Brothers. Walter Hamada (who is largely responsible for ruining Justice League) is officially out. DC Films is now DC Studios. The DCEU is now the more logically named DCU. And...

Peter Safran and James Gunn announced as Co-CEOs of DC Studios

Yes, James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy (and The Suicide Squad) fame. Peter Safran produced many DC movies.

[ThrorII]

Just saw Black Adam this afternoon. It's not a mess, and its not bad. It's just not great.

DCU still has the problem of introducing heroes out of the blue with no understanding for the audience who they are, or what they can do (or relative power levels...) The Justice Society was just thrown out there with no clue how they relate to the Justice League (are they from before the League, after the League, etc.)

The movie tried to be too much: Intro to Black Adam, intro to the 4 members of the JSA, and intro of the villain.

The 3rd act villain really seemed shoe-horned in, just to have a 3rd act villain.
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[Whill]

[garhkal]

With all the hoopla over ezra miller, i am wondering if that DCEU flash film will still be done.
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[Whill]

[Whill]

My son and I saw a Thursday night preview of the Shazam! sequel. It's a fun adventure. A good amount of super-heroic action and comedy.

My first reaction is that it probably isn't quite as good as the first one (a film I love), but it really is the only good DCEU film since the first Shazam!. (As far as the other DC movies, Joker and The Batman were ok, worth a single viewing each, but I enjoyed FotG more). The villains of FotG were not as well developed in the story as the first Shazam!'s villain.

My wife wants to see it in the theater and my son wants to see it again, so I will see it again. We'll wait until the D&D movie comes to the theater in a couple weeks and then not see that, instead going to see this movie.


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[garhkal]

I'm stoked for Shazam 2.. Especially after seeing black adam on dvd.
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[Whill]

It's come to light that Dwayne Johnson basically sabotaged the Shazam franchise.

The comic book story that the first Shazam film was based on was told in an ongoing back-up feature of the new Justice League series (2011) which followed a major reboot of the DC comic universe. It had Black Adam, Doctor Sivana, and the Seven Deadly Sins (Doctor Sivana freed Black Adam). I have the entire comic story; the writing and artwork are excellent (here is a a compiled version). The movie rewrote the comic story and removed Black Adam, powering up Doctor Sivana with Seven Sins to be the main antagonist.

It's long been known that the reason Black Adam was removed from the first Shazam film was because Dwayne Johnson, an executive producer of Shazam! and long attached to playing Black Adam, talked DC into telling Black Adam's origin in a separate film before bringing Black Adam into the main Shazam franchise. Black Adam and the first proper Shazam sequel went into production on similar schedules so Black Adam's planned crossover was pushed off until a third Shazam film.

In the comics, Black Adam has become something of anti-hero, a dark adult version of Shazam. In recent years he was even a member of the Justice League (yes, League). After seeing the Black Adam film, it was more clear that Dwayne Johnson was enamored with this portrayal and had delusions of grandeur of Black Adam becoming a cinematic powerhouse on par with (or surpassing) Superman and Batman. For years, Johnson kept saying, "The hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change" and now we know more about what he meant.

It has come to light that Johnson never really cared about ever being a Shazam villain. He was only an Executive Producer of Shazam! just to take Black Adam from Shazam for his own selfish purposes. The Fury of the Gods stinger where Shazam is being recruited for the Justice Society was supposed to be a stinger of Black Adam where actual superheroes in the Justice Society recruited Shazam. Johnson got that removed from Black Adam and even forbade Justice Society actors from appearing in Fury of the Gods, so they got replaced by two very minor and mundane functionaries of Amanda Waller.

Johnson thought Black Adam would be a box office smash hit and could then dictate Black Adam vs Superman types of battles/team-ups, and basically become the central character of DCEU films. Dwayne Johnson may have even been trying to orchestrate a takeover of DC films at Warner Brothers. Black Adam's box office was a disappointment and Fury of the Gods bombed. Instead of both of these movies, a Shazam! sequel with Black Adam as the villain could have been a big hit, surpassing the first Shazam film and Black Adam.

Sure, there were admittedly other factors. Except for The Batman and Joker, DC films following the first Shazam! have been duds. The pandemic was a factor. And of course the downward spiral for the DCEU began when Warner Brothers mandated an over-edit of Batman V Superman and then despicably used the death of Zack Snyder's child to take the Justice League franchise from Snyder and reshoot half of the first film to make a frankensteined (attempted "marvelization") version that did not result in sequels. (The other DCEU films were originally supposed to be supported by a Justice League trilogy.) So ultimately Warner Brothers is responsible, and on top of all of that, they were swayed into a bad business decision by Dwayne Johnson of all people.

Although there is new management at Warner Brothers and they had already announced a reboot of the DCEU is coming after The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom come out this year, the Shazam side of the franchise controlled its own destiny because they wouldn't have to be affected by the reboot if they had been successful. But now, the Shazam franchise (including the spin-off Black Adam) is officially done. I'm just miffed that we never got a Shazam movie with Black Adam as the villain.

[garhkal]

Waiting on the library getting it on dvd..
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