Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is the sequel, and probably the last Shazam! movie for a while. With the reboot coming later this year, any setup this has for an end to a trilogy is up in the air.

Directed by David F. Sandberg, who I loved for Lights Out. It's interesting that James Wan, known for horror took David F Sandberg under his wing and now they both direct major DC super hero movies. They should really stick to horror. Maybe I'm just biased because I love horror.

Henry Gayden is back in the writing room, even though it wasn't the writing that brought people to see the first Shazam! This time I think the writing is actually worse. There are subplots that land and some that feel overly forced and politicized. Some actors didn't get enough dialogue or scenes to do much in. Some characters felt throwaway and to check a box.

Grace Caroline Currey was top-billed or at least is at the top of the list for IMDB. She really carries the film for Shazam, she makes all the smart choices since Billy is still too stupid to string a sentence together. He still acts like he's thirteen even though he's supposed to be turning eighteen.

Zachary Levi plays Shazam again and this time he's lacking even more intelligence. I wish the ending would have landed the way they were going with. They just had to mess it up and it makes Levi's send off even more distasteful since we'll probably never see him as Shazam again.

The visual effects were pretty bad. I look forward to Corridor making fun of them later this year. The only saving grace of the film was Rachel Zegler's charismatic performance regardless of bad writing. It almost made me forget how disappointing West Side Story was.

All in all the movie felt longer than it needed to be, not enough money was spent on visual effects, or the team wasn't proficient enough. I would never want to watch this again, but it has some saving grace. Result: C-

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Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

Joker: Folie à Deux is a comic book musical and sequel to the stand-out hit Joker starring Joaquin Phoenix . I truly believe that Todd Phillips is trolling the comic book community with this film. It's weird, unwatchable at times, and nowhere near the first film. Even standing on its own without having the film be even considered a sequel it fails. It almost feels like WB was just paying him to make a sequel. Joaquin Phoneix doesn't phone it in. He just does what he's supposed to do and delivers a performance. He and Lady Gaga are really the only saving grace. While her rendition of Harly Quinn is nowhere near what was expected for a Joker film she still had a memorable but trying performance. Characters you forgot about come back and a few new ones that don't leave any impact other than to just be there and in the film. You see Harvey Dent but there's nothing to his character, partly at fault for hiring a no-name actor in Harry Lawtey who should stay on TV an

The Wild Robot (2024)

The Wild Robot is a DreamWorks science function adventure film based on the book series by the same name. Written and directed by Chris Sanders, the film feels like what Disney used to put out. The writing hits on similar beats like his other work Lilo & Stitch , The Croods, and How to Train Your Dragon. There is a definite switch from climax one to climax two and I felt more invested in the later third of the film but not so much at the beginning. There was a tad bit of FurnGully's environmental message in the film but the main message of how to be a mother was front and center. Lipita Nyong'o had to carry the film with help from Pedro Pascal and the best cameo of Bill Nighy . She voiced the robot while Pascal was the main supporting character of the fox Fink. I've grown tired of Pedro Pascal but his deliveries were enough for me to ignore my bias'. The worst voice actor was Brightbill's Kit Conner who must have some connection in Hollywood to land the

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Avatar: The Way of Water is the followup to James Cameron's original box office winner Avatar. Continuing Jake Sully's story, now protecting his family from Colonel Miles Quaritch again. Written and directed by James Cameron . The worst parts of the writing probably came from the writers of Mulan, both Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. In terms of direction, there was the expectation that Cameron would recreate some sort of magic of Avatar, Terminator 2, or even Aliens. I think Cameron gave the skeleton of the story and Jaffa and Silver added their own dialogue and beats. Cameron doesn't really write boring movies and I was bored through parts of the film. 3 hours and 12 minutes is a long time to have amazing dialogue and writing. Sam Worthington is back but you don't recognize him since he was barely in the first film except in his avatar form. Most people don't know Worthington. Maybe if you played the Call of Duty Black Ops games as he played Alex Mason. I most

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