Considering one of the dolls in that doctor's office, I'd never take a kid to see that guy. Looks fun, though.
I hated, hated, hated the movie SHAZAM. I hate movies dependent on idiot-plots, where the characters have to act like idiots for the movie to move forward, and that's what SHAZAM is. Just because Billy Batson was a kid doesn't mean he has to be deeply stupid. And BLACK ADAM was just bad. Sure, it was nice to briefly see Doctor Fate and Hawkman, but the movie gave them next to no background, zero grounding, and they effectively came out of nowhere, so there's no reason for non-comics fans to care about them. Black Adam himself was barely more than a catch-phrase. Bad bad movie. So I'm extremely pleasantly surprised to find out that SHAZAM: FURY OF THE GODS -- now streaming on Max (formerly HBOMax) -- is in fact a darn good movie. Yes, it's still a comic book movie. No, it's not Scorsese or Coppola or choose-your-own-brilliant-auteur. It is not great art. But as a comics superhero movie, it turns out to be very well done: competent and more. Actually funny. A plot that makes internal sense. Adequate enough acting. Good pacing. Good enough writing. They even stuck the landing, a classic problematic point for many comic book movies. (Granted there's a typical Huge Fight before the ultimate climax, but tropes are gonna trope.) I recommend it to comic book movie fans, if not a broader audience. Thumbs up. I'm surprised.
