Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023)

Score: 3.5 / 5

If you're a fan of the first Shazam movie, you'll probably like this one, because it's a whole lot more of the same. If you're not a fan of it -- or of the DC franchise in general -- you probably won't enjoy this one, because it's more of the same. These IPs and their associated fandoms are getting so fraught with anger and judgment that they're all pretty toxic now. I personally really like the DCEU movies so far, so I was very excited for this; the first Shazam was absolutely delightful in its wacky, fun underdog story and brazenly balls-out mythology. This sequel ups the ante in its scope, pacing, and spectacle for sure, and its plot is, for me, fabulously interesting and entertaining. It also skimps on some of the elements that mattered most to me in the first film, namely the dynamics of the beautiful foster family at its heart. 

Two years after the first movie, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and his "Shazamily" -- called the Marvel Family in comics, but thankfully not here to confuse the DCEU with the MCU -- fully embrace their powers (secret from their foster parents) to help others. In the city of brotherly love, they save people from a collapsing bridge but are called out in the media for not saving the bridge itself. The kids don't work so well as a team, as they are growing apart and exploring other interests. Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) navigates being bullied at school but strikes up a budding romance with the new girl, Anne (Rachel Zegler), to whom he reveals his secret identity.

Meanwhile, two goddesses break into a museum and steal the Wizard's broken staff and take it to him (Djimon Hounsou) to repair it. They declare themselves the Daughters of Atlas (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu), intent on avenging their father and reclaiming the Wizard's power. Their mysterious third sister is soon revealed to be Anne, and the trio abduct Freddy and put an impassable dome over Philadelphia to force the Shazamily to relinquish their power. By about the halfway point of this film, the plot gets fairly muddied; there's a great deal about a Golden Apple and the Tree of Life and its potential to recreate the realm of the gods and/or destroy the earth. It's all a bit of a mess, but there's no shortage of visual flair or special effects, so there's no reason to fret.

Unfortunately, all the action and fantasy means not much time to love the characters, so sweet little Darla and sweet, closeted Pedro only really get surface-level treatment. We get a bit more of the adult/superhero versions of these characters, which is fun, especially with Freddy's alter ego (Adam Brody) and of course Billy's (the always charming Zachary Levi). Billy and Freddy, as both versions of themselves, could make Shazam a really interesting, coming-of-age hormonal buddy movie, and while this movie flirts with that possibility, it never really goes there. Billy's fantasies revolve around Wonder Woman, who in a shocking and delightful turn of events does indeed cameo here. 

Given the constantly changing reliability of DC and its many media facets, it's hard to know what will happen moving forward. We can certainly hope we'll get another Shazam movie, one that allows its central characters to breathe a bit. But if this is all we get, at least it's a lot of fun!

The Mauritanian (2021)

 Score: 3.5 / 5

In 2001 only two months after 9/11, Mohamedou Ould Salahi was arrested at his home in Mauritania. After the authorities, desperate for justice, traded him around a bit, he found himself a prisoner at the infamous Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Although he was never formally charged with a crime, and only circumstantial evidence even marginally related him to one of the hijackers, Salahi was held there for fourteen years, tortured for information he did not know. It's an horrific story, one that lends itself well to a cinematic medium, especially carried by such a stellar group of actors. It's also a distinctly manipulative screenplay by writers M.B. Traven, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani, more or less the kind of "dear reader" pathos structured into an equally manipulative courtroom drama. Told in this way, the film must be inevitably compared to other, less timely, dramas, and found wanting as a result.

That's not to say the story isn't as interesting as the previous times we've heard it, on the news and never more than when Salahi's whistleblowing account of his time at Guantanamo Bay was published, heavily redacted by the government. After an initial sequence of Salahi's arrest, the film jumps to 2005, when a concerned lawyer named Nancy Hollander (Jodie Foster) decides to defend Salahi and either get him charged or released. As she goes through the process of entering the detention camp, I couldn't help but feel that the film was hinting at the similar introductory sequence to her character in The Silence of the Lambs; she enters a warren of nightmarish holding cells, most of the base obscured by hanging tarps and stone walls, stripped of potential weapons, and advised to wear a head scarf. She's primed to fear and dehumanize the man she's promised to help, and through Foster's eyes you can see the unspoken battle of wills in her mind.

Joining her is Teri (Shailene Woodley), an associate who has never seen anything like this. During the course of their research, and visits to Salahi (played by a brilliant Tahar Rahim), the two women constantly fight red tape, analyze redacted documents, and slowly but surely seek to rectify the wrongs done not just to their client but to all the inmates. In this way, the film often feels a little out of time; the now publicly known problem that was Guantanamo Bay -- essentially a brutish and brutal prison of torture and total lack of oversight -- is the villain here, but its human rights violations have been the subject of scrutiny for years. One can only guess that the filmmakers, whose project was greenlit in late 2019, felt inspired after the 45th president signed an executive order to keep the prison open indefinitely. Now, however, President Biden's administration has publicly planned to close the prison. Hopefully this movie will add to the support for that plan.

Perhaps the most interesting character arc in the film comes from Benedict Cumberbatch as the Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Couch, representing the U.S. government even as he becomes disillusioned and disturbed by the information coming out about Guantanamo Bay. His is the proverbial fall from grace, and his oaths are put to the test as the government's crimes are finally spoken in courts of law. But, interesting as he is and effective as Cumberbatch makes him, he feels a little too thinly written; actually, I'd say all the characters in this movie -- specific as they are, nominally -- are little more than archetypes. Bouncing off each other in familiar ways, the stakes are never particularly high. Even if you don't remember this story blaring from the morning news years ago, you instinctively know how this story will progress, regress, turn, and end. While that's not a negative quality in any film, much less one that recounts real events, it does make The Mauritanian surprisingly dull viewing.

But, bland and trite as it feels in retrospect, there is a lot to appreciate in this film. Not only is its earnest attempt to vindicate Salahi's name and life a more than worthy cause -- and, I think, largely succeeds, emotional manipulations aside -- but it features really wonderful performances and a few interesting aesthetic choices as well. Lengthy flashback sequences, especially near the film's end, depict Salahi's many years of torment in the prison. These are largely presented in boxy 4:3 aspect ratio, isolating the frame and cueing us to see Salahi as trapped and under a microscope. It's arguably unnecessary, as the climactic sequence is a lengthy and particularly violent series of horrors much like we saw in Jonathan Demme's The Manchurian Candidate; and its placement as the climax feels extremely exploitative and sentimental at the same time. But the layers of mindful, if heavy-handed, direction makes the film immediately accessible to average viewers who may have no idea what they're in for.

Shazam (2019)

Score: 4.5 / 5

Gomer Pyle might have made it sound extra silly, but "Shuz-ayum" is what everyone was saying as we left the cinema.

Knowing nothing about the superhero before we went in, I was blown away by the sheer fun of Shazam!, the latest entry in the DC movie universe. It's the sort of simple-minded joy we felt way back when the first X-Men or Spider-Man movies hit the mainstream and started the modern age of comic book blockbusters. Unlike those entries, however, this one is pure joy and silliness, a seamless blend of humor and heart that never lets its surprisingly dark elements weigh down the film.

In the city of brotherly love, young orphan Billy Batson gets placed into a group home that already includes five foster kids whom he does not immediately love. After delivering his new brother from bullies, however, Billy is magically transported to the lair of an ancient wizard. The wizard's name is -- yes -- Shazam, and it has been his sacred duty to keep the Seven Deadly Sins incarcerated while searching for a suitable champion to take his place. Billy has proven that his heart is pure, and so by speaking the name Shazam, Billy is transformed into a superhero, imbued with the wizard's magic.

Weird? Hell yes. But also a fabulous way to showcase the purity and passions of a child-as-superhero, as well as the talents (and body) of Zachery Levi as the adult hero. The character's endearing mix of innocence, cockiness, and elation are infectious; Levi's effortless comic delivery and ballsy presence on screen are entrancing. More impressively, though, the rest of the cast, half of whom are children! They play off each other like veteran actors, carrying the weight of the film with their antics and sweet sibling affection. And while their antagonist, played by a sleek and severe Mark Strong, isn't quite terrifying, the embodiments of the Sins certainly are. Their final showdown in the fairground is one of the most delightful climaxes of any superhero movie ever.

The result of all this stuff: a joyful romp that holds no pretense. In a franchise so drenched in style and seriousness that it often fails to win fans' support or even respect -- I have certainly enjoyed all the DC films, but they've become very cool to hate on -- this movie manages to thwart expectations and deliver a sassy, irreverent, and completely heartwarming vision of inclusivity, bravery, and a chosen family.