Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Shazam!
180 Plays3 years ago
Big meets superheroes in Shazam!, the subject of this episode's discussion. Perry is joined once again by John Bracich to give a brief discussion of the history of Captain Marvel/Shazam, and how this movie managed to perfectly capture the feeling every kid has of wanting to transform into a superhero.
---
Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/superherocinephiles/message
Recommended
Transcript
Audible Trial & SuperCinemapod Introduction
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, fellow superhero cenophiles. Did you know that almost 30% of adults say they haven't read a book in the past year? Primary reason why is a lack of time. Well, Audible's here to help with the gift of found time. Thanks to Audible, you can listen to audiobooks like Marvel Comics, The Untold Story, or Slugfest inside the epic 50-year battle between Marvel and DC.
00:00:19
Speaker
Read up on the history of superheroes in comics and movies with Grant Morrison's Supergods. You can also check out Vanguard, my original superhero novel series, or try The Vrilagenda or The Adventures of Fortune McCall, both of which were written by our duly departed host emeritus, Derek Ferguson.
00:00:35
Speaker
Whatever you're looking for, Audible has thousands of titles that you can consume while commuting, exercising, cooking, or just relaxing at home. And not only audiobooks, an Audible membership also gives you access to tons of content like podcasts, theatrical performances, and exclusive Audible originals that you won't find anywhere else.
Comedic Banter & Superhero Antics
00:00:52
Speaker
To give you a taste of what you can get, Audible is partnered with this show to provide listeners with a free 30-day trial.
00:00:59
Speaker
All you have to do is go to audibletrial.com slash SuperCinemapod and with your free trial you get one free audiobook and two free Audible Originals. In fact, you get to keep those titles even if you cancel before the trial is over. So what are you waiting for? Head on over to audibletrial.com slash SuperCinemapod and start your free trial today.
00:01:32
Speaker
I don't know about this. I mean, we don't have a fake ID. Freddie, Freddie, would you relax? Look at me. I am the fake ID. Everything from the register! Go, go! Now! Come on! We've got every time to go! You want it all? Hurry! This is your chance. Oh, I know what you're doing. Come on, come on, come on, let's do this!
00:01:57
Speaker
Gentlemen, why use guns when we can handle this like real men? Billy, look out! Bullet immunity. You have bullet immunity! I'm a bulletproof.
00:02:23
Speaker
Today is December 8th, and this is video proof of authenticity. Shoot him again. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Here, here, here. Go. Both of you, come on. Go to town. Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. We still don't know if the suit is bulletproof or if you are. Shoot him in the face. Shoot him in the face? In the face?
00:02:57
Speaker
It kind of tickles. You're dead. Sorry about your window. You're welcome for not getting robbed. Hey, it's a fighting bag, guys.
00:03:22
Speaker
That tastes like actual vomit. You know, having your own jerky, if you eat enough of it, it can burn a hole in your stomach. Worth it. Yeah. Probably not you, though. We probably got stomach superpowers. Probably. Oh, hey. What's up? I'm a superhero. Yeah, his name is Captain Sparkle Fingers. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's not my name. Hey, we should hang out. We're like the same age. Oh, I'm out. Hey, wait up!
Bisexual Superman & Comic Representation
00:04:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles Podcast. I'm your host, Perry Constantine. Welcoming back, old friend of mine and returning guests and former host on the precursor to this show. And that's John Bracek. Johnny, how you doing today? Oh, not too shabby there, Perry. Not too shabby there. How are you good, sir? I'm doing pretty good. A few things that I wanted to talk about before we jump into today's movie. OK.
00:04:27
Speaker
Apparently bisexual Superman son is destroying America. You heard about this? Oh, my God. Yes. You know, what is it with some people? They had the same problem with Captain Marvel, you know, and some other superheroes. I remember back when it was. Oh, what was that mutant?
00:04:50
Speaker
very fast. He was in the Avengers. Oh, god, it's the tip of my hand. He got white hair. Oh, quick silver. Quick silver. I remember when he came out of the closet. No, no, you're thinking of North Star. North Star. Thank God got the answer from Alpha flight. Yeah. Holy crap. That was my credentials. But anyways. Yeah, I remember when he came out, like, oh, oh, my god, you would, you know, you would think it was the end of Western civilization.
00:05:17
Speaker
And the irony is that a lot of the people complaining about John Kent now being bisexual or saying that, well, Northstar was the way to do it right. It's like you guys complain about Northstar when that happened. Let me tell you something. These people don't get immediately. Well, you're trying to shove it down our throats. Oh, there's an agenda or some other fucking thing. Yeah. That is at the end of the day, they don't think those folks are legitimate. Never mind the fact that this is a fictional character. Yeah. You know,
00:05:46
Speaker
That, you know, he's not going to come and make your kids gay or come over or whatever. You know, the fact is these people exist. Yeah. Well, the thing that kills me is they say like, oh, they're all they're complaining about sexualizing superheroes. Like they've always been sexualized. What the hell do you think having a love interest means? Sexualized. That's their beef. Yeah. Have you not seen how they make Wonder Woman?
00:06:11
Speaker
You know, we've been sexualizing superheroes since the 30s. Exactly. Yeah. You know, this is nothing new. We've had romantic interests. You know, excuse me, sign is in here. We've had romantic interests. Go like when Batman falling like a cat woman, nobody said about that. How? How? Never mind that. Forget about that. What about
00:06:39
Speaker
quite Ken the Lois Lane. Yeah. Yeah. I could point the comics from the 40s when they went in a day holding hands or Peter Parker and Stacy Gwen. Gwen Stacy. Gwen Stacy. That's the one I got killed by Green Goblin, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Go be a Goblin Green, John. Fucking Spanish. You know, House of School, that's school house. Anyway. That's ridiculous. But on
00:07:09
Speaker
I just want to quickly chime in on that. There is no controversy here. Number one, you know, what do you think is more fantastic to the critic? I mean, if you're a critic of this, what do you think is more realistic here? Okay, the fact that he's bisexual, or the fact that he's got superpowers? Yeah, right. Yeah. I want to worry about it.
00:07:33
Speaker
The thing that kills me is they say they're acting like, because this is John Kent, the new Superman, who son of Clark and Lois, and he was introduced about five years ago. And so they're complaining, well, you're changing an established character. He was a kid for like up until a year ago, and his sexuality has never been explored at all. Backtrack for me. Is this Superboy?
00:07:57
Speaker
He was the, I guess technically the third super boy. I thought he was super boy. Well, he was, but recently DC has done what's called a future slate where they've like introduced like new versions of characters. So he had gone into space at the beginning of Brian Bendis' run, which I think was like a year ago, two years ago. And at that point, and then he came back. And when he came back, he was a teenager.
00:08:28
Speaker
So now he's about like, I think 1920 and they've kind of jumped, jumped his age to that. And so yeah, he's like 1920 years old. And now he's taking over, I haven't read these books yet. They're not on, they're not, I only do the trade. So I only know what I've seen like in previews and stuff here and there, but I believe that what happened is Superman, Clark Kent has gone off into space and he left John to take over the mantle of Superman on Earth. Well, again, you know,
00:08:57
Speaker
I know they made a big deal. And yes, you could see the comics industry. Sometimes go for there was a couple of superheroes that Marvel came up with it completely bomb. You know, I'm talking about right they came. I'm not sure woke superhero. I mean, literally, there was one whose power only power was that they were transgender or something that was that was their power. You know, there was no, no, that wasn't their power. There was
00:09:24
Speaker
Well, anyways, my will I come up with something to completely bomb because you could tell that they were pandering. This is not pandering. Yeah.
00:09:32
Speaker
There are bisexual people out there. This is natural. You ask anybody, going back to even our generation, we grew up with these folks. The people in their 20s and their 30s grew up, no friends have route, they may be one. Well, that's the thing that gets me off so many people is they're saying that it's not logical or it doesn't make sense. I'm like, have you ever met
00:10:01
Speaker
someone who's, you know, queer, like they they're always, that's what the whole journey of self discovery. That's what coming out needs. They're everywhere.
Flash Movie & TV Universe Connection
00:10:11
Speaker
My neighbor, I live in central Arizona, folks. Okay. I live in the one county in Arizona, that went super Trump. I mean, it's right wing is right wing. And I've got two wonderful people who live across the street from me. And once the town pharmacist. Okay.
00:10:29
Speaker
So don't tell me like they're like only city people. I mean, if they're only like in the far quarters of some distant neighborhood in San Francisco, they're your neighbors or your friends or your family. OK. And again, the average comic book reader of a certain age right now, younger age to them, this is what's the deal? Yeah, exactly. You know who this is pissing off. You know who this pisses off? The baby boomer. Yeah.
Shazam: From Comics to Screen
00:10:57
Speaker
because they got it, not all baby boomers. I'm not saying all, but let's be honest. Well, I mean, one of your politicians, Wendy Rogers, I think it was. Oh, Jesus Christ, I can tell you stories of- She had an interesting response when she was freaking out about this, when she said, Superman loves Louis Lane. Who fucking cares? You know, this is the same woman
00:11:25
Speaker
who represents a part of the Arizona state that was for the union, but she's for the Confederacy. She openly, this is a woman, I could tell you some of the Wendy Rogers that'll blow your mind. It's just that don't be surprised. Again, at the end of the day, the people who are most critical of this are people who just do not think such people are normal or legit.
00:11:50
Speaker
And these are also people who, by the way, have never read a comic book in their life. Those are the ones who are getting the angriest of them. And I'm sure there's a guy who does a YouTube video, who's within our age group, maybe younger. I will not mention his name, but he's got a beard.
00:12:07
Speaker
You'll know who I'm talking about. I'm not sure. Like I avoid most of those grifters because it's all a it's all a fucking grift. That's all. I'm who probably I know has tweeted about all its woke go broke bullshit. Yeah. You know. And again, yes, certain things. But this is, again, big love. He goes for both. I mean, honest, I got in 20 years and 30 years, people are going to look back at the criticism of this. And realize how fucking retarded it's like. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It's like people who say,
00:12:36
Speaker
Oh my God, people used to criticize people of different racial backgrounds. It's just. OK, so all right. That's enough about that. But I want to also quickly talk about you seen some of the fandom DC fandom stuff that came out today. No, no. Oh, so they've had they had a trailer for a new trailer for the Batman.
00:13:06
Speaker
They had some story trailers for the Suicide Squad and Gotham Knights games that are coming out next year. Oh, that Suicide Squad game looks interesting. I remember the first trailer is hilarious. Yeah, yeah. And it's more of that in there. And then there's also a sneak peek at the Flash movie.
00:13:33
Speaker
where we have, so it's, you don't have a flash move. Michael Keaton's coming back as Batman. Oh, that's really happening? That's really happening, yeah, yeah. I thought that was bullshit. No, no, no, that's been filming. Yeah, they're still in production.
00:13:55
Speaker
So yeah, in this teaser, they show Ezra Miller's back as the Flash and they show him in his new costume. We get a peek at Sasha Kale as Supergirl in one of the scenes. And we don't see Michael Keaton in the trailer. We see his mask, like we see the back of his head and we see his costume, but we don't actually see him, but he's doing a voiceover though.
00:14:25
Speaker
What about the TV flash? Does that get any? Yeah, he's still in. In fact, he's getting a costume change. They're finally giving him the yellow boots. That's been the only thing missing from his costume. So they're finally giving him the yellow boots.
00:14:39
Speaker
from the TV, so the TV Flash guy is gonna be in the movie as well? No, no, he's not gonna be in the movie. But they did meet in, you saw Crisis on Infinite Earth, right? I am so behind on that film. Oh, wow. Because they had a scene where Ezra Miller appeared and he met Grant Gustin's Flash. I gotta still catch up. So yeah, so they're both in the same multiverse. And of course, in this one, they're,
00:15:06
Speaker
Barry does something to the timeline here and that's how he ends up in the Tim Burton, Michael Keaton universe. And so that's how Michael Keaton's getting involved in it too. And apparently Ben Affleck's in it as well. So this will be interesting to see. But the new flash shoot looks really good. And also related to what we're talking about today, they had a brief teaser of Black Adam with The Rock.
00:15:35
Speaker
That's a good follow up to what we're going to talk about, by the way. Yeah, yeah. And also they had that a brief behind the scenes look and some in production stuff of Shazam, Fury of the Gods, which apparently it's it's it's going to have Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu are playing the villains in that.
00:15:56
Speaker
What are what characters you're playing? They're playing two of the gods, two of the goddesses. One is Calypso and another one was, they didn't say her name, but they had it written on it. I can't remember how to, I don't know how to pronounce it. So, but Calypso was one of them. I think Lucy Lou's playing Calypso and then Helen Mirren's playing the other one. It starts with an H, I think. Okay. Okay. Because I'll tell you, in Black Adam,
00:16:23
Speaker
is in that same universe as Shazam, right? Yeah, yeah. In fact, they have, in Shazam, which we're talking about today, there's one scene where the wizard talks about his first champion and shows the image of it. And it's modeled after Black Adam. And it's modeled after Dwayne Johnson. And Dwayne Johnson was a producer on Shazam. Yeah.
00:16:53
Speaker
I had a lot of fun watching that though. Yeah, so let's jump into it, right? We're talking about Shazam today, which, so what's your, before we jump into the movie, what kind of familiarity do you have with the character? Okay.
00:17:11
Speaker
And again, um, this will probably be, uh, sound dumb, but I was more of a Superman guy and I always had a problem, which I always thought that Shazam was like a cheap knockoff or not a knockoff, but like, if you couldn't afford a, you could be like a brand X or whatever you want to call it. Right. And so. Like the costume just, I dunno, that may sound shallow. Okay. Forgive me, because I think I told you the tablecloth story, right? Where?
00:17:41
Speaker
We had a tablecloth that looked exactly like that case, and I God damn it every time I saw that superhero i'm like.
00:17:49
Speaker
Holy shit, there's my table right there. It's just missing ketchup stain. It's, you know, some other shit like it. So I couldn't take him seriously. And you know what? I wasn't the only one in my neighbor. We either picked up Batman, Superman, you know, the prime, the premier league, you could say, of Superheroes, of course, your Marvel stuff. And how we knew Shazam was unpopular was my comic bookstore, Atlas Comics on Cumberland Avenue. I don't know if it's still there. But,
00:18:17
Speaker
It's like Cumberland and Harlem, I wanna say. Anyways, at the end of two weeks, he would always bundle comics he couldn't sell. Now Ike was always on an impression. You gotta send them back to the publisher or something like that. But anyways, he would bundle them in these little baggies. And it'd be like Shazam all the time. 99% of the time with Shazam, some Archie spin-off that nobody ever bought.
00:18:47
Speaker
You know, like Veronica goes to Delaware, some shit like that. A Popeye comic book. Leftover G.I. Joe comic books. Even though those were good. I like Larry Hama's writing. He was pretty good in that. Oh, yeah, those are really, really well. Yeah. Even to this day now, people are always talking. I haven't read them, but I see them on sale every now and then on comics. Oh, do yourself a favor. You can get an anthology.
00:19:12
Speaker
You're going to love them. I think you're going to love them. So he would always have these or he'd have some that you never heard of or one like stuff that just didn't sell. But God damn it. You knew there was going to be a Shazam in there. And so you would get for three dollars. He's like 20 comic books. And so that's what that's how I would read him was I would wait for the 20 dollars. I mean, 20 comic for three dollars. You're not going to pass that up.
00:19:37
Speaker
You know, so that's how okay you didn't take him seriously like us. So that's it that's the only basic thing. And then of course.
00:19:47
Speaker
He went by different name. He didn't call him Shazam. He called him Captain Marvel. Yeah, so this is, because my, you know, you're more familiar with the character than I am, because I'd never really, you say he was a Superman knockoff, so bit of a history lesson for anyone who doesn't know. He was a Superman knockoff. Yeah, Fawcett Comics. Yeah, exactly. Fawcett Comics was making their own version of Superman, basically, and so much so that DC sued them.
00:20:13
Speaker
And so they had to eventually stop, they sued him and then Fawcett had to stop publishing the character. And then later on DC bought out Fawcett comics or bought the rights of the character and one or the other. But by that point, the Captain Marvel name had already been, because the trademark had lapsed, right? And, you know, Marvel by that point, they're like,
00:20:36
Speaker
you know, we're Marvel Comics, of course, we got to have a Captain Marvel. We would be stupid not to pick this up. So they snapped up the trademark and and then they that's when they released their Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell. And then they after that, they DC decided they bought the rights, they got the rights all settled and they wanted to publish, you know, a new Captain Marvel comic book.
00:21:02
Speaker
They couldn't call it Captain Marvel though. And they couldn't call the character Captain Marvel in any of the merchandising or anything. So the comic book was called Power of Shazam, I believe. And like the character in other, like in toys and stuff like that, that was my first exposure to the character was, you know, seeing like the old DC superheroes collection. And they had a Captain Marvel figure, but it was called Shazam.
Humor & Action in Shazam
00:21:26
Speaker
So,
00:21:28
Speaker
So I was actually confused when I found people calling him, when I started reading comics and I found people calling him Captain Marvel, I'm like, I thought the guy's name was Shazam, what is that? Well, not only that, I mean, the funny part is, is Captain Marvel or Shazam does, had actually culturally traveled. I mean, he's the only superhero to quote unquote, make an appearance on the Andy Griffith Show. Yeah, yeah. You know, when Gomer Pyle,
00:21:59
Speaker
What was his catchphrase? He loved reading Captain Marvel when he would hang out at Floyd DeBarber's shop and he trademarked with Shazam and he would say that. Exactly, yeah. You know, so, I mean, there is the guy, I mean, yes, he's a knockoff with a tablecloth cape, but I mean, he did have a following. Let's be honest here. Oh, he did, yeah. You know, he wasn't, you know, he's not like some, some of these superheroes that come and go, you never hear from again, that they came up. And let's be honest, back then in the 40s,
00:22:27
Speaker
They were pumping out all sorts of lookalikes, you know, and out of all the Superman knockoffs, he survived. Yeah. Yeah. And he was, he had a serial too. There was a, there was a serial in the forties. There was a TV show I just found out in the seventies as well. Yes. A live action TV show, which it's like, according to IMDB, it ran from 74 to 77, but in the reviews, they said it was only two seasons. So I'm guessing that, you know, there was probably a gap between seasons or something.
00:22:55
Speaker
You know what, it's sort of like, I don't know if you can get Turner classic movies. I got through, they got some stuff on HBO Max. Okay. Turner classic has been producing, releasing the original Batman series. And I don't mean the one from the sixties. Oh, you mean the original serials? I mean the original serials. Okay. And if you look on IMDB, it's the same thing.
00:23:22
Speaker
They were sporadic. Of course, this Batman is incredibly racist. But yeah, I've heard about that. By the standards, I mean, it just wouldn't fly. But I mean, the same thing. And the same thing you saw with the Spider-Man series in the 70s. Like in the 1970s, they were trying all sorts of superhero stuff. You know, you see, have you ever seen the 1970s Spider-Man show?
00:23:44
Speaker
Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. The Nicholas Hammond one. Yeah. Yeah. The one that Stan Lee hated. And Stan Lee never publicly hated anything Marvel. And I never really got the appeal of the character, Captain Marvel. Yeah. He just, you know, I know they talk about Superman being a Boy Scout, but this kid was just like way too wholesome. And so I just never really
00:24:05
Speaker
And just like the the you know the holy moly stuff and like the and you know and all that kind of stuff and just like it was so archaic and it just and it didn't and it just seemed really cheesy. It's like.
00:24:18
Speaker
when they decided to produce it and say, okay, we're going to make something that so goes over beyond what the comics board would approve to make it so, so safe. Yeah. You know, because apparently Superman is edgy for some reason, even though he's not, I mean, he's about as, you know, edgy as I don't know, something flat. He's about as edgy as a stick of butter. You know, unless you want to count bisexual Superman now,
00:24:46
Speaker
you know, which apparently that that's like, you know, one of the sides of the impending light end of life on earth, bring on the asteroid. But yeah, I agree with you. And that's one of the things. And when I used to pick up those bags of 20 comics for $2, you know, that he just Billy Betts and always who was a boy scout at one point, he was no swearing the bad guys.
00:25:14
Speaker
I think they were more tamer than the bad guys in the 1960s Batman show. Oh, wow. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's like, Dr. Savannah, you know, it's obviously he's obviously a ripple up of a couple of other people. And you know, what's funny is Dr. Savannah got ripped off.
00:25:36
Speaker
Oh, really? And he looks like, well, he was one of the inspirations for a couple of other characters, too, from Johnny Quest as well. If you'll watch Venture Brothers. Oh, OK. Dr. Z. Look at the Dr. Dr. Savannah. Look at Dr. Z.
00:25:56
Speaker
Well, that was the whole thing about the Venture Brothers, right? They were ripping off Johnny Quest. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. You know, and of course, there were characters in that Johnny Quest that looked like Dr. Savannah. Right. I mean, it could just be, you know, because I know Johnny Quest came after. I believe so. Yeah. You know, because it had to. Because Johnny Quest came out on TV. Right. So yeah. You know, but it's just that
00:26:23
Speaker
If you ever pick up an old Shazam or Captain Marvel combo, it's like 10 pages in, you know how it's gonna end. It's like an M. Light Shyamalan movie, you know? You know? Okay, there's the fucking twist. I can go home now. I should have waited till this thing was on HBO. And then during the New 52, they decided they were gonna reboot him.
00:26:49
Speaker
They did it in a backups of Justice League and Jeff Johns was doing the stories and he made him, this is when they officially changed his name to Shazam, was in the new 52. And this pissed off a lot of people. A lot of fans got really pissed off about the fact they were changing his name to Shazam. Me personally, I didn't have a problem with it. I thought it actually made a lot of sense. I thought it was long past time.
00:27:18
Speaker
Let's be honest, most people familiar with the character, as you have aptly shown, figured his name was Shazam. Like when you saw the action figures. Right, exactly.
00:27:30
Speaker
So that didn't bother me at all, but a lot of people got pissed off at it. Another thing they didn't like about this new version was Billy Batson was made to be an asshole, right? He was a little prick in this new comic. And, you know, people got pissed off about that. But this movie, I think, and here's where we jump into the movie finally after all this lead in, but I think what the movie did really well was it found a balance, right? This is not the,
00:27:56
Speaker
the, you know, golly gee whiz, Billy Batson, you know, Boy Scout of the comics, of the early comics, but he's not like the little shit from the from the reboot. He's like this. He's a regular kid. He is a regular kid. And if you look at the development of the last version of the film, the one where everybody saw what they wanted to go with, Adam Sandberg, not Adam Sandberg, Peter Sandberg, right? I believe so. Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:24
Speaker
He basically said he wanted to create big, the movie, Big Tom. Yes. With super power. David Sandberg. David Sandberg. Excuse me. Forgive me. Yeah. You know, I know he made the one of those horror movies. I had an apology before that. Yeah, he did one of the I think the Annabelle movies. Yeah, that's what I that's what I know him from. But he made essentially
00:28:50
Speaker
let's be honest you know it's so easy to make the kid a smart ass a punk whatever and it's almost to the point that it's a trope right right you know and god knows the other way around is a trope too I guess uh you know but it's rarely done but you saw this going back with I hate to say but the creation of Bart Simpson you know if you go back to the 90s so suddenly every kid's got to be a prick
00:29:15
Speaker
Well, yeah. And then you also had the, you know, the smart ass, you know, kid sidekick, which was always the place in the eighties. Yes, exactly. And so, you know, this isn't a good medium because it's the most realistic. Let's be honest. How many people. You know, kid wise, when you were a kid or whatever, they were like, like the Bailey, the new Billy Batson. Yeah, you know, you know,
00:29:41
Speaker
none. I mean, very few. And if you did, they sure as shit, we're not going to be qualified to be Shazam. No, no, based off of the place off of what the requirements are. But at the same time, this Billy Batson, I don't want to say he's broken, because that's not the right word. But he is damaged in a way. Yeah, yeah. Because, you know, when they showed him as a young boy, spoiler alert, in case anybody hasn't seen the film yet, we're going to be doing a lot of spoilers here. Yeah.
00:30:11
Speaker
Um, pair warning been issued. Um, you know, they show him when he's like seven. Right. Or six. Something like that. When he was, when he was a little kid, basically. Right. With his mother and they're the carnival.
00:30:25
Speaker
And she's trying to get into and you could tell the mother's under stress. Yeah, the way she's talking and she's trying and you see this with a lot and she's a teenage mother. You know, it's quite obvious, you know, from the start up, at least the actress or at least a struggling mom, you know, she's probably was older than a teenager when they filmed that, obviously. Right. Yeah. But you get what they were going with immediately there.
00:30:48
Speaker
And the boy gets lost because apparently he wins the prize or the mother wins the prize. It wasn't a stuffed tiger now. It was a little ball compass. Yeah. And.
00:31:03
Speaker
either she's walking with a mother and gets lost because it's a crowded amusement park. Because he drops a little toy or toy gets out of his head or the compass. So we find that he goes looking for his mom, he can't find the mom and the cops. Now the reason why we're bringing this up is because you start asking yourself a question because the movie obviously jumps forward a few years later, you know, when he's doing that prank with the cops, which
00:31:29
Speaker
I got to say, was pretty goddamn clever. Well, that was great, too, because that he was pretending to be the original Billy Batson of that, too. Right. Right. Like, OK, you know where he goes, too.
00:31:41
Speaker
You know, he's not a criminal. He could have stole something from the pawn shop, but he did it. He just set off the alarm. I mean, the biggest act of thievery he does is stealing that guy's cheesesteak sandwich. Right. Which was a great moment. Yeah. Which, you know, hey, a free Gino's cheesesteak. I'll jump at it, too. And you know what? You know, that cop probably beat someone already so far. Oh, yeah, he had it coming. Let me say this one way or another, that cop had it coming. Yeah. So anyways,
00:32:10
Speaker
So you know, he's been through the system, you can see it off the bat. He's a little bit disheveled. But you know, he's got, I mean, he's got that little orphan, not that that look on him, you know what I'm talking about. Right. But at the same time, you know, I've just gone to a different director, this place, say 1998, Hollywood would have done what Hollywood had done.
00:32:32
Speaker
probably make him more edgy, make him a goth, make him, or not a goth, maybe something would, you know, like, oh, we've got a spiky hair and a skateboard or something like, might Simpson him up.
Shazam's Genre Blending Success
00:32:44
Speaker
So, you know, this movie did a really good job of, you know, and I think big is, you know, a really good thing to point to because this is,
00:32:52
Speaker
this is a really creative way to to do the superhero. And this is what Marvel and DC is now finally getting this story, but this is what Marvel figured out was you don't just make superhero movies, you make genre films with superheroes. Right. Yeah. And that's what friends. And so like, that's what the best MCU films have been, right? You have, you know,
00:33:16
Speaker
Winter Soldier is a political thriller with superheroes. Guardians of the Galaxy is space opera with superheroes. Ant-Man is a caper film with superheroes. The new Spider-Man movies, they're basically John Hughes High School movies with superheroes. And they've cracked this formula. And now DC is finally starting to get on with it, right? They got, so.
00:33:42
Speaker
Wonder what was was a World War One picture with a superhero in it. That's right. 1984 was, well, you know, no, that was a different story but yeah but but but this one they figured like okay well you know we've got a kid we've got a kid who transforms into a superhero which is
00:33:59
Speaker
Every kid's dream, right? So this is like, right? Which fulfillment? And what they did when they first become superheroes, they try to get a beer. Exactly. Yeah. And then they find out they don't like beer. It tastes like vomit. The guy says it was where they go. So what did they get? They don't get cigarettes because they could have. They went and got Fritos Doritos, you know, a lot of soda, you know, all that stuff. And you're right. It's like I said, it's a fun movie. I'm glad to see DC.
00:34:29
Speaker
And Warner Brothers finally realized you don't have to make a dark movie. You don't have to make edgy, you know, everything can be like fucking Batman. Right. Superman. That was the problem. I think I think with some of the Superman movies is they started to go in one direction. They just didn't fit for Superman. Yeah. You saw this with Wonder Woman. You saw this with Aquaman. You saw this with, you know, they realize, OK, it's something different. And in a way,
00:34:58
Speaker
And I know Tim Gunn did the Suicide Squad. And it's like, James Gunn. Tim Gunn's the Project One Runway guy. Oh my God. You see, folks, I'm terrible with names, okay? And this is what, you know, my advice to you, never take too much coffee before starting the show. So anyways, so Mr. Gunn made the Suicide Squad. And the later version, it was a fun movie.
00:35:27
Speaker
It was a Guardians of the Galaxy type of fun movie. And this...
00:35:34
Speaker
was in that same in my opinion, I could be you could may want to disagree with me. But to me, I got the same vibe. Definitely. But I mean, that's not one for one, but it was a fun movie. It wasn't you laugh. There was actual funny things when he's doing the selfies when he's doing when he's up like, you know, you know, and he you know, when he's trying to learn other parts or when his sidekick says, OK, we're going to see if you can turn invisible hide in the box.
00:36:02
Speaker
And he actually sets him on fire. You know, I mean, shit like that. I mean, it's fun. It's sort of like and of course, they got rid of all of rooting colors. You know, it's interesting because if you look up the production for this movie.
00:36:19
Speaker
the previous version of this with Dwayne Johnson. Dwayne Johnson, the Rock was supposed to either become Shazam or Black Adam. Yeah, he had asked his fans which one he'd want them to play, which one they wanted him to play. One of those two lows. And all of them overwhelmingly voted. Well, I mean, that was kind of like a joke poll, I think, because
00:36:40
Speaker
I mean, he's been, he's been like the fan top cast, the top fan casting for black Adam since forever. Right. So, but the thing is, if you look into that, they were going to go for a darker version of that movie.
00:36:55
Speaker
In fact, that was one of, yeah, they originally wanted to do this when it first, when it left New Line, when New Line got bought out, because they had the rights for a while. They were originally, they wanted to make it darker, to make it more like, because of the success of The Dark Knight. And thank God this movie came about after Batman V Superman tanked, because then Warner Brothers realized, maybe we shouldn't do this kind of bullshit anymore.
00:37:21
Speaker
Right. Exactly. And so, you know, and I'm most likely if they've done it that way, you would have had that edgy or Bart Simpson like Bailey Batson. And the movie probably would have taken if you look even back to the comic books, forget the kids saying golly G for one fucking moment. If you look at them, they're much lighter. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, I mean, even the bad guy,
00:37:45
Speaker
I mean, honestly, like if you in the movie sort of reflected the funness of this in a way, no, I mean, honestly, the only closest are rated or the most darkest point in a movie really is only in the beginning when Dr. Savannah kills off his brother and his father. Right. That's it. I get thrown out of a building and monsters eat the head off a corporate guy. And I don't know what greed did to the father in the wheelchair, but, you know,
00:38:16
Speaker
But yeah, and that capturing that, you know, that striking that balance, it makes it so it's, and I realized this when I, because a few episodes ago we did,
00:38:26
Speaker
the Power Rangers movie, the one from the mid nineties, which, you know, is just completely over the top and cheesy and ridiculous. But something like this, it strikes a right balance. So like, you know, it's got that lighthearted tone, but it's still serious enough where you can take it seriously. And the humor points, they always have like, for example, I noticed this in either a good show or a good movie.
00:38:53
Speaker
There would always be what I'll call this reoccurring joke character. I don't even know the name for it. Like if you ever watched the Lucifer TV series, there was this black this African American robber. Every time the devil fucks him over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In a funny way. And in other movies like in this movie, it was the Santa Claus. You know, I mean, whether it was in the shopping mall,
00:39:22
Speaker
or at the carnival. They hit it, of course. I got a kick out of starts when they reported the interviews. I mean, he goes, this was fucked up. And I speak about, you know. I also got a kick out of Darla and her superhero guys, which is telling of like, my name is Darla. I've been really good this year. Yeah. You know, I think that these actors did really well is they really made you feel that they were actually kids in adult. Yes. You know, they were kids.
00:39:51
Speaker
Zachary Levy was the perfect choice for Shazam because of that. Because you completely bought the idea that this guy is really a kid.
00:40:01
Speaker
Yes. Yes. And like you said earlier in the podcast, this movie is the perfect epitome of all every young boy and girl who wanted to grow up to be a superhero. Right. You know, and you know, you freaks and not only not only that, it respected that. Yeah, that you wanted to drop and it's respected that it didn't spoon feed your shit.
00:40:28
Speaker
you know, it knew that you knew these things. And it did that through when Freddie that was the brother's day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Freddie would talk about this guy's got to be this type of villain or was the let you know, some superhero things that you and I and anybody else would recognize? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Well, because everybody who grew up as a fan of superheroes, we had those conversations, those exact same conversations. And now
00:40:57
Speaker
they're taking it, I don't want to, they're saying the steps, okay, not it's really happening. Oh my God, we got to take this seriously. What do we do? But you know about this stuff. And it says, I mean, the movie basically transported you Perry, or me or any of our listeners, back when we were kids, and we would say to them, what if this happened to us? Exactly. Yeah.
00:41:21
Speaker
What happened? Yeah. And that was that was the brilliance of this movie. I think it and it's got some it's got some, you know, there's some it's not it's not the greatest movie, but it's it's it's so much fun. And I think that's a fun movie. That's that's what that's probably the best thing I can say about the movie is that it is so much fun watching it. You know what this movie I'll tell you and you may disagree with me.
00:41:44
Speaker
But the same fun vibe I got with this is the same one I got when I used to watch Big Trouble in Little China. No, I can see that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, that movie did not take itself seriously. Right. Yeah. Okay. And this movie on a certain level winked at you. Okay. Come along for the fun of this. You know,
00:42:05
Speaker
You know, let's be honest. That movie touched on every person who liked superheroes and comics. They knew what we went through. Always some jerk in our life. That's why when this when those bullies got the suitcase wedgie, never when they were rescued from the Ferris wheel. Yeah. You know, stuff like that. And let's be honest, when you were a kid, yeah, it would have been cool to sit with super Superman or superhero to validate. Yeah, you know yourself. And so
00:42:34
Speaker
I guess I'm sort of looking forward to the sequel. I am, too. The only thing I can figure out, and by the way, I loved. I love it. You're going to disagree with me. But I thought it was frickin hilarious. The Elder Wizard played by I can't pronounce his name. Oh, Jiman Hansa. Yeah, he was in Gladiator. I know that. You know, it's funny, too, is that he was in both the Captain Marvel movies now. He was in Marvel's Captain Marvel because he played. Yes.
00:43:04
Speaker
He played Korath in that one. And then he said he sees Captain Marvel playing Shazam. Right. And you know what? The way he reacts to the other person is like, you're not qualified. You know, like he thought he was quite like, you know, but it was a little not over the top, but it was like you just can't.
00:43:26
Speaker
Like when when Billy Batson, when he's told how to get the power, grab my staff and he's like, what? You know, you know, take my step. OK, but then I think the magic word, what's the magic word? Come on. If you were a kid, right. And some wizard said, this is the magic word. And let's be honest, that word is fucking ridiculous. Yeah. You know, Shazam.
00:43:52
Speaker
And he laughed. We would have laughed. We would have laughed. You know, that's the thing. It's goofy, but it takes how we would have been there with respect. We also like how they keep, they don't settle on a name because that's, that's what a kid superhero would do. They run through a bunch of different names. Captain Sparkle Thunder, Captain Red Cyclone. And I like to know that's not my name. Notice or how about when he's trying to save that one woman and she gives them money thinking she's being mugged.
00:44:20
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And they also have a direct reference to Big in the toy store when he's on the piano. Did you catch that during the fight with Savannah? Oh my God. I like that. I'll tell you, it's got this quirky humor part that also at the same time makes fun of comic books in one way. And I'll give you one of the best examples.
00:44:45
Speaker
Savannah is on one end, he's saying what he's going to do to Chazam, what he's going to do, he's threatening him, and Chazam's on one end, it's like he can't hear him. What? Huh? Oh, I just couldn't, you know. And Savannah doesn't realize that, that he's being, nobody can hear him, you know.
00:45:05
Speaker
You know, I thought that was hilarious. It was great. Yeah. And it's this movie and something like Deadpool in that way, where it it kind of it skirts the line because there's a very fine line between, you know, parody and, you know, like poking fun. And it just stays right on that line. And it never crosses over. Right. It wakes you like, hey,
00:45:30
Speaker
just coming along. It's like, you know, come along for the fun here. We're going to have a good time. This is what the movie said. We're going to have a good time. Yeah. You know, I highly recommend it. I just can't figure out the caterpillar. Oh, that's what's his name, Mr. Mind. He's one of the Captain Marvel villains. Oh, OK. Was he like, you know, because that always got me like. You would think that the wizard would have destroyed him. He's right there.
00:45:58
Speaker
you know, but he wasn't aware of him or what? Yeah, he's one of Captain Marvel's, you know, regular primary villains. And just like that, you know, he's a two inch alien worm. And then he usually used his plans through with the Monster Society of Evil. And he's appeared in
00:46:25
Speaker
And he's appeared in the DC stuff, and in Power of Shazam, and he appeared in the New 52 stuff as well. Okay, so I'm not familiar with it. The other question I had was the doors in the movie. Now, I know they open, at least in different places, or like the different planets, different parallel universes, because they go up and wonder, like alligators playing cards, and then they- I'd imagine so. That's what it was supposed to mean. It was like, you know, it was connecting to the multiverse. Okay. I was wondering about, what the hell?
00:46:55
Speaker
You know, are these other villains I don't know about? Or, you know, I'm not super familiar with the character, am I missing out on something here, you know? Well, you're more familiar with than I am, because I've never read any of the comics, so. Well, apparently, you're going to become more familiar, because apparently, this is the same thing. They've got something here, you know? Yeah, so I don't know. It'll be, because I was not expecting to like this film as much as I did. I thought, OK, you know, the trailer, when I heard about it, I'm like, eh,
00:47:25
Speaker
I never cared about Shazam. I don't know about this one, but when I saw the first trailer, I'm like, oh, that looks pretty good. I think I'll watch that when it comes out on video. And I can't remember if we had seen it because my wife had wanted to see it because she had seen the trailer and she's like, oh, I really want to see. And she's actually seen it more than me since it came out on video. Like she's watched it like she's watched it more time. I've watched it like, you know, maybe three times, I think she's watched it like four or five times. Wow.
00:47:53
Speaker
Well, you know what? It wouldn't surprise me. It could be one of those movies that like once a year you want to watch. Yeah. You know, I could definitely see that. Like, I'll watch it. It's October. I'm going to be watching that movie I mentioned before, Big Trouble, A Little China. We're always around October, November. I love watching that movie. It's not a horror movie, but it's a goofy movie. Yeah. All sorts of stupid shit in there.
00:48:17
Speaker
I also wanted to, you know, one more thing. I want to talk about the foster parents. I thought really good too. Yes. Marta Melons and Cooper Andrews. I thought they did a really good job. They did a fantastic. Are you from Cooper's the good father, right? I believe so. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Victor Vasquez. Now you know where I saw him from. Maybe you watched the show and he was in the walking dead.
00:48:42
Speaker
Oh, that's where I recognize him from. Yeah, he's one of the guardians, one of the good guys. Okay, I was looking at him and I'm like, where have I seen this guy before? Yeah, I know I've seen him one mother place, but I know I'm more familiar with him in The Walking Dead. And I know something about, he's a great actor in that show. And when I saw him on, I'm like, okay, I know what I'm in for with this guy because he kind of plays the same type of character
00:49:10
Speaker
Which is a fun, loving guy. I mean, look at the Walking Dead is that the pressing show is shit. Yeah, that's why I haven't finished watching it. But he, when he's on there, it's like a big teddy bear. You know, he's like, yeah, I mean, I don't want to say he lightens it up, but he lightens it up.
00:49:33
Speaker
He was also in, looks like he was on an episode of Hawaii Five-O. That may have been the other place where I've seen him before. Cause I've seen a bunch of those episodes. Yeah. Yeah. I know he gets a Robert. So that's great to see. I'm not familiar with the mother though. No, I don't think I've ever seen her in anything before.
Family Dynamics & Villains in Shazam
00:49:50
Speaker
In fact, out of the actors, the only other ones I'm familiar with is Freddie. Cause he's in a show I just saw where he plays an army brat. Uh,
00:50:05
Speaker
What was I saying? Oh yeah, the actors. I mean, obviously we all know who Levi was and we know who Mark Strong is. And we know who that one that played the father, the bad guy is. Yeah, John Glover. Which is, this is like his, he's been in so many like small DC stuff. Like he was Lionel Luther on Smallville. He was, what's his name? Jason Woodrow and Robin.
00:50:31
Speaker
Uh, he was, uh, he was, uh, he did the voice in some of the animated stuff as well. He was on the walking dead. I hate to speak up, but he's in the walk. Well, he's not, no, let me rephrase that. He was on the fear of the walking dead. Oh, okay. And, and which is becoming the flagship show. I mean, I have to turn this into that podcast for that, but yeah, he plays a very, I swear to God, he played a.
00:50:56
Speaker
He plays a character that honestly would have fit more in a DC universe in The Walking Dead. Oh, OK. He played like a mad scientist type of guy or mortuary. Anyway, I mean, he's a he's such a he's such an underrated actor like you. Do you remember him? You know, the first one I saw him in was Gremlins. I was going to say Gremlins, too. Yeah. Yeah. He was brilliant in that. Yeah. Gremlins, too. Obviously, he's a parody of Donald Trump, you know,
00:51:24
Speaker
But anyways, a lot of those, the other one I'm familiar with. Well, he was in, he was in this really good show. It only lasted for one season called Brimstone. It was in the late nineties. Yeah. And he played the devil on that. And he was, that was where I really remember him from. That's where I, that's where I first became really familiar with him. Well, he's a good actor. Oh yeah. Yeah. It was nice seeing him even in just like this small role. Well, I'll tell you, I always look forward to seeing him in something.
00:51:51
Speaker
The other actor, like I said, I know who the kid who played Freddy, cause he's in a show where he plays an army brand. Oh, okay. Um, call one of us or something like that. It's, it's an HBO, I think. And, um, I mean, I don't watch the show, but I just saw an ad. I remember they saw one episode. Yeah. I did see one episode. Anyways. Uh, there's that I'm familiar with. Uh, of course, you know, Mike strong is everybody. Yeah. Um, and.
00:52:21
Speaker
Obviously, Levi and a little Chinese boy, a little Asian, because he's in Ian Chen. Thank you. I'm terrible with names. Ian Chen plays a smart little younger brother and off the boat that ABC show that Asian fresh off the boat. Fresh off the boat. Oh, OK. All right. He plays in that. And I'm not familiar with the other ones, the girl or the other ones. So.
00:52:47
Speaker
Oh, and the guy who plays Freddie, Jack Dylan Grazer, he was also in it. OK, see, I didn't I didn't miss it. It was pretty good. And then Faith Herman, she was she played Darla. Oh, she was in she was in Watchmen. She played a young Angela in the Watchmen TV show. OK, well, there you go. Holy shit, these guys really are in a superhero little network there. Yeah, cinema. That's great.
00:53:14
Speaker
Well, again, I'm curious. Obviously, the sequel is going to be like the Marvel family, though. I don't think they can call it the Marvel family. I don't know. No, I think it's I think they're officially called the Shazam family now. So, you know, that's common. Well, yeah, it'll be interesting. I'm not sure what they're doing with their names because
00:53:33
Speaker
because they can't say Ms. Marvel, they can't say, you know. Well, yeah, cause well, Mary was, she was Mary Marvel in the comics. I think she's now Lady Shazam, if I'm not mistaken. Lady Shazam, yeah. And then, and then, you know, in the comics, Freddy's superhero identity was Captain Marvel Jr. And then he went by, he changed that to CM3 in the nineties. And then I think now he's just Shazam Jr., I'm not sure.
00:54:03
Speaker
And, you know, Darla and Eugene and Pedro, they've appeared in their superhero identities in the comics, but they haven't had names for them. And in the credits too, none of them have names, right? It's all just, you know, superhero Freddie, superhero Mary.
00:54:23
Speaker
Well, I know what the movie comes out in 2022, right? I believe so. Well, that's got to definitely cover that, Perry. We definitely got to cover that. Well, yeah, they're they look like they're going to be from because they I should totally. They had the preview at at Fandome and they had they had some some shots of the of their new layer. Right. The the the Wizards Cave Wizards. Yeah. Yeah. And it's and they have like, you know, they have like layer painted on it and stuff like that. So
00:54:53
Speaker
And they said that they're gonna be exploring them, you know, now that they're a superhero family. So it's not like they're just shuffling these characters off to the side or finding some excuse for why they can't be in the movie or something. It looks like they're still gonna be leaning into them. Yeah, they're gonna include them. And they should because they add to it. I mean, if it's just one character, that could get all very fast because let's be honest, you know,
00:55:19
Speaker
He's a cool character the way they got him now. Don't get me wrong. I'm sure on some level, you could just make it him, but they just add to it. They do, yeah. And not that they know his identity, but not to. And it's, you know, in some ways the family dynamic stuff felt a little bit forced, but their interaction was good enough that I was able to look past it. And I'll tell you, making them all foster kids,
00:55:47
Speaker
That really helped a lot. That came from the comics, I believe. It did? From the new 50, from the reboot, the new 52 reboot. Oh, OK. I have not read any of the new 52. I have not. Well, good. Good. OK. Because it would make a lot more sense because, you know, it's just well, anyway, I don't mind it's a fun movie. Yeah. Yeah. What do you think of Mark Strong as Dr. Savannah? Because that's the one thing one thing we haven't talked about yet.
00:56:17
Speaker
Okay. Honestly, I thought, I mean, it's not for me with Dr. Savannah's character too much, except for the fact that I told you about the Johnny Questing. Right, right. He's always called the character. It's always been, I don't want to say cold. Yeah, cold's the right word. You know, not too stiff.
00:56:43
Speaker
I've seen his character like in the Long Midnight Sun series. I don't know if you saw that. He's a police detective. There is a show we played a gangster same type of character. Okay. I thought
00:57:01
Speaker
And I'm pretty, you know, I'm pretty sure his family didn't support him for setting up that research. I think, you know, right. Is that right? I assume so. Yeah. It seemed like it was something being done off the books, off the books. And I just thought that I know he hated his family, the character.
00:57:21
Speaker
But I don't know if I would have gone and done that off the bat immediately, because he's basically destroyed the company in a way that replaced all those people. But as for the actor, I think he did a good job. Yeah, I think he did a good job.
00:57:36
Speaker
it's nice to see him actually finally get the chance to actually play a DC villain because he was you know he was Sinestro in Green Lantern who was supposed to be the villain in the he was supposed to be going to be the villain in Green Lantern 2 which never ended up happening so it's nice that he got another chance and this time he was playing in Savannah and I thought he was
00:57:57
Speaker
I thought he did a good job. He was, you know, sufficiently menacing. Oh, he was definitely menacing. Yeah. No, no, there's no question. It's sort of, you know, it's funny when he shows up and the way Mark Strong played him. And when when Shazam or the child realizes threat and then look imagine convey, you're going to laugh.
00:58:25
Speaker
But there's a YouTube, it reminded me of a YouTube video. If you can Google it, Russian chess. OK, we're just little kid, four years old, five years old. He's a Russian chess master in a way, you know, and he's on his question. And he's defeating these people. So then he's going to go up against his final challenger and the final challenger, the host that is not me, and they bring out the real challenger and it was the national chess champion.
00:58:54
Speaker
Oh, look at that little kid's face. He freaked out and that music. I realize, you know, they ripped off from Shazam. I mean, they played the same music and I'm like, oh, my God. And the look on the kid's face is the same thing. You could tell strong basically
Shazam's Sequel & DC Universe Future
00:59:15
Speaker
put off the impression that
00:59:18
Speaker
Shazam was going after I was facing a tier one villain in a way. Not in the farm leagues, you know, because let's be honest, the way Shazam was conveying and treating this guy like, oh, you're just a, you're superpowers are so great. That's great. Blah, blah, blah. I can kick your ass. And then he realizes and it's because Mike Strong gives off that impression.
00:59:40
Speaker
You know, like, like he's like a magical terminator of a sort, you know, like, yeah, you know, he was relentless hunting them down. Yeah, his portrayal of that is he's got that gaze.
00:59:57
Speaker
You've seen him do that. Yes. Yeah. You know, and and, you know, he doesn't have to move a fucking limb. Right. I've seen him do this in other shows and other movies where he'll just lean in. Mm hmm. Look at you. Tilt his head. Look at you. They're like, like, like, you know, like evil, like the stink guy, like a really super stinky look. But yeah, I agree with that. I thought he was very good.
01:00:27
Speaker
Okay, so I think that about brings us to the end. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Okay, go ahead. There's another aspect of the way he portrayed him too that was very good. And that was at the end towards his self. When he realizes, you actually see him do three different versions of him, of his character. There is the beginning part where he's in a quiet and desperation to learn about the powers and get this stuff.
01:00:56
Speaker
When, you know, in the beginning of the movie, when, when, when he finally gets to that place, he finally rediscovers that combination of the door to take him back to where he has to go to. Right. And then, you know, where he's eager.
01:01:12
Speaker
and then you know and like like like like like like hungry and then he gets the powers and then sort of like his whole demeanor changes from uh hyper aggressive to like this dark sentinel it's like you know brooding you know like i said this magical terminator right and then at the end if you go towards the end of the film when obviously there's that that uh he goes and
01:01:38
Speaker
he's in a jail cell and he's scribbling down all those combinations right how he portrays a character it's it's sort of like when he goes back to the beginning but this character this version
01:01:50
Speaker
knows he lost something. Right. And so like, it's like, you see this with other villains that have got power, like, like Thanos or somebody, and they lose out on the comics and like, No, no, I need it. It's like, like an addict. Right? Yeah. And he portrays that really good. You know, that desperation was when he's that caterpillar starts talking to him at the end.
01:02:15
Speaker
words, the look on his face like, God, maybe this is my salvation. He did it very well. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so I think that that brings about to the end of discussion about Shazam. Johnny, anything you wanted to add? Anything else? Any final thoughts about it? I highly recommend it. I may actually purchase a movie. You know, I don't really purchase movies anymore.
01:02:41
Speaker
but I may actually buy this one of those so that once a year or something. I think this is a movie I can play for my grand nephews. Oh, definitely. I definitely sense so. You know, I think they would like it.
01:02:52
Speaker
If you got little ones, I think they will like it. Don't be, don't be taken aback by the monsters. Trust me. They've seen worse on TV. Yeah. Yeah. Um, yeah. I pretty much the same things. It's, it's, you know, it's, it's not the best movie, like we said, but it's, it's so infectiously entertaining that you don't really, you were able to look past the flaws. Um, and Zachary Levy is just, you know, perfect casting.
01:03:18
Speaker
And I loved the little, even though it wasn't Henry Cavill, that's why we only see him from the neck down, right? I loved that they had the little Superman cameo at the end there. Oh, that was nice. That was nice, you know? Too bad you're right. That would have been something like, hey, maybe he'll make an appearance in the movie. I don't know. Well, we don't like the whole thing about- They're in the same universe, right? They are, yeah, they're in the same universe, yeah. Okay, because I know Freddie mentions Batman and all this other stuff, but sometimes, you know,
01:03:48
Speaker
So they are in the same universe. They're in the same universe, yeah. And so the question is, if Henry Cavill is coming back or not, nobody really knows. There have been rumors saying that he's in talks to come back. There's rumors saying that he's not. Hopefully, if he does come back, he'll get a director who actually likes Superman this time around. I got a question for it. I know I'm hearing off here, but it is somewhat related.
01:04:15
Speaker
Do you know if there are any plans to do another like Justice League thing where Shazam would appear in it? At the moment, not really. I mean, because I think right now they're trying to do what they should have done in the first place, which was go slow and build up the individual characters first before you start, you know, teaming them up together. So
01:04:39
Speaker
We'll see, although Shazam's never really struck me as a big Justice League member. They don't have that many to pick from. No, but they got all seven now, so they got those. Listen, they got Superman, obviously. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash. Well, hold on. The Batman, is this real movie in the same universe that's coming on? No, it doesn't look like it.
01:05:08
Speaker
So if they were to do it just sling. That's the question. Well, that's the, that's one of the questions, right? They're not really sure what's going to happen going forward. You know, watching that movie, doing a little research, somebody had pointed out that this may have been an attempt by a studio, by someone in the studio to do like a soft reboot of the whole PC unit by not including
01:05:30
Speaker
No, this isn't quite like I think that's what flash is going to be because that's going to have like messing with the timeline and all that stuff. And Ben is supposed to hear in that as well. So we'll see what we don't know what they're going to be doing with Batman exactly going forward. I think the Matt Reeves stuff, the the Robert Pattinson stuff, that's going to be in its own separate thing. So they've got
01:05:52
Speaker
They've got the Batman coming out and if that does well, they'll probably do like a trilogy or something with that cast. But we'll have to see what happens going forward. I know they're doing a lot of reboots, like they're rebooting Gotham.
01:06:08
Speaker
That's not quite, that's not a reboot of Gotham. It's gonna be set in the same universe as the new movie, as the Batman movie. And it's gonna be an adaptation of the Gotham central comic. So it's gonna be focusing on the Gotham police department. And the law and order of that.
01:06:24
Speaker
Basically, yeah. Okay, I like the other show but hey I understand. No, I, I was way too, it was ridiculous. It was a little bit ridiculous I thought, especially because, like, they're doing now, what they should have done with the original Gotham which is they're going to those, those Gotham central comics and they're
01:06:44
Speaker
Focusing on the police characters. Yeah. I'm not disputing. I'm just saying I like that. That old show. I mean towards the end I got goofy like that whole fish movie thing I couldn't you know. Yeah. I mean they lost me in I think it was the third episode when they had that balloon man vigilante and you had Gordon and Bullock being surprised when they find out that yes balloons eventually do come down.
01:07:12
Speaker
I forgot about that episode. At that point, it was kind of ridiculous since the first episode. But when it got to that point, I was like, all right, that's it. I'm done. And eventually, I did go through and watch the whole thing, just having it on in the background. And it was so ridiculous. Well, like I said, I kind of liked it. But that's just me. But again, I can see the criticism.
01:07:36
Speaker
I just wish there was a, I just like to see some more that more DC stuff. Yeah. Well, we're, it looks like we're going to be getting quite a bit. Cause we got, we got black Adam, which is going to have the justice society. Um, and they got the stuff on TV, right? Superman and Lois is getting the second season. Titans in any of these universes. Titans and doom patrol are in their own universe, I believe. Okay. So there's no relations to any of these. No, other than the fact that they're in the same multiverse.
01:08:04
Speaker
They're mostly risks. So you gotta watch crisis. You got, because that- I am so far behind and I'm catching up and I won't get there. Promise you I will get there. I mean, I just say, just watch crisis. Cause you don't really need to watch any of this other stuff to watch that. Then Flash get any, Flash is still good though, right? I'm in the middle of the most recent season on Netflix and it's been kind of a slog. Okay. I never got to the last season of,
01:08:33
Speaker
green arrow yet that's so far behind. But Superman and Lois is amazing. Superman and Lois, okay. Yeah, and that just came out on HBO Max. I will watch that. That is definitely worth a watch, yeah. Okay. All right. Johnny, anything you wanted to promote? Anything you want to tell people to find you or anything like that?
01:08:54
Speaker
Well, my Twitter handle is jb3az. I don't really do much right now, but I'm trying to go out more on that than Facebook. I don't know, Facebook, ever since I was a 60 minutes thing. I don't want to give Facebook my business. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean. Okay. Well, Johnny, thanks so much for coming back. It's always good to have you back on the show. Thank you for inviting me. I am. Thank you. I appreciate it. And as always Perry, I'm here for you.
01:09:23
Speaker
Awesome. You need me to do another one. Okay. All right. Yeah. And any, anytime you want to come back, you're more than always welcome. Oh, okay. All right. Okay. Just tell me what to watch. You know, I'm going to be watching old school. In fact, I, like I said, I'm playing catch up. The listeners out there. I life sort of got in the way. And so I was behind. So my nerd credentials are overdue, you could say.
01:09:50
Speaker
And so, Hal, I'm two seasons behind on Doctor Who. I'm a bunch of, you know, you name it, I'm behind, but I will catch up. And so, if you want another perspective on stuff you've seen or covered, I'm your man. I'll be there for you on that. Absolutely. You know, same thing other than Superheroes, so let me know, Perry.
Closing Remarks & Listener Engagement
01:10:09
Speaker
All right, great. Thanks again for coming on. That does it for this episode. You can find us at Superherocinephiles.com. Supercinemapod on both Twitter and Instagram. Give us a follow there.
01:10:19
Speaker
and join the Facebook group. Also, just search Supergirl Cinephiles. And if you're interested in coming on the show, if you go to the website, there is a contact form, just drop me a line, let me know what you wanna talk about, and we'll see about scheduling a time to come on. Thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next time.
01:10:36
Speaker
You have been listening to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at SuperCinemapod. Join our Facebook group by searching for Superhero Cinephiles, where you can interact with us and other superhero fans. If you'd like to support the show, you can become a regular supporter at Patreon or make a one-time donation through PayPal, both of which can be found at our website, SuperheroCinephiles.com.
01:10:59
Speaker
If you buy or rent any movies through the Amazon links at our site, it helps support the show. Please be sure to rate and review us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you for listening. And as always,
01:11:29
Speaker
Good night. Good evening. God bless.