rich56

You know I get that the show has leaned towards comedy the last couple of years, but this episode takes the cake. Everybody is an idiot now and there's no suspense within the story at all. I hear Brandon Routh is leaving which is sad because at least he knew how to play light without appearing idiotic. Oh well, I guess it still has its fans given the few 10 star reviews of this episode. Have fun you people still following this. I'm out.

OK for starters I really knew nothing of the Shazam comics or the character at all so I went in with no expectations. It seemed to get fairly decent reviews so I was hopeful. First things first, it goes on way too long. This isn't Avengers Endgame here, hardly an epic tale. The setup seemed to take forever too, I kept thinking lets get on with it. So anyway, as the story played out it was all very predictable. Perhaps young kids get more out of this story of abandoned and abused kids than I do, an older male. That's ok i guess but for me I just saw one cliche after another. The suitably diverse cast is decent but nobody really excels i thought. When Zachary Levi finally appears as Shazam the story finally gets going. He's fun as the title hero and playing a 15 year old in a man's body he gets to overact all over the place. Think Tom Hanks in Big, but less subtle. The villain Mark Strong's motivations for being evil are sketchy. He's evil because he's well...evil. The big villain vs. superheroe(s) climax is well staged and everybody lives happily ever after. The final sight gag gave me the biggest laugh in the whole movie. So, it's a moderately entertaining film that kept me interested but is probably more appealing to teens or even preteens(who might not get all the jokes). They could have cut out about 20 minutes with no loss of narrative. Just have lowered expectations despite the plethora of 10 star reviews here.

Reading all the 1 and 2 star reviews I was kind of surprised since early critical reviews had been decent but you never know eh? Anyway I'm 2 episodes in and kind of enjoying it. Yes, I'm old enough to remember the old series and while I was a fan growing up the show is close to unwatchable now at least the last season and a half. The cries of 'political correctness' are here too and I'm not a fan of changing something just to satisfy whatever cultural norm is current. That said any changes they've done for LIS all work for me. The one thing I will say is that the show still has the kind of goofy charm of the original. This is no gloomy Battlestar Galactica reboot or Star Trek Discovery where everybody is fighting with each other and you don't like anybody in the cast. Bottom line is it is 'fun' in the way those mentioned shows aren't. The effects are OK and the acting is serviceable for the story. Like i said I'm only 2 episodes in and I say ignore the predictable haters and watch. I promise you it is worth your time if you like this kind of SF.