Mini movie reviews: Captain Marvel, Shazam! and Hellboy

We have entered the season of superheros, leading up to Avengers: End Game next week. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't equal parts excited and terrified for it to come out. We're looking at over a decade of emotional investment in some of these characters, all building to this final showdown (before the new generation of heroes take over). I bought my ticket for opening night (next Thursday at 7:30pm!) a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to go with Matt to the 10pm showing, but since End Game is a hair over 3 hours long, I decided it would be irresponsible to stay out until after 1am when I have to work in the morning (sadly it's not a recess day*).


DISCLAIMER: There are spoilers ahead, but I'll try to keep them to a minimum.


Captain Marvel is the latest Marvel movie, the final installment in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe for you non-nerds) before Avengers: End Game. The emotional response to it coming out was crazy, from explosive hatred to blind adoration...to me, who thought it was ok. Was it a great movie? No. Was it the worst Marvel movie ever? Also no. The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton (or Hulk with Eric Bana), Fantastic Four (2005), Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surer, Fantastic Four (2015), Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Iron Man 2 (2010) were all...less good Marvel movies.

One legitimate complaint I can agree with is how quickly Carol Danvers/Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) comes into her full potential. It took Thor (Chris Hemsworth) until Thor: Ragnarok to be fully supercharged. That's 3+ movies! She's also a little quip-y, but that seemed to fit with her personality. On the plus side, I thought they managed to make her a strong character without being too "I am woman, hear me roar" (mom agreed, which should tell you something). If you compare her to Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), she'll definitely start to feel more two dimensional...so don't. It's a really high bar to live up to (gorgeous badass with a caring heart and high standards)...also it's a different franchise, but details.

I was very impressed at how realistic they made CG Samuel L Jackson. He was aged down about 30 years (give or take, since the movie was set in the 90s). When I first saw the trailer I was concerned, since it's very easy to mess up that kind of thing (see Willem Dafoe in Aquaman...so tragic), but they managed to pull it off well for SLJ and Clark Gregg's Coulson.

If nothing else, the movie is worth seeing for Goose, Dr. Wendy Lawson's (Annette Bening) cat. 🐈

Fun Facts:

• Goose is played by four different very professional cat actors named Reggie, Rizzo, Gonzo, and Archie.
• Brie Larson is allergic to cats, so her scenes involving Goose were filmed with a puppet or computer-generated VFX.
• When Talos confronts Carol and Nick in Louisiana, he sips from a fast food drink container. It is the exact same design as the cup that Jules (played by Samuel L. Jackson) sips in the scene in Pulp Fiction (1994) where they steal back the briefcase.
• While Monica Rambeau is choosing a new color for Carol Danvers' suit, we can see many references: a red and yellow suit (the colors worn by DC's Captain Marvel, currently known as Shazam) a black and golden suit (the colors of Carol Danver's Ms. Marvel suit) and a white and green suit (the classic Kree armor suit colors in the comics).
• When Brie Larson's casting was announced at Comic-Con, CNN ran the headline "Shazam! Brie Larson is 'Captain Marvel'," apparently not realizing that they were thinking of the wrong Captain Marvel.

When I saw the first trailer for Shazam!, I thought "this movie looks like the right kind of dumb." And I'm happy to report I was right. 😎

While not a perfect movie, Shazam! was a lot of fun (in the vein of Ant-Man from the MCU). Zachary Levi did a good job acting like a 14 year old boy in an adult's body. Since it's in the DCU (DC Universe...apparently DC stands for Detective Comics, which was news to me), there were some fun nods to other superheros in the franchise, like Batman and Superman. The movie managed to strike a good tone - there are some serious moments, but they don't seem out of place among the funny ones. Overall there was a good message about growing up, maturing, responsibility and family. My biggest objection was the inclusion of the "boys will be boys" strip club scene. While it was only shown from the outside, it was also wholly unnecessary. There's a funny moment right before when Shazam! (Zachary Levi) and Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) buy beer at a gas station because they can (since Shazam! is an "adult"). That sufficiently took care of the "what would a teen boy do if people thought he was an adult" question. The only other issue I had was that Mark Strong was underutilized as the villain, Dr. Sivana. He had a few too many long-stares and could have used a bit more action.

Other than Wonder Woman, this is definitely my favorite DCU movie to come out since The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

UPDATE (SPOILERS): I saw Shazam! for a second time Monday night (4/22) and noticed an error in the timeline. When Eugene (Ian Chen) tracks down information on Billy's parents, he said they got divorced when Billy was 3 years old. When Billy finally meets his mom and she admits to leaving him at the carnival, she says she was just 17 years old...so either they left out "when you were born" (which would have made her about 22 when she lost Billy) or else she got married at 13-ish. 

Fun Facts:

• During the fight in the toy store, Shazam runs across a giant keyboard. This references the film Big (1988) which, like this one, features a boy turning into an adult overnight.
• Throughout the film, Billy Batson's superpowered form gets a variety of different names, without getting an official name. This is a homage to the controversy over Captain Marvel's name; it keeps changing between different titles (Captain Marvel, Shazam, Captain Thunder) due to the issues with rival company Marvel having a similar name as well as a similar hero called Captain Marvel.
• Shazam! (originally known as Captain Marvel) was the subject of Hollywood's first ever superhero film adaptation: Republic Pictures' Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) in 1941.
• Djimon Hounsou has appeared in four comic book films, two in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and two in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). He has also played three separate characters. In the MCU, he portrayed Korath in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Captain Marvel (2019) and in DC he appeared as Fisherman King in Aquaman (2018), and as the wizard Shazam in Shazam! Three of those movies premiered within only a four month span.
• Zachary Levi is among few actors to appear in both the DC Extended Universe and the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He portrays Fandral in Thor: The Dark World (2013) and Thor: Ragnarok (2017).
• Adam Brody and D.J. Cotrona were set to star in the cancelled 2007 Justice League film, with Brody as The Flash and Cotrona as Superman.

Warning: spoilers ahead!

Gosh dang it, Hellboy. I went in with low expectations so that I wouldn't be too disappointed, and yet... 😖

Two quick compliments before I get to the complaints: 

1. Milla Jonovich was an excellent casting choice. She was a very believable villain as Nimue/The Blood Queen. 
2. Near the end of the movie, when Hellboy (David Harbour) goes full spawn-of-Satan, the demon invasion was sufficiently terrifying/intense. While the gore was a bit excessive (compared to extremely excessive in other parts) with multiple people being rend asunder, the CG and design of several major demons was really creative and fairly del Toro-esque. That's quite a compliment coming from me. 😈

As a remake, Hellboy (2019) had a tough standard to live up to, since Guillermo del Toro's Hellboy (2004) and Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008) set a decently high bar. And while I love David Harbour in Stranger Things (Sheriff Hopper is my favorite character in that show), he could not compete with Ron Perlman's portrayal of the title character. 

The first half of Hellboy was slow and not in a good way like the beginning of Us, which took the time to establish its characters so you cared about them when the you-know-what hit the fan. Matt said he contemplated walking out and was glad the second half definitely picked up. I didn't have quite that strong of reaction, but still thought it was problematic.

The pacing in general was seriously weird, which definitely hurt the movie...as did the inconsistent CG throughout. The demon invasion of London near the end was really good, which makes earlier scenes all the more incongruous. The giant attack was downright awful...it felt like something from the early 2000s that really didn't age well. Baba Yaga was also a bit cringe-y. Omg...I also forgot about the CG when Alice (Sasha Lane) plays intermediary for the dearly departed! It was so bad. Like, so bad. 

Ian McShane was wasted as Dr. Broom, Hellboy's adoptive father. There's little emotional connection, to the point I didn't really care when Nimue killed him near the end of the movie. A big plot hole/issue was he never answered Hellboy's question - why didn't you just kill me when you found me? We learn that Nazis summoned Hellboy (the son of Satan and a human woman) and that Ian McShane swooped in with a team specifically to destroy whatever the Nazis were able to conjure...except they didn't once mini-Hellboy pops up. Hellboy asks Dr. Broom very directly on two different occasions why he chose not to take him out and Dr. Broom never answers the question...which is just odd. There has to be a very distinct reason why he made that decision, since that was literally their job, to kill monsters.

Thomas Haden Church was also wasted as Lobster Johnson. The origin of Hellboy scene was kitschy and somehow managed to be excessively gory and lame at the same time. 

Rumor has it there were a lot of issues between the director and producers...and it shows. 

If you're trying to decide on a movie to see this week, I would give Hellboy a pass and go see Shazam! instead. Or watch the old Hellboy...which is all I've wanted to do since seeing this unfortunate facsimile last Sunday. 


Fun Facts:

• Ian McShane took over the role of Dr Broom from John Hurt. Mcshane and Hurt had both made their debut in Young and Willing (1962) in 1962, and remained the best of friends. They would work together again on 44 Inch Chest (2009) and Hercules (2014), which McShane said was one of his most enjoyable filming experiences as he would have long, leisurely lunches with Hurt. 
• Hellboy (2019) has been criticized for replacing a red-headed Irish character in the source material with Sasha Lane, an African-American actress. Many actors and fans of the graphic novels have denounced the casting as hypocritical after Ed Skrein, a white English actor, resigned from the same film amid criticism that he was due to play an Asian character.
• Milla Jovovich, according to her Instagram, wanted to work on the movie due to being a fan of both Stranger Things (2016) and Deadwood (2004), which starred David Harbourand Ian McShane respectively.
• In the original script, Abe Sapien played a much larger role in the film rather than having a cameo in the post-credits scene.
• There is a mid-credit scene featuring Lobster Johnson.
• I left before the mid-credit and end-credit scenes with Baba Yaga...oops. 

~ Katie Q.

* I should have had Friday off. It's freakin' Arbor Day (a "only in Nebraska" state holiday). But since we have Monday off for Easter, the powers-that-be decided we have to work on Friday. And yes, I am actually complaining about not getting another day off (technically I still do, since they're banking 8 hours for us to use another day). But it's messing with my Avengers viewing, hence the whining. 😀