Fury of the Gods: Needs Less Drama, More Fun

 

Shazam/Captain Marvel and family are in a deity duel. Photo courtesy of IGN and Warner Bros. Pictures.

Shazam!: Fury of the Gods did a good job in showing family empowerment, female empowerment, and growth in some of the characters. I enjoyed Rachel Zegler's performance as Anthea and chemistry with Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer) and occasional goofy humor from the titular superhero (played by Zachary Levi), but it was more mature than the last film, in a good and bad way. For example, while still learning his powers, Billy Batson had to think about his future once he aged out of the foster care system, and he's still dealing with abandonment issues while struggling to find wisdom and lead his team. Good for character development, but it has to show more light than blue moments.

And the film had more dark tone with the dark magic compared to the first film, angry goddess parts, and fantasy monsters. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu were truly fired up in their roles, Hespera and Kalypso,  respectively, given how they were brutal in combat against the Shazam family. On the other upsides, the film showed more details as to what made Shazam!/Captain Marvel who he is today. Funny cameos, good score by Christophe Beck highlighting the peril and tributing to John Williams' Superman music (possibly), cool songs from artists such as Elvis or Beastie Boys, and hilarious sitcom-style problems with the Shazamily.

If you can find them for inexpensive prices, I recommend the classic Shazam comics and the modern ones to see how faithful the film tries to be to them. I get that there are issues the family needs to overcome in personal life to become better superheroes. But if there's another one coming up, they need to find a way to make the adult life fun, as well as offering a slice of life on the drama. It had some funny parts, mostly in young Freddy's case, but not as fun as the kid who outsmarted cops one time in the first film or spoofed "Eye of the Tiger" with his lightning powers. In summary, Fury of the Gods was more mature, not as fun as the first film, yet worth a shot.

Creed III: Great Direction and Great Fighting

Michael Bakari Jordan's directorial debut of Creed III. Photo courtesy of MGM Studios.

Creed III was able to stand strong on its own as Adonis Creed forges his own legacy. Michael B. Jordan did a great job directing and acting, and it felt great to see him confront his past away from being Apollo Creed's son and figuring out what it truly means to have a family. Jonathan Major's character of Damian was much better than him as Kang the Conqueror a month prior. Tessa Thompson as Bianca had some fiery beats in the soundtrack and was a good black homage to Adrian from the past Rocky films and proved to be a proud black mom on her own. 

It didn't feel good to see more struggles of being a black person in rough parts of South Central Los Angeles, but I guess the idea was to show that outside the boxing ring, the struggle to make it big in the world is still real, black or not. Either way, it showed a more in-depth look at Adonis Creed away from the usual boxing franchise, and it did an empowering way to show it. I wish the cast and crew well and I hope it brings out the best fighters in the audience. #creediii