Ranking 13 DC Extended Universe (DCEU) Movies + Movie Review: Shazam! Fury of the Gods + Trailer Park: No Hard Feelings

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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to movie Mike's movie podcast. I am your host Movie Mike Today it's a ranking episode. I am ranking all thirteen movies in the DC Extended Universe. A lot of DC talk on this episode because also in the spoiler Free movie review, we're talking about the new one Shazam Fury of the Gods. I don't think it deserves all the criticism. And then in the trailer Park, a new comedy starring Jennifer Lawrence. Most surprising thing, they're as funny as a person she is. She hasn't done a leading role in a comedic movie, so this one has a lot of promise to it. And I've been burned by comedies a lot recently, but I think this one could be the one. It could be the one. Everybody, all right, thank you for listening, Thank you for being subscribed. Shout out to the Monday Morning Movie crew. And now let's talk movies. In a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast, one man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast, A man with so much movie knowledge, he's basically like a walking Audien TV glasses from the Nistril Podcast Networking movie mis movie podcast. The question is what is the best DCU movie of all time? We're gonna rank them from worse to best. There have been thirteen movies in the DC Extended Universe, So when it comes to superhero movies, you have the two sides Marvel, which is your Ironman's, your Spider Man's, your Thor's, your Captain Americas. And on the other side with DC you have your Batman, you have your Aquaman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Blash, all of those characters. So that's what separates the two when it comes to critics, in audiences, and box office numbers for that matter, DC tends to be the one that it has never given the benefit of the doubt. They have the most recognizable superheroes, but sometimes kind of their slogan has been maybe they'll get it right next time. The movies just haven't gone the way they wanted them to and it reflects on their DC Extended Universe. So we'll get into this list the roles here. We are only ranking DC EU movies, so there have only been thirteen. None of the movies and what they are now calling their else worlds will be mentioned on this list, so you won't find Joker, you won't find the Batman with Robert Pattinson on this list. We also won't get into all the animated movies, but I will throw some of those and the honorable mentions because there's some great stuff there that I think you should watch. So plain and simple, it is everything from twenty thirteen that started with Man of Steel to now up to Shazam Fury of the Gods. We have some more coming out later this year. We'll get into that, but now let's kick off the list at number thirteen, and it's surprisingly the second highest grossing DCEU movie. I'm going with Batman Versus Superman Donna Justice from twenty sixteen. It is directed by Zack Snyder, who is all over the DCU. Had a budget of two hundred and fifty million dollars and made eight hundred and seventy three million dollars at the box office. Going through this list, I would really only classify two of the thirteen to be bad movies. I find that's actually a low amount considering how much people have this disdain towards dc movies and are always saying how bad they are. I don't think they are. I think a lot of the times we're comparing it to what came before in the Dark Night and all the other Batman movies and Superman movies throughout history. And also they haven't really had their golden age yet in DC movies. Maybe now that James Gunn is at the Helm, we are upon that, so maybe the brighter days of DC are ahead of us. That being said, twenty sixteen was not it for DC. This is not only the worst movie in the DCU, but maybe one of the worst movies I've ever seen in theaters. A lot of things ruined this movie for me. I think we are over the Batman origin story, and the fact that this movie went into it again and in more boring detail was where it really lost me. And I'll admit something that I've only done very few times in movies, but this movie was so boring. I fella sleep and I fell asleep at a very boring part and woke up and it was still boring. And I think it's also that this movie felt like a little bit of a ripoff. And throughout the history of DC, they've been mimicking and mirroring what Marvel was doing, and on one end you have Captain America Civil War, iron Man versus Captain America, one of the greatest face offs on the big screen, and then on this end you have Batman versus Superman Dawn of Justice in a s newsfest. So this movie was ruined by the flashbacks to Bruce Wayne's childhood at his parents' funeral. It was muddied by the entire execution of this story and the battle between Batman and Superman. But there was one redeeming quality in this movie. It gave us Wonder Woman in an epic entrance, and that was a great introduction for her and she would prove to be a force in the DCU as it expanded along with her movies. But this movie, again, it was not it and as bad as it was, it's surprising to me that it has the second box office score in dc so at number thirteen is Batman Versus Superman. At number twelve is last year's Black Adam, directed by Joe May Coulette. Sarah had a budget of two hundred and sixty million and made three hundred and ninety two million at the box office. I think this movie was hindered by a couple of things. It originally cost about one hundred and ninety million dollars to make, and then went on a twenty day reshoot which bumped it up to that two hundred and sixty million dollars budget. And what really hurt this movie was how much of an influence The Rock had as the star of the movie bringing back Henry cavill as Superman, which ended up just making a bunch of people angry, focusing so much not only of making him a star in this movie, but kind of being the pivotal turnbuckle in all of the DCU, when really Black Adam was supposed to be a villain of Jazam and then the two never have a non screen encounter. So the fact that this character just seems dead now in the water is why I decided to rink it so low. But also I had pretty high expectations for this movie, by the way that it looked by the trailer, by the fact that he was supposed to be this superman with no moral compass, he was supposed to go on a rampage, and it was really just a lackluster performance from the Rock that did not deliver. I just don't think he has the acting abilities to be a leading role as a superhero. It seems like he would be an easy person to pick for that he looks like a superhero in real life. But such a flat acting style does not make for a great superhero origin story. So I think he took on this project more so to inflate his ego, to show how much influence he has, and trying to step into this role of having more creative control over his roles in his movies. This one bit him in the butt. The only other movie I would consider a bad dc EU movie at number twelve is Black Adam at number eleven. From twenty eighteen, I have Aquaman from director James One, who does a lot of great horror movies. If you're not that familiar with James Wan, the man behind Saw Insidious, The Conjuring. He's also done a lot of great action work with Perious seven, so a really great director. The movie cost one hundred and sixty million dollars to make and made one point one billion dollars at the box office. Yes, b billion dollars. It is the highest grossing DCU movie, which blows my mind. So for me, it's not so much that it wasn't the best movie. I just don't really care about the character. It's not one that I'm highly invested in. There's another one coming out this year, and I could do without it. It's almost a sequel I didn't really ask for. But I can't deny how perfect Jason Momoa is for this role. He is the only person I can see playing Aquaman. I think, out of all their castings, it's the one they nailed completely, and if they were to lose him, that would be pretty bad. So while this movie has a lot of great visuals, there wasn't a whole lot of substance in the story. The dialogue was very clunky, even for a superhero movie. I think they focused a lot on creating that underwater world, which is pretty majestic looking, but the actual character himself and his story I just didn't really get that invested in. So that's why I'm not really that hyped about part two. And it also doesn't feel like to me that Aquaman should be your highest grossing character. But it could be because this movie does really well internationally, so hopefully they'll change some things in the sequel and that one will rank higher than this one. But at number eleven, I'm going with Aquaman at number ten, I'm going with twenty sixteen's Suicide Squad, directed by David Ayer. The movie cost one hundred and seventy five million dollars to make and ended up making seven hundred and forty six million dollars at the box office, which is a pretty high number considering how low of a rating it had as between critics and audiences alike. And I was really excited for this movie. I wanted it so bad to be rated R, but it ended up getting that PG thirteen rating, which they really should have pushed for that R rating because before this movie came out, we had Deadpool. Deadpool was an R rated movie, which meant there were no rules, and it was really able to distinguish itself as this is more a superhero movie geared towards adult. It's greedier, it's more hardcore, there are no rules, and then you have Suicide Squad, which is supposed to be about these dangerous supervillains who have been thrown into prison and now have this mission to go save the world, and they're supposed to be reckless and ruthless. So everything just ended up feeling a little more cheesy and fluffy instead of gritty, and it gave us the worst joker ever with Jared Leto. But the movie did have some bright spots. We had Will Smith as dead Shot, which was a great character. He was just so underwhelmed by how this movie performed he never wanted to play it again. And it also gave us Harley Quinn, which I felt really saved the movie. That is the role I believe Margot Robbie was born to play. She's the only one, in my eyes who I want to see playing Harley Quinn. So at number ten we have Suicide Squad from twenty sixteen. At number nine, I'm going with Wonder Woman nineteen eighty four from twenty twenty. Directed by Patty Jenkins. The movie had a budget of two hundred million dollars and only made one hundred and sixty nine million dollars at the box office. That number isn't fully representative of what this movie did because it was one of the only big blockbusters to come out in twenty twenty, obviously with everything being shut down, so it was shown in theaters, but it was also released on HBO Max, which is where I watched it, and it became the most streamed movie of the year. This was another movie I felt received a lot more criticism that it wasn't deserving of. I just love Galgado as Wonder Woman, even more so than Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. She's the only person I envisioned when I see Wonder Woman on screen. I thought the movie had a lot of standout performances Pedro Pascal as Maxwell Lord, which at this point maybe a lot of people forgot that Pedro Pascal was in this movie. He's really having a moment right now with the Mandalorian, with the Last of Us. I feel like he has really gone full on mainstream this year, which is two roles, but he has been crushing it even before that. I loved him in Narcos, I loved him in Game of Thrones. I've been a fan of his work for so long now. I love that other people are becoming Pedro Pascal stands like I've been. I think where this movie lost a lot of people was with Kristin Wiggs character. I don't think it was fully terrible. I think the story overall was pretty good. I loved the first flight scene in this movie. I loved the overall color palette in Wonder Woman, which is a big deal in DC. They make things that are very eye catching. I feel like they should pride themselves on their visual effects and their color palettes. Long time listeners of this podcast, well, no, I am a sucker for a good color palette. But I think why this movie holds a little bit of a place in my heart even though a lot of people did not enjoy this movie, is it came at the end of a dark time. There became very few things to look forward to in twenty twenty, and I remember Kelsey and I made it a night because we missed going to the movie so much that year. We printed these little tickets, We had our snacks, tried to recreate that theater feeling at home. So this movie was the superhero movie I needed that year. I just needed my fix. I know Wonder Woman is kind of up in the air right now. Will it get a part three? Will Patty Jenkins still be around to direct it? I hope so. But for right now at number nine is Wonder Woman nineteen eighty four. At number eight. From twenty seventeen, I have Justice League from director Zach Snyder. The movie costs three hundred million dollars to make and made six hundred and fifty seven million dollars worldwide at the box office. This movie should be number one on this list. This should be their Avengers. This movie should be so good that I question even putting it in a normal ranking. But it wasn't that. You have all these characters coming together, Batman, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Aquaman. This should be the best DC movie of all time, but it is not not even close. It's at number eight. I think the reason this movie didn't fully deliver was because it was a little bit rushed. The Avengers was gearing up for Infinity War and DC hadn't had their Avengers type movie yet, so it felt like they were getting all the pieces together, and this movie felt a little bit thrown together. But there are some really great action moments in this movie. The best parts of the movie again Wonder Woman and the introduction of the Flash. And I think the reason this movie doesn't fully work, doesn't fully fire on all cylinders, is because, unlike in The Avengers, in the Justice League, you never really feel them that unified as a team. There's not one big heroic moment where they all come together. I think of that scene in the first Avengers when they're in New York and they're all backs up against each other ready to take on all these things coming out of the hole in the sky. It was like the moment like this is the Avengers, This is an iconic moment. Justice League never had that. It always felt like Superman was being forced to be a part of the group. Batman was kind of trying to be the leader, but they never fully felt unified. They didn't have that one moment where they're all working towards defeating a villain. They're all great superheroes in their own right, but they needed to work together as a team to convey that to audiences. So while this movie has a lot of great action, some great suits, a pretty good villain, it just doesn't have anything that we can really grasp onto that defines this movie. So it ends up at number eight on the list. At number seven, I'm going with twenty nineteen Shazam from director David F. Sandberg. The movie cost one hundred million dollars to make and made three hundred and seventy six million at the box office. It is the introduction of Billy Batson. Shazam is Essentially, Tom Hanks is big. We have superheroes, and there was nothing earth shattering to me when this movie came out. I thought it was very middle of the road. There was nothing that the movie did particularly great, but also nothing that it did bad. So that's why it's right here in the middle of my list. And I'm going to get into a bigger discussion into Shazam, so I won't say too much about this one other than it was a good origin story for the character of Shazam. You get a kid who suddenly has superpowers. I think as kids, we all daydreamed of what it would be like if we just instantly became adults, all the things we would now be allowed to do. And then on the other end, if you were a nerdy kid like me, you also had this daydream of what you would do if you had superpowers. Most importantly, everybody wanted to fly, and that is the energy of what this movie encompassed. Viewer. A kid in his case, had a pretty hard life, is trying to find his mom, gets put into foster care, and is having all these struggles in his personal life, and then suddenly becomes a superhero. So this was the first time we saw the fun side of DC. It didn't have to be so serious and dark, green scale, looking like a two thousands metal music video. This movie was bright, it was fun, and it's at number seven on the list. Speaking of fun and colorful, at number six, I have Birds of Prey from twenty twenty. The full title is Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous A Man's A Patient of one Harley Quinn. Directed by Kathy Jan, The movie had a budget of eighty four million dollars and made two hundred and five million dollars at the box office, and it is rated ARE. The movie follows the story of Harley Quinn post suicide Squad. She broke up with Joker and now she's trying to save a young girl from a crime lord. You have her teaming up with some other unlikely super heroins like Black Canary, Huntress and Renee Montoya. So you have all these characters and how I would describe this movie, it's kind of like kill Bill meets Deadpool. A lot of powerful moments with these strong female leads, and this movie just for me, fired on all cylinders. This is what I wanted to see in an R rated action DC movie. And it proved to me that the Harley Quinn character can carry her own. One of my favorite types of superhero movies is the antihero, the stories of characters who don't always do the right thing. Maybe they take a couple people alout, maybe they steal some things. This movie has a lot of language, violence, sex, and drugs, but in the end they end up doing what is right. But it goes on a very windy road to get there. So I hope that Margot Robbie is not done with this character. At number six, I'm going with Birds of Prey from twenty twenty into the top five. I have Shazam Fury of the Gods from this year from director David F. Samberg. That is all I'm going to say about this movie right now. We have the full review coming up and I'll mention it again later. But I think Shazam Fury of the Gods is better than the original. That's it. It's at number five. It is better than the original, only two spots above the original. But I felt that this movie was more satisfying overall. We really got into what makes this character great. It had the better story, it had the better supporting cast, it had the Better Villains. At number five is Shazam Fury of the Gods. I just love saying that name, Fury of the Gods. All right, Moving on at number four, I'm going with Man of Steel from twenty thirteen, the first movie in the DCU from director Zach Snyder. The movie cost two hundred and twenty five million dollars to make and went on to earn six hundred and sixty eight million dollars at the box office worldwide. It is the origin story of one of the most famous superheroes of all time who Superman was this alien child evacuated from his dying world and sent to Earth to live among the humans, and everything is all cool, everything is all chill, until some people from his home planet decide to invade Earth. Then he goes full out Superman. I didn't really appreciate this movie until later. I've had kind of a weird relationship with the character of Superman. He is so famous and everybody's go to favorite superhero. I feel like he's the most recognizable for that reason, I just found him to be kind of boring, kind of generic, kind of basic. You think superhero, you think Superman, And also at the time, where this movie came out. I felt DC was trying to do what they did with The Dark Knight and Christopher Nolan's work there, and he was a writer on Man of Steel, and instead we had Zack Snyder's vision which was a lot different than that, And this movie ended up setting the tone for DC throughout the twenty tens, and I feel like, over the course of all their movies was kind of hindered by it. But revisiting this movie over the years, I have just a fonder appreciation for it. Have more of an appreciation for Henry Cavil as Superman. I think, still next to Jason Momoa as Aquaman, he is a perfect casting, the second perfect casting in DC as Superman, and bum that he won't be back to return as Superman, even though he was promised another movie. The movie has a lot of great moments. My favorite moment out of all of them, without a doubt, is Superman's first flight. So now even in the DCU, but I think if he made a list of all the most memorable moments from Superhero origin stories out of any movie, Superman learning how to fly, taking that first flight, that scream he lets out right before he hits the mountain. That is such a great moment, so that's top notch. The suit in this movie is a plus, also a top three superhero suit of all the time. I just like the texture of it. It almost looks a little bit scaly, skin tight, which DC really loves a skin tight superhero uniform and a cape. This movie would have ranked higher if they were able to do with Henry Cavill as Superman as they did on the Marvel side with Robert Downey Junior as Iron Man. He was their cash cow, he was essentially the face of Marvel. They needed to do that with Henry Cavill. But unfortunately this is the only solo Superman movie we had with him. The universe started expanding in all these different ways. They threw him in with Batman, they threw him in the Justice League when all they needed to do was develop his character in the Man of Steel movies. Everything else wouldn't have felt as rushed. I wish we would have had Man of Steel two, three, and even four. I think it would have been better in the long run. I think if they would have made a second one, it definitely would have rated higher than Man of Steel from twenty thirteen, but it is what it is, and it's at number four on the list, getting into the top three. At number three, I have twenty seventeen's Wonder Woman, directed by Patty Jenkins. With a budget of one hundred and forty nine million dollars, it went on to make eight hundred and twenty one at the box office, making it DC's third highest grossing movie of old time. This movie doesn't get enough credit for changing the landscape of superhero movies. Back in twenty seventeen, it was a total dudefest all across the board. Everywhere you look, do do dude, weener weener wiener. That is all we had in superhero movies. And then you have wonder Woman, who is such a great character not only on screen, but inspiring to girls who also love superhero movies and didn't have anyone representing them. And I credit DC for sticking to those guns of always putting strong female leads in all their movies. Look at this list. We have multiple Wonder Woman movies, We have Harley Quinn solo movies, and they also have presence in all of these other superhero movies where they're not just supporting characters, they are main characters in all these stories. Over on the Marvel side, we didn't get solo films until Captain Marvel. Black Widow got her solo film way late until twenty twenty, so they are way behind on that. But as we see, there is so much to explore there with all these characters, so I apply law DC for that. To me, Wonder Woman has become their title character, more so than Superman, more so than dcu's Batman, and more so than Aquaman. She is at the top of the list because my number one and number two aren't solo movies. She has the best origin story movie out of any of them, and has an origin story that for sure will stand the test of time. I think it's because it was surprisingly a more mature look for DC and that is why I did so well. While it seemed like everything else they were doing was on fire and failing and they weren't getting anything right, Wonder Woman in twenty seventeen was nailed perfectly, so that's why I put it at number three. At number two from twenty twenty one, I have Zach Snyder's Justice League from director Zach Snyder. The movie cost seventy million dollars to make. Where does that number come from? It's in the reshoot. So this is the director's cut of the original Justice League from twenty seventeen, which that movie had a lot of obstacles to over come. He jumped out from directing that because he didn't like the way it was going. He didn't feel like the final cut was a representation of his work. So as a result, they did the reshoots. They spent the money, and what we have as a four hour Justice League movie with new special effects, a new score, new editing, and new material, and it completely changed the tone of the film. I'm usually not the biggest fan of director cuts. I just feel like they feel a little bit self indulgent and they just make something longer for the sake of making things longer because they think all these things should be in it. And sometimes I feel like it should be cut for a reason. You're making a movie, you're not making a full on mini series. But in the case of The Justice League, it really worked for me and I was sucked into all four hours of this movie. And what Zack Snyder's Justice League was able to do is flesh out all these characters and give them all backstories, in particular the backstory of Cyborg, which his entire story was basically cut out of the Justice League movie. And what a cool character to get to dive into his backstory, and it makes everything he goes through in the Justice League that much more impactful. And this movie felt more like they were a team, and I was getting into that earlier with the Justice League. You never really had that moment that they were very unified that they were actually this team. You just needed time to flesh it out. Because you really get that in Zack Snyder's Justice League. So it is a heavy investment. I would say, don't view it as something you have to sit down and dedicate four hours too. In the world of streaming, run times really don't mean anything to me anymore because you can pause whenever you want. To think of it as a mini series as opposed to a four hour long movie. Once I was able to wrap that around my head and dive into it, I ended up loving it. I think it is a redemption for all the other misfires that Zack Snyder had over his time with DC. So this one got it right. At number two. I have Zack Snyder's Justice League from twenty twenty one. I do have some honorable mentions before we get into number one in the DC else world, which James Gunn is saying that these movies will have nothing to do with all the other DC EU movies, which gets a little bit confusing and is also in part to why some people have problems with DC. But the Batman from twenty twenty two with Robert Pattinson won't be a part of any of these other movies, and also The Joker from twenty nineteen. If I was making a full DC list, that would be at number one and number two respectively. Those movies have an entirely different tone. I love that they exist in an entirely different world, So it just kind of makes you wonder, why can't they just make all those movies like this? Also honorable mention to Batgirl, which was completely scrapped. I just can't believe that we are never going to see that movie. It's completely done, but we can't see it. On the animated side, we have the Death of Superman, which is an animated DC movie from twenty eighteen and my favorite Superman movie of all time. It's dark, it's gritty, and don't let animation keep you from watching that movie. My mouth was on the floor after watching that movie because how good it was. I didn't think I could be inspired again by a superhero movie. That movie changed my opinion on that. Also on the animated side, Batman the Dark Knight Returns Part one and two from twenty twelve and twenty thirteen. This is the story of an older Batman coming out of retirement in order to fight crime in Gotham. Again, I just love this story, and I was thinking how Christian Bale right now is forty nine years old and Gary Oldman is sixty five years old, so in about five six years, their ages will perfectly line up with the story in this movie. So Christian Bale at fifty five coming back to play Batman, Gary Oldman in his seventies coming back to play Commissioner Gordon. They already have the story here DC ball as in your Court on that one use that property. And then also as we look ahead in DC, we have some more movies out later this year which will see where these fall into the rankings. But we have The Flash coming out on June sixteenth. Tom Cruise allegedly watched The Flash and loved it. I love that Tom Cruise is keeping up with all movies coming out right now. It seems like other actors don't care about any other movie unless they are in it, but he is out there speaking up for films, speaking up for cinema, and keeping people in the movie theaters. We also have Blue Beetle coming out on August eighteenth of this year, which is about a Mexican teenager who finds an alien beetle that gives him superpowered armor. As a former Mexican teenager, I can't wait to see what that movie is all about. You also have Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom coming out on Christmas Day, and then announced a couple weeks ago, James Gunn will be directing Superman Legacy coming out in twenty twenty five, and maybe that'll be the quintessential Superman movie we've been looking for all along. But at number one, speaking of James Gunn, I have The Suicide Squad twenty twenty one, which James Gunn directed. The movie cost one hundred and eighty five million dollars to make and only it made one hundred and sixty eight million, So on paper, this movie is a flop, But I loved everything about the Suicide Squahad. You have your famous cast as supervillains Harley Quinn, Blood Sport Peacemaker, and one of my favorites, King Shark, voiced by Sylvester Stallone. James Gunn came in and said, I will do it myself. And on the surface, this is just another brutal superhero movie. A lot of guts, a lot of blood, a ridiculous body count, and some of the most intense gore that I've ever seen in a superhero movie. But James Gunn knows storytelling, and he knows how to create memorable characters that you can identify with, characters you really care about by the end of his story. And that is what this movie did. Each one of the characters in this Suicide Squad have their own unique character sticks, and you are fully able to get a grasp on all their lives and the roles they play on the team. Unlike it had been done in the DC universe up to this movie, it did what a Suicide Squad movie was supposed to do. Take some unlikely heroes, people who have done bad things, and make them characters you want to root for. And never in my life have I been so emotionally attached to a character that doesn't even have a face. But King Shark in this movie almost had me in tears. There's one part in this movie where something unfortunate happens to him and I found myself saying, oh no, not King Shark, don't let him get hurt. And it also has one of my favorite visuals in any DCU movie, maybe any superhero movie. But again, what am I a fan of big, colorful visuals And the perfect example in this movie is during Harley Quinn's escape. You have her yelling and screaming and a burst of color just comes out behind her with all these flowers and petals and birds. Such a beautiful moment. I love the color palette in this movie. If you're playing the color palette drinking game every time I mentioned one, take a drink right now. But this movie was it for me. What hurt this movie probably in the long run, is we just had Suicide Squad five years before, and everybody was like, which is which? But for those who actually watched this movie realized how great it was. And it also gave us one of the best superhero TV shows, the spinoff on HBO Max Peacemaker, which I can't wait for season two. So far in DC's plans, it doesn't look like there's another Suicide Squad movie in the works, but I hope that changes because it is number one in my heart. If you have an opinion on my ranking system, you think another movie should have been higher, another one should have been lower, hit me up movie Mike d at gmail dot com, or find the links to all my socials in that episode notes of this podcast. Let's get into a spoiler free movie review. I want to talk about Shazam Fury of the Gods. What were my expectations going into this equal I would say right in the middle. I love DC characters. I think they have some of the best comic book characters, the most iconic comic book characters of all time, if you will. But when it comes to their movies, when it comes to their story execution, they are hit or missed. So now, going into every DC movie, I just want to be entertained, and since I have that medium expectation, I can really be swayed either way. I could leave thinking, oh, that was actually a fun, really good time I need to tell people about that, or the complete opposite of they did it again. So which one will be the fate of Shazam Fury of the Gods will get into that. So before we get into my full thoughts on this movie, here is just a little bit of the Shazam Fury of the Gods trailer. A lot has changed in the last few years. The Wizard gave me superpowers, but then everybody got superpowers started. Fun of Gottom knowing him all right, here's the situation started. Fun of Dodom not all same. In the daughter's about us are coming to hunt us children stold the power of the Gods. He ripped it from my father's school. Okay, I feel like maybe I should be riding all this down. That was the powers child. Your world will not for Vitress. So what this movie is about? It picks up after the last Jazam. You have Billy Batson and he's still trying to learn all about his powers. He struggles being a teenage kid and having this alter ego as Shazam. He is still living with all of his foster siblings and they are now kind of in this position of the friendly neighborhood superheroes. They are this team going around and helping people in the city of Philadelphia. And then you have these three new villains that they are taking on, these ancient gods who are back trying to get the powers that they stole from them. So the powers that now live inside Billy Batts and all his siblings, whenever they say Shazam, they turn into super heroes. Those belong to these three women, and they are upset about it. So they get into a big battle trying to get their powers back, and then they want to destroy the world, because that is what all superhero villains do, right, So let's go to the beginning of this movie. Again. We'll keep it spoiler free, but I thought this movie had a really good opening, one of the best DCU openings that I've seen in the last five films, because they didn't waste a whole lot of time with a lot of backstory. Now, whenever you have a sequel to a superhero movie, I tend to enjoy that one a lot better because I think as superhero fans, we're a little bit tired of the origin story. We don't need to be told in every single movie how they got their powers. We've seen that again and again and again. We're kind of tired of that in part one, so part two always begins where they already have their powers. We know how it works. It doesn't really matter. I don't even think you need to see Shazam one to fully enjoy Shazam two. They do a pretty good job at resetting that entire movie within a couple of flashbacks, almost like one or two minute scenes, and you basically know what happens, what is going on here. So if you are hesitant of going to see the sequel before seeing the first one, just go see the second one. So I thought it had a really good opening of getting right to the villains trying to get these powers back, really setting the stage at what was to come, and really showing that they were going to be a threat. And that is what I felt in this entire movie. You always look for that struggle with the villain. Are your heroes going to be able to overpower them and stop their evil plan? And throughout this entire movie, I found myself saying a lot how are they going to get out of this one? These villains seem pretty intense. There are three of them, so it's going to be hard for all these characters who are really just figuring out their powers. They're really just kids at heart to defeat these people who have been around for thousands of years. What I really love that this movie was filled with was big fu and fun visuals. It's weird to say that this movie kind of went back to the root of superhero movies, but that's why I felt it felt like a Marvel movie in that regard from two thousand and eight, those early ones that are set in reality, set in a US city. For some reason, we've really gotten away from that. Everything now is being fought in space, in the multiverse, in the quantum realm. To get a superhero movie put back into a very iconic city, it really added this level that just felt familiar but fun and fresh at the same time. In particular, the scene where they are trying to save all these people from this collapsing bridge, it felt very much like a classic superhero moment that we haven't seen in a DC movie in a while. Because they always focus on these ancient stories. They go back and do these really long backstories, going back through history, and it really takes away from what makes a superhero movie fun. That was my biggest takeaway from this movie. It is just a fun movie. Is it one of the most thought provoking push the envelope type superhero movies? No, And I think that's why some people are ripping this movie. It didn't really need to be that. When it comes down to it, I just want a movie that is entertaining. Superhero movies are a big passion of mine, and at the end of watching a superhero movie, is it an entertaining movie? That is all that matters to me in a superhero movie, and that is exactly what Shazam Theory of the Gods was. I also realize now that this movie is very much geared towards a younger audience, and I think that is great. It really reminded me of the first time I saw the Power Rangers movie in theaters as a kid. There's some resemblance between the Power Rangers and all the characters in Shazam. They all have their own individual power, They're all related to a color. They all have these alter egos, so whenever they change into their superhero state, it's a lot different than who they are as kids. So there's the color and the power correlation between the two, and I thought that really worked from me. So if I were to see this movie back when I was eight, nine, ten years old. This would be one of my favorites. Watching this movie made me realize there is something special, something so fun about a caped superhero, and that is what DC does best. Superman, Batman, Shazam, Black Eye, Adam all have a cape and there's just something so dynamic about a caped superhero. The only problem I find with some of DC's characters right now, it's a little bit hard to distinguish them all. Shazam, to me, resembles three other characters on the big screen, kind of looks like a red Superman, also basically the same thing as Black Adam, but with the red association, I can also see a little bit of the flash in him. So sometimes distinguishing all the characters, I feel like for the general audience, you may get a little bit confused. And that is the thing that DC is probably facing right now, because over on the Marvel side, they are all very distinct characters. You know their origin stories to a t. When you get over into DC, sometimes it's a little bit hard to do, and I think that hurts them when trying to create this bigger world with all these different characters. And some of them are just a little bit too similar. Going back to this movie being geared towards a younger audience, that really came through in the overall message of this movie. It's Billy Batts it in his struggle of why do I even have these powers? Do I deserve them? I have no idea what I am even doing. I don't know what to do with this, And when he's facing these villains, he feels very much like a kid and has this imposter syndrome. I think that's a bold message to put out two kids, because they're going to feel that throughout their entire life. Even me as an adult, watching this still struck a little bit of a chord with me. Sometimes you feel like you are not worthy of things. Sometimes you feel like you are in over your head. And if this movie did one thing was showing a kid watching this that sometimes all you need to do is be given a shot. And that was a great message to put in this movie. So aside from the big, fun visuals, kind of getting back to a classic superhero vibe, not really reinventing the genre, but making just a fun, fresh feeling movie, I thought what really came through was this movie had a lot of heart, and I think that's important for a superhero movie to have right now, even myself as an adult, just hearing that sometimes people just need a shot to show you who they really are, to show you that they can really pull something off, even I needed to hear that. A couple other things I enjoyed about this movie is that there were a lot of civilian casualties. And sometimes in superhero movies a lot of the violence is a little bit implied. But people died in this movie, people as in just random individual civilians, and their deaths weren't really brutal in any way, but it was a little bit surprising. And I want to give a shout out to the extras in this movie. I don't think I've ever talked about extras in a review, but it really adds a difference when an extra gives a really great performance, and I saw that in this movie. There were several extras that just had some really great reactions to what was going on, because sometimes I think the reactions of extras and superhero movies is a little bit underplayed. You have a villain ripping through a city, buildings on fire, cars are being thrown around this mystical creature riding around on a dragon, and then you look at the extras in a normal movie and they're just like, Oh my gosh, what is happening. In Chaseamn Fury of the Gods, there were legit reactions with screams and faces of terror, and that is something I wanted to recognize. It made me believe like, Oh, they're really buying into this. So I hope these extras were paid a substantial amount of money because they really added some great texture to the background of a superhero movie that I have not seen done to date. So a round of applause to all the extras in this movie. If you're watching this or listening to this, you're probably not, but I see you. Obviously some big standouts in the cast. I would have to give the performance of the entire movie to Helen Mirren, who I did not really see it in her to be a villain in a superhero movie, but she was probably my favorite part. Of course, Zachary Levi is just a really likable actor, and I love how he is able to capture the emotions of a teenager and put that into the character of Shazam. It's a bit of a bummer to me that this movie didn't do as well at the box office it's opening weekend. Probably a couple contributing factors. Number one being March has been incredibly stacked for movies, one of my favorite movie months and probably the last two years since movies really bounced back after the pandemic. You had Create three, you had Screamed six, John Wick four, Cocaine. Barrett had its moment in February that I felt was carried over by word of mouth into March. You have March madness going on in the sports world, So I feel like, as Americans, we have so many things to watch that Shazam got sandwiched in there, and it opened to thirty point five million dollars, and that is down from the original, which opened fifty three point five million dollars back in twenty nineteen. So a thirty point five million dollar opening for a movie that costs one hundred and ten million dollars to make isn't great. It doesn't deserve the criticism it's received online. The director who also directed the first one even made a statement on Twitter which I found a little bit heartbreaking. David F. Samberg, who directed the movie, said he is done with superhero movies for a while because he couldn't take the criticism. It was like, we actually made a good movie. I don't know why it's not doing so well. And it's hard to come on the defense for something like this when the numbers aren't there, but for something you are so passionate about and works so hard to make a movie to be proud of, and you actually make something in those parameters that's a really good movie. And now because of a low Rotten Tomato score, people who aren't going to watch it. It just almost feels like DC movies are set up to fail and that no matter what, people are to say bad things about him. Maybe even my own personal theory that other studios pay to review bomb them there I said it. I feel like they just come at such a disadvantage and for this one, they don't really deserve it. But David F. Sandberg said he is going back not doing superhero movies. He will now focus on horror movies, so I'll be down to watch those. I hope that the reputation of this movie doesn't carry over to that and people don't want to hire them because I think he's a great director. I think where you have to look at for this movie is what audiences are saying about it, people who actually would to see the movie, because it has a high audience score, and it has a high score with me for Shazam two Fury of the Gods, I give it four out of five Lightning Bolts a movie that is filled with laughs, f you and fun visuals, great superhero action, and a movie that has a lot of heart. It's time to head down to movie My. I'm not gonna say it. I'm not gonna say it. I'm gonna say it. This could be the comedy I've been looking for for so long. I am on a quest for the next great comedy, the best comedy in the last five years. This could be it. I'm saying it now. I don't want to say it, but after watching the trailer for No Hard Feelings, this feels like a return to the two thousands, even twenty tens comedy. And I've said that about a couple movies recently and they haven't lived up to that expectation. I thought you people would Jonah Hill and Eddie Murphy was going to be that. But this movie, I truly feel like it could be it everybody. The movie is about Jennifer Lawrence's character. She plays an uber driver who is desperate for money after her card gets repossessed, so she takes a job from an ad she saw on Craigslist. There's this rich couple and they're trying to find someone to date their socially awkward teenage son before he goes off to college. I love a zany premise to a raunchy movie. This movie comes out on June twenty third, twenty twenty three, so it is my birthday weekend. I would love to spend it with a comedy like this. So before we get into my full thoughts about no hard feelings, here's just a little bit of the trailer. Need to car date our son this summer and bring him out of his shell before college. N X change, We'll give you a buick regal date is in quote. Gotta be a joke, right, He's just been so worried about our son. He's going to Princeton in the fall. Well, I've heard of it. You know. We tried everything to bring him out of his shell. He doesn't come out of his room and he doesn't talk to girls, drink, so when you say date him, do you mean date him or date him? Yes, datum datum hark, I'll dat his brains out. He volunteers at the animal shelter. Hi, mind if I touch your meaner what you talk? So I've watched this trailer a few times now, first when it first hit social media, and then again in theaters I think it was before the screen movie, and I saw a reaction that I haven't seen from a trailer in a while. And that reaction is people actually laughed at a comedy from a trailer. I haven't seen that, and so long it fell new. It felt fresh to me. What is this emotion coming out of these people's mouths around me? It is but the sound of laughter. I love the sound of laughter. And it reminded me one of my favorite things growing up used to be the newest, the latest, raunchy comedy, starting back with my obsession with the American Pie movies, moving on to movies in the two thousands like Super Bad, forty year Old Virgin, Role Models, all those movies that were a dream to the young adult mind. Those are the movies I felt that everybody watched and everybody talked about. When one of these movies came out on a Friday night. It was the movie that all the cool kids went over the weekend and saw, and we're back telling us about on Monday at school. And this is a premise that very much resembles one like that to me. And then you have Jennifer Lawrence, who it's just a naturally funny person. I don't know why I said naturally funny, but she is a naturally funny person in interviews, and you've seen glimpses of her humor in her roles. But she's mainly known for dramas, for horror movies, for action sci fi movies, superhero movies. She's been in the X Men movies, and she hasn't done a full blown comedy like this, and it looks like a natural fit. It almost looks like, I know, we always have this skewed interpretation of what celebrities are, but to me, she is a lot like this character in this movie. And hopefully it's not a movie where all the funny things happen in the trailer. So you have the nerdy, awkward teenage son played by newcomer Andrew bars Feldman. Also some familiar names here, Matthew Broderick places Dad. I think every comedy I've loved recently in the last three years has been a dark comedy. Some movies like Unpregnant from HBO, Max Palm Springs on Hulu in twenty twenty is a little bit more of a romantic comedy. Some other dark comedies I liked to have been I Love My Dad, also on Hulu, which is a great cringeworthy comedy that came out last year, and Not Okay, another cringeworthy dark comedy that came out on Hulu last year. Netflix has been trying to make some solid comedies over there, with movies like Do Revenge on the big screen though Jackass for My Jackass Guys Keeping comedy Alive, But that's an entirely different brand of comedy. So the comedy genre is a hurting and I don't find myself being on the search for comedy movies anymore. Again, they were my favorite genre of movie growing up, and maybe it's just a reflection of our teenage cells, ourselves and our twenties that we tend to like movies that are just funny. And now I am in an era of my life where I like movies that are a little bit more thought provoking, and I'm just looking for movies that haven't been done before. And the comedy genre is just really hard to reinvent yourself. So I think what this movie will set out to do is showcase what made those movies great and throw all those rules out the window and just make a fun movie for people to actually go to the theater to watch. With an actor like Jennifer Lawrence, who is one of the highest grossing female actors of all time, I think you can do that. She is the Sandra Bullock of my generation. She can do no wrong and she can do it all. I love an actor who can do movies and has an Oscar under their name, but they are not above doing a comedy like this, a straight on, raunchy comedy. So I'm looking forward to this one. It comes out on June twenty third, this summer. This week's edition of Body and That'll do it for another episode here of the podcast. But before I go, I gotta give my listeners shout out of the week, and this week's official Movie Crew listener is Missy, who sent me a DM on Instagram. And Missy is proof that everybody who is a member of the movie crew. Is just a nice person because Missy gives me feedback from time to time, and it's always super positive, straight on, constructive criticism, and that is something I need. That is something that helps me grow. I know I have a weird speaking pattern. I probably say words weird all the time. Sometimes my mind moves faster than my mouth, and I'm just trying to get all these thoughts out on once. So in that regard, I probably shouldn't have a podcast that I do by myself, but here I am. But Missy had this to say about last week's Quintin Tarantino episode. She said, listening to today's episode, you talk about pulp fiction being nonlinear, wanting to let you know it's pronounced linear rather than linear. I totally agree with what Bobby says about not knowing how to say something because we've only read it. Hope this helps. In my head. I knew it was linear, but I guess when I recorded that episode I said linear, and now I'm all messed up because none of that makes sense to me anymore. But the correct pronunciation is linear. There we go. Thank you, Missy. I'm sure that is only one of many words I have mispronounced over the years, but I did post a video recently that had a lot of negative feedback, so much so that I had to post a follow up video addressing that negative feedback. So if you miss that, it is on my Instagram at my destro if you want to go check that out. Thank you for listening to this week's episode. We'll be back talking about john Wick four next week. Hope you joined me then, And until next time, go out and watch good movies and I will talk to you later.