 There's something I love about going to a movie, not knowing a damn thing about its original source material. This makes way for me to enjoy what the movie has to offer without my brain analyzing it for what they did "wrong" or what they've "changed". It payed off with Marvel for 'Guardians' and 'Ant-Man' (primarily the first one), and DC managed it with 'Shazam!' (again, primarily the first one). 'Blue Beetle' serves as further evidence that sometimes it's the unknowns that make us fall in love with the superhero genre all over again.
For those who were like me going into this, completely clueless, 'Blue Beetle' seems to manage to take everything so stereotypical of superhero movies and manage to twist it in a way that reflects the best of everything. Take Spider-Man's personality and quips, then put a Symbiote on him that comes equipped with Stark-Tech... then make it a DC property, and give it the multiculturalism of giving us, not only a Mexican superhero, but make much of the story surround his family, giving the hero something to fight for, and us something to route for and ultimately care about. It all begins when Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) and other members of Kord Industries find an alien artifact known as The Scarab in remote Antarctica. Her intentions, much to her niece, Jenny's (Bruna Marquezine) dismay, is to ultimately use the Scarab's symbiotic alien tech as a weapon, creating an army. So like, the premise of 'Ant-Man', but using Symbiotes. While attempting to stealthily steal the Scarab and sneak it out of the wrong hands, Jenny hands it off to the unassuming Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) for safe keeping while she hides in plain sight. Jaime just got back to his loving family from graduating from Gotham Law University; among them, father, Alberto (Damián Alcázar), mother, Rocio (Elpidia Carrillo) sister, Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), uncle Rudy (George Lopez), and Nana (Adriana Barraza). Before the aforementioned hand-off happens, Jamie is offered a potential job from Jenny upon meeting her, which is how he was in the right place at the right time when the hand-off occurred; there initially for a job interview. Anyway, the family pressures Jamie to open the secret box he was given despite strict instructions not to, one thing leads to another, and the Scarab chooses Jaime to bond with, thus making him the new Blue Beetle. The family seeks help from Jenny, who supposedly knows what this thing is and how it works, and therefore presumably knows how to get rid of it. This leads the family to work together with Jenny in order to find these answers, but in the meantime, Jaime has some bigger fish to fry with Victoria trying to reclaim the Scarab which is now part of Jaime, no matter what the cost. Tagging along with her is her brute guinea pig, Carapax (Raoul Max Trujillo) who has a few tricks up his own sleeve, as he's an in-development "weapon". When I first saw ads for this, it really did strike me as more of the same, and I suppose in many ways, it really is. But even for as much as I've mentioned things we've seen before and ideas that have been executed before - hell, the guy even looks like a Stark Tech suit, there was something about this one that managed to rope me in. I think it was the family dynamic within. We're so used to seeing superheroes work outside of their family. In this, it's almost more like 'The Incredibles' in which the family's involvement is half the charm. We want to see the Reyes family succeed in everything they do. They're super charming and lovable, especially Nana! This is one of the better superhero films I've seen in a long time. Although it clearly takes from a lot of different things, somehow it blends it into something unique, allowing the superhero genre to keep hanging on by that thread it's slowly slipping down. In my pinion, this is what the genre needs to keep doing. Deliver us unfamiliarity instead of rehashing the same heroes over and over again. Box office success is one thing, but a good movie that floats under the radar is another. Not everything has to end up like 'The Eternals', or countless other failed names in the 90s. Honestly, give this one a shot if you're looking for some superhero rejuvenation. 5/5
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 Let me open this one with the fact that when it comes to DC Comics, I am generally clueless about things. I am, and always have been a Marvel guy, who enjoyed his Spider-Man and X-Men. The only real exception for DC I made was for Batman, who I've enjoyed since the Adam West show was on in syndication in the 80s. And as for the 1989 movie? Well, let's just say I remember the hype. I was there for it, and it was huge. Ever since then, Keaton always has been my favourite as far as someone who can fill both Batman and Bruce Wayne's shoes, equally.
Of course, "Who is the best Batman?" is an argument as old as the 80s themselves, and the correct answer is, of course, Kevin Conroy... But as far as the live-action movies go, let's face it, it's a very split audience. So, I should admit that I have a total bias toward Michael Keaton playing Bruce/Batman going into this, and may be guilty of eating up the fan service he delivered here. I wish the trailers didn't show so much of him, but how else were they gonna get butts in seats?... Which they still actually failed to do, probably thanks to Ezra Miller being kinda frowned upon these days. This actually makes this review a tad awkward, as I try to be one who separates the art from the artist. More on this in a bit. Getting to the plot of this whole thing, we hit the ground running with a quick action sequence involving several members of the now-established Justice League; namely, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck), Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), with assistance from Alfred (Jeremy Irons) back at Wayne Manor. IF I'm being honest, this has very little to do with anything else, but I can't deny that the sequence is pretty exhilarating. It's meant to show us that this is not just a 'Flash' movie, but indeed, a 'Justice League' movie. I might suggest it's DC's answer to 'Captain America: Civil War'. Anyway, in the aftermath, Barry revisits his childhood home, with memories of his parents and a happy life before his Mother, Norah (Maribel Verdú) passed away, and Father, Henry (Ron Livingston) got accused of murdering her. In his frustration, he goes full Sonic the Hedgehog and runs super fast. Unlike Sonic, however, he realizes that he can potentially time travel, and wants to use it as a reason to save his mother's life. Bruce is there to warn us all about what we already know - it's a terrible idea. But of course, we wouldn't have a movie if Barry didn't decide to do it anyway. He succeeds, but on his way back to what could be a happy present, he gets knocked out of the "Speed Force" by someone else with speed abilities. Landing in an alternate 2013, he finds his mother is alive, but he also runs into himself right before he obtained his powers. The pair work to recreate the accident to ensure Present-Barry will still have his powers, but during the process, Present-Barry has his powers zapped from him while Past-Barry gains them. Meanwhile, they happen to be in the time when General Zod (Michael Shannon) comes to invade Earth. The two Barry's then work on assembling the rest of the Justice League, first successfully starting with this universe's Batman (Michael Keaton) and this universe's Supergirl (Sasha Calle). The general story does turn into "Stop Zod" with a side of "Get My Powers Back", and I do have to admit that, as expected, Michael Keaton kind of stole the show. But that brings me back to what I mentioned before about Ezra Miller as well. The truth is, he's really good in this! There's a younger Barry who's the smart-ass, fun and careless one we sort of remember from 'Justice League', while the older Barry has been through some stuff, and realizes that there's a more serious side to this superhero business. I'm not big on Ezra Miller the person, but I can't deny that Ezra Miller the actor can hold his own, either. When it's all over, one does realize that the "Batman Returns Again" and "Zod Invading" plots take things over. However, speaking for myself, I was able to manage to push the importance of these more fan-driven plot points to the background. Batman was there for fan service, Supergirl was there to show more differences in universes. But the depth of the movie is in Barry's story (as it should be), and I'm not ashamed to say that by the end, it did manage to tug on my heartstrings quite a bit. If one can push one's feelings to the side, I might just say that this is one of the better DC movies of the DCEU. 4/5  Whether you like or dislike Sony's moves with the rest of their Spider-Verse, one thing remains certain - they nailed it when it came to Miles Morales. 'Into the Spider-Verse' was a damn-near-perfect animated comic book movie, complete with the look and style of an actual comic book. On top of that, we also had the urban feel of Mile's hometown of Brooklyn, NY, complete with graffiti and an excellent hip-hop soundtrack. It was yet another 'Spider-Man' film with a unique twist, making it a breath of fresh air for us Spider-Fans.
I remember this often being claimed as the best-animated film ever made. It's a lot to claim such a thing, but I will say this—it makes for an easy consideration for that title. This film takes everything we love about Into the Spider-Verse and cranks it to eleven with several different animation styles, this time getting some very real glimpses of other universes where the new members of the "Spider-Society" come into play. But more on them later. We open things up here in Gwen Stacy's (Hailee Steinfeld) universe on Earth-65. We get a little more into Gwen's background involving her Peter Parker, her father, and her rocky relationship with law enforcement - her father being a police captain, unaware of her identity under the "Spider-Woman" mask (fans will know the costume better as "Ghost-Spider" or "Spider-Gwen"). One day, she gets caught up in a fight at the Guggenheim Museum with a Renaissance-themed vulture, whose animation is done with pencil sketches on what looks like old parchment - so cool! This is the moment we get a taste of what we're in for. Gwen meets Miguel O'Hara, aka Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), and Jessica Drew, another Spider-Woman (Issa Rae), who have arrived using portal-generating tech. Eventually, she's granted membership into the "Spider-Society" - a massive team of Spider-Men (and women) from different dimensions who work together, monitoring the multiverse for anomalies and making sure "canon events" aren't disrupted. A "canon event" remains the same while the universes play out differently. Here, the most prominent specific is the death of a police captain close to the respective Spider-Man. Meanwhile, on Earth 1610, Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is living his hero life and, one day, meets "The Spot" (Jason Schwartzman), who claims that he's Mile's arch-nemesis without Miles understanding who he is. After the confrontation, Gwen opens a portal to reunite with Miles while secretly tracking The Spot, who, himself, is an anomaly, as he can travel to other dimensions, which brings Miles and Gwen to "Mumbattan" where we meet a couple of more Spider-People for this chapter - Pavitr Prabhakar, aka Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) and Hobie Brown, aka Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya). During that whole bit, we get Miles disrupting a canon event, which leads him to realize this same canon event is supposed to happen in his universe. Still, the other Spider-People need him not to disrupt the timeline of what's supposed to happen, making for one hell of a personal inner struggle for Miles. And dear God, there's so much more to it, but I will be unfolding the whole movie if I keep going. It's hard to keep everything short about this one, plot-wise, but rating-wise, it is another story. If you enjoyed the first one, you're going to enjoy this one. The variety in animation styles here are something to be admired, and they cover the spectrum. Beyond that, just like the first, there's also a killer soundtrack, and I enjoyed the introduction of some new Spider-People instead of just bringing back the old crew for familiarity. This movie takes a few risks, but those risks paid off, and it was so good to see the movie go for it with everything it did. I can't praise this movie enough as a near-perfect mishmash of a work of art, an interesting concept for a Spider-Man story, and a touch of every emotion coming through. It's just as good, if not better than the first. 5/5  I tend to be a "Marvel over DC" guy with the superhero genre (except most 'Batman' films). But that does not mean DC hasn't given me anything I've enjoyed, either, and the original 'Shazam!' is one of those titles. For once, we finally had something in the DC universe that wasn't so dark, didn't feel rushed, and, above all else, knew how to have fun with what it had to work with. It was a pleasant surprise movie from DC for me. At the time, it was like the 'Ant-Man' of the DCEU, and I'm pretty sure it's my favourite film of its particular universe.
With that said, a movie like 'Shazam!' should be taken mainly with a grain of salt. Shazam is your fun superhero who relates to a kid's desire to become a superhero, and I went into this film carrying that expectation with me. However, instead of having as much fun as I had with the last one, I felt somewhat disappointed by this sequel as it's filled with superhero clichés. So, while it remains a fun title in some aspects, there's too much predictability here for those of us who have, perhaps, seen a few too many movies of the superhero genre. It will be challenging to get into this review without spoiling a thing or two from the first movie, so as with many of my sequel reviews, continue reading only if you either don't care or have seen the first movie already. 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) obtains superpowers from a wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) to put a stop to Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who uses the Seven Deadly Sins to his advantage for power and revenge against his family as well as the wizard, Shazam, who once denied his corrupt mind his powers. By the end of it all, Billy learns a thing or two about teamwork and family and shares his powers of transforming to his full potential (which is why he becomes an adult) with his foster family: Best friend Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody), eldest sibling and bookworm, Mary Bromfield (Grace Caroline Currey as both versions), the adorable Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman/Meagan Good), techie, Eugene Choi (Ian Chen/Ross Butler), and the introverted but kindly Pedro Peña (Jovan Armand/D.J. Cotrona), all of whom form a secret superhero squad and now work together. In the meantime, two daughters of the Titan Atlas show up, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), breaking into the Acropolis Museum in Athens and stealing the Wizard's now broken staff (broken by Billy in the first film). They then take it to the now-imprisoned Wizard (A.K.A. OG Shazam, who once killed their father) and force him to repair it. The sisters then plot revenge by finding a golden apple, the seed of the Tree of Life. Hespera wants to plant it in the God Realm so it can flourish and bring life back to their world. However, Kalypso would use it as all-out revenge on humankind by planting it on Earth. A third sister, Anthea (Rachel Zegler), becomes Freddy's love interest in this and is the best of the sisters. She's your typical would-be villain who sees the good in humankind and doesn't quite fit in with her other sisters. That's one of a few clichés here, but I'd say the worst part was how it predictably ended, which I won't spoil here, but you'll see it coming from miles away. Let's say not much will come as a surprise here. But, even if this is jumbled with clichés, I'd still probably be able to recommend this on the almost guilty pleasure level. It still has its moments, and many of them are pretty funny. Much like with the first 'Shazam!', this wasn't something to be taken seriously for the most part. Although, at times, it does have a few genuinely emotional moments. But it was hard for me to empathize with the film's overall predictability. And I don't tend to be that guy who "knew it all along," either. But to be perfectly fair, I won't say it's "bad." If you can take it for the fun time it provides and laugh with it, it's a decent flick. But all in all, its predecessor is still something much better. 3/5 |
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