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Shazam! Review
Shazam! comes directed by David F. Sandberg who some may know as the director of Annabelle Creation (2017) or Lights Out (2016). The film stars Zachary Levi, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Grace Fulton and John Glover.
Shazam! is the latest film to be released that takes place in the DC cinematic universe of films. It is based on Shazam! who as a comic book character first appeared in 1939 and back then was known as Captain Marvel. The character over the years has gone through several transformations, legal lawsuits and relaunches and is now known as Shazam! The name of the character comes from the immortal elders who give him his powers, these are Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, Mercury, and ! and it is the first letter of all these immortals that spells out Shazam!
Going in to see Shazam! at the cinema I was interested to see what they could do with this film, but I wasn’t ever really a fan of the comic book character much in the past. Basically what happens here with this character is that Shazam! really is just a kid. The real identity of Shazam! is Billy Batson, who is a kid attending high school. When he says the name Shazam! he transforms into the perfect version of himself and has insane super powers. In many ways Shazam! is very similar to Superman and is also very similar to Marvel’s Captain Marvel, his powers are incredibly strong and he has very little weaknesses. As the film went on, I slowly started to like Shazam! and for the first time, I thought that the dynamic of switching between an adult character and a kid character was actually rather good. This was possible due to the solid character development of Billy Batson and his backstory.
The development of the Billy Batson character is the central point of focus for much of the film. Shazam! has quite strong themes related to the importance of family and also growing up to be one’s best self. The film’s main character Billy is a foster child, who never really knew his parents .We see the character struggle being alone and wanting to have his real family back. He will never get his family back though, they just don’t want him. This hurts the character quite a lot and we see as an audience how difficult being a foster child can be. In many ways, Shazam! is quite similar in its main themes and messaging to this year’s Instant Family (which was an excellent film). I actually consider Shazam! to be the superhero version of what Instant Family was. It is the developing of Billy Batson throughout the film, mixed with strong themes of family and friends which makes Shazam! a special experience at the cinema and also a character you can come to care for. The characterisation of Billy Batson, then later balancing that with what Shazam! is, while having two different actors play the same person and pulling that off is honestly quite impressive.
Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) and Shazam! (Zahery Levi) – Shazam Review
Another highlight of the Shazam! experience was that the tone of the film being somewhat lighthearted. Having all these connected films in the same universe has been quite difficult for DC. In the beginning they tried to go quite dark with the initial Superman and later Batman V Superman film, then after Justice League there was a little bit of a switch to something a little lighter with Aquaman which audiences loved and now we have Shazam! which is in the same universe as all of these films, but manages to find the right tone of its own and it works. The DC Universe now has three quite entertaining films within it with Aquaman, Wonder Woman and now Shazam! things are starting to look up for the franchise.
The actors in Shazam! are okay. We have a lot of kids in this one and while i’m not too much of a fan of watching kid actors, for the most part they are all rather good. Out of the bunch, Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer get the most screen time and did well in their role. But the actor who shined the most was Zachary Levi as Shazam! he brought the right amount of charisma and energy to the role and I’d like to see more from him with this character.
With so many kid actors and the tone of Shazam! being quite light hearted, I’d say that this film is quite a good family experience at the cinema. While something like Batman v Superman or even Justice League were quite dark and maybe more geared towards adults, Shazam! is one of the few films I’d say that teens or younger teens might enjoy. The only impediment to this is that the film is rated M, but I can see 15 and 16 year olds really enjoying this one.
Special effects in Shazam! are rather good. Warner Brothers seems to have mastered to the look and style of the DC Universe films at this point and things look rather good on the cinema screen. There are heavy levels of CGI in this film and they are decent. No film this year is ever going to get on the same level as Alita: Battle Angel, but special effects are rather good for a film on Shazam!’s budget. There are many monster/demons to see and also a bunch of brawls between Shazam! and the film’s villain.
Overall Shazam! is a decent film experience and one that I’d recommend to any superhero fan to see this week. The character brings something fresh to the DC Universe of films and has a promising future within that universe. The film’s strength stems from its strong backing of the Billy Batson character, where the character is slowly developed as the film goes on. Secondly, Zachary Levi brought a lot of charisma and energy to the role of Shazam! and did exceptionally well with the character. I do hope we get to see more of Shazam! in later DC Universe films, which are looking much more promising lately. Happy to recommend seeing the film this weekend at the cinema.
Sea Of Solitude is a game which was developed by Jo-Mei Games and was published by Electronic Arts. It is available on PS4, Xbox One and PC via Origin. It is a single player third person adventure game. The game has the player control a character named Kay who explores an abandoned and flooded city.
This was a game which caught my eye only very recently when I first heard about its release. After watching the trailer, I thought the art style, strong colours and animations looked very interesting. Also as a person who went mad one day and subscribed to EA’s Origin Premiere late last year so that I could play some games I had missed out on over the years, I was pleased to see something new added to the store that wasn’t a typical Electronic Arts style major franchise game. Knowing I could get this one for free was enough to give it a go. But if you’re not part of that program to get it for free, I’d say that the $26.95 asking price for this digital title is certainly worth it.
The game isn’t too long, most hardened gamers will probably be able to finish this one in a single session, which I actually managed to do yesterday morning. I didn’t time myself, but I’d say to expect about 3 or so hours out of it, a bit more if you look around for collectables.
Sea Of Solitude Review
On the surface, Sea Of Solitude is about a young girl named Kay, who is searching through a city, which is for some reason flooded. You start the game all alone on a tiny boat, way out at sea on the water. You make your way to the city, where you find a monster clad in darkness is blocking your path. Through exploration and activating certain things, Kay brings light to an otherwise dark city.
Underneath the main plot though, is a game with strong messages and themes related to loneliness and relationships. Kay as a character is someone who has become lonely, isolated and quite depressed after issues with her family and her boyfriend. The game sends the player on a journey to free Kay and other characters from suffering from the effects of loneliness and related themes. What I didn’t expect this weekend, was to play a game which seemed to have the objective of tackling these mental health issues in this way and I never expected to play something this weekend from the gaming genre with such deep meaning to it.
In many ways, Sea Of Solitude reminded me of my experience with Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice which was also a game that focused on mental health issues and is still a game I hold in very high regard. Both of these games were experiences that I could not put down once I started playing as I just had to find out what was going to happen with my character. Games tackling these mental health themes and the issues involved are quite rare in this medium, so when an experience like this does come along, it’s very unique and interesting. The difference between Sea Of Solitude and Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is that Sea of Solitude is a little lighter in tone and not the intense gruelling experience that Senua’s was. This makes a player’s time with Sea Of Solitude one that is peaceful to experience.
Sea Of Solitude Review
The art style in Sea Of Solitude is something I enjoyed looking at. The animations are very rounded, colours stand out on the screen and the use of blacks in contrast with visibly bright blues, whites and orange was what I loved the most. The music and also the voice acting, was soft and did fit in well with the tone of the game’s themes and art style. All together, visuals and audios seemed to be just right.
The gameplay in Sea Of Solitude is something I’d say is probably a little simple. It’s essentially a platforming game where you will jump, swim, drive a boat and shoot flares onto enemies. There aren’t any button combinations to learn or any level up systems. The game is accessible to people of most ages and even to people new to gaming could easily pick this one up and get through it.
Overall coming out of playing Sea Of Solitude, I was filled with positivity and happiness. The story is quite heavy when playing through it, but very warm in the end. The art style and animations are nice to see and the sound and voice acting was just right. I do like to see that the games industry can use the medium to tackle such heavy topics and release games like this which show how well this medium can tell a story and provide its audience with something of great meaning. I’m happy to recommend Sea Of Solitude for your gaming collection.
Stuber is a film which comes directed by Michael Dowse and stars Dave Bautista, Kumail Nanjiani and Betty Gilpin. The film is an action comedy adventure about an Uber driver and a policeman who go on a wild ride together.
Going in to see Stuber I didn’t really know where to set my expectations. Knowing only that the film was a comedy, meant I went in for the lols and didn’t expect all that much from the story. But coming out of the film, I’m sorry to say, but it’s not really that great.
The film starts off okay and the opening scene features both Vic (Dave Bautista) and Sara (Karen Gillan) engaged in a dangerous shootout with some bad guys. Both are seriously injured and Vic loses his eyesight, which means he gets some urgent surgery. His eyes need time go recover, but as soon he’s able to walk he calls for an Uber and continues on with his police business, which is catching the bad guys who got away in the opening scene. This is where Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) comes in and the journey between this awkward duo begins.
I wish I could say that it was all good once the Uber ride began but it wasn’t. The film is only really mildly funny. Dave Bautista who I do really like in action films really isn’t great at comedy. Kumail Nanjiani basically was just screaming and yelling the whole time and talking about his Uber rating and reviews. I admit I did find some of the bad reviews he got from his previous customers in the film funny when they were shown, but that’s about it. Some of the jokes were also drawn out way too long. Dave Bautista’s character being blind was kind of funny in the first minute when you saw him trying to walk around without being able to see. But it’s only funny once and they did this joke over and over again almost all the way until the end!
In addition to this, for quite a bit of the film, I wondered if this was some sort of product placement or advertisement for Uber. There were so many mentions of Uber, Uber reviews and the difference between Uber products and services. What are we paying to watch here? Who cares about Uber!?
In the end I would suggest avoiding Stuber at the cinema this week and choosing literally any other film currently showing. After leaving this I instantly thought that Stuber needs to be on my list of worst movies of 2019 which I created just after seeing this and that says a lot because I was not compelled to make one after seeing X:Men Dark Phoenix.
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