Shazam and Dora - March 24

…Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and some things appear to be unavoidable in their mass; all you can do is edit the details, so to speak and to soften the blow. The blow will still come, but at least you will have the knowledge that you did what you could, as much, you could, to avoid it; the failure is on you, but unless you want to break the laws of God and Man, you are stuck with what you have. Now where were we?

Ah yes, the new trailer for the new ‘Dora the Explorer’ movie. It works. It already promises to be quite delightful and guarantees the same atmosphere as the new ‘Shazam’ film, so let us talk about it too.

‘Shazam’ might be a part of DCEU, broadly speaking, but it is a very different movie from the previous films: it is a children’s movie. That is natural, since the titular character’s secret identity is that of a high school student, but that is only one element. The other is that like the previous ‘Aquaman’ film, ‘Shazam’ shows a clear departure from the initial DCEU films, directed by Zack Snyder, and has a much more joyous (and less solemnly Gothic) atmosphere in it. The fact that DCEU seems to be finally moving away from Marvel’s ‘Avengers’ formula also plays a role – it is about damn time that DCEU found its’ own voice and stood on its own two feet, so to speak. And ‘Dora’?

‘Dora’ is not a part of a DC or Marvel franchise; it is its’ own game/TV show/whatever, and is basically ‘Lara Croft’ for youngsters. So’s her movie version, which does feel inspired by the last ‘Tomb Raider’ films that feature a younger, scrawnier Lara with less curves than the early AJ versions have. (Jolie killed in those films, pity that lately age seems to have caught up with her at last). That said, there’s proportionally less violence in the ‘Dora’ movie trailer than there was in LC; in fact, the trailer already suggests that ‘Dora’ will be going over the top with gimmicks and physical gags – but there will be some genuine action and adventure as well. For an adult film this could be another Adam Sandler movie, but for children? Yes, it will certainly work, (though for their chaperones, slightly less physical gags might be better). What next?

Boots the CGI monkey rocks, (no real life monkey, New World or otherwise, has this shade of fur), and so do the human actors, it seems. Yes, SJW are going to have issues about the ‘racially diverse cast’, yes, it was probably done to appease the politically correct (or progressive) crowd, but so far, it seems to be paying off, so the critics should zip it, and wait for the movie to come out, (yes, the same goes for us), before complaining about the ‘racially diverse cast’, cough. In canon, Dora seems to be Latino-American anyhow, so here she seems to be cast true to her type. Yay? Yes, probably, but also because her actress can act. Anything else?

Well, the same could be said of Zachary Levi who plays the titular hero of ‘Shazam!’ I am not always enamoured, or trusting, of IGN reviews these days, (their review of ‘Captain Marvel’ had certainly been one big kiss-up), but here they are correct, when they point out that, for example, Dr. Sivana, (the movie’s villain), is a clear demonstration of how parents can shape their children, (biological or foster, it doesn’t matter so much), but it’s up to the child, (at least from a certain age), to make the actual choice and to decide just what kind of an adult are they going to be. Now, Marvel has tried to do something similar in its TV shows, but… AoS’ treatment of Grant Ward, (and also of Kara Palamas, though her case is different in this regard), was all over the place, satisfying no one. He never got to be a ‘true’ villain, (Hive was a different character completely), nor truly redeem himself, (the Framework Ward was also a separate entity, and how did Radcliffe include him into his SIMS, cough, or why?). Netflix’s JJ had Killgrave, who did a better job of the sympathetic villain role, but all of Netflix’s Marvel shows are cancelled now, so that point is double-moot, (because Killgrave himself is dead).

On DC’s side of equation, yes, ‘Arrow’ is cancelled, which is a pity, because it was good, but that is life. Sometimes even good things end, plus DC needs to get itself together as well – there are the movies, the remnants of ‘Arrow-verse’, the ‘Titans’ and so on. At least in Marvel everything is part of the same movieverse, as C&D’s S1 finale said so directly. Of course that was before ‘Iron Fist’ got cancelled, (it was the first to go, ouch), but again, that is life. Very often, it sucks, especially in reality – just look at New Zealand, for an example.

Well, this is it for now – see you all later!