MikeTheHuman113

"This is the way the world ends/Not with a bang, but a whimper"--TS Eliot, "The Hollow Men" We made it, folks. The final film of the Zach Snyder-started DC Extended Universe is upon us and give us one last ride. It has been an up and down for DC, but 2023 was the most down year ever for them. I first started this series in 2016 when the discourse really took off thinking it was the climax, but in actuality it was only the beginning. There were still twelve movies and a TV show to be included yet. When I reviewed the Whedon Cut of Justice League, it was not the end of the franchise as I had predicted, but it was the beginning of the end. People started to take DC less seriously and the old guard left, including the unofficial master of ceremonies Zach Snyder. While the movies improved in some cases (Blue Beetle, THE Suicide Squad) they were less financially successful. One film in the franchise was even deleted from history before it was ever seen by anyone, which meant it could

"My destiny was before me, and I hesitated...and a universe died."--Alternate Universe Matoro, BIONICLE: The Kingdom Around the release of this movie, DC was kind of at a crossroads. A string of flops and new management at Warner limited what movies they could put out. James Gunn, fresh off his success with The Suicide Squad, decided to start all over again with a new Superman and Batman movie. Plus, with Joker and The Batman being standalone hits, people just seem less interested in shared universes. The key to reboot seemed to be to push the Flashpoint storyline from the comics to reset the universe. Batgirl was cancelled and The Flash, in spite of bad press and all kinds of scandals involving its star, got released. Needless to say, DC bet on the wrong horse. In this movie, The Flash discovers time travel almost by accident, rushing around his childhood home and determining what he must do to prevent the death of his mother. Despite Batman's warnings, he breaks the time-space

“Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we’re related for better or for worse…and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.” --Rick Riordan, the Sea of Monsters (said by Hermes) Shazam: Fury of the Gods is sheer fun. It may not be the most robust or structured of DC's catalog, but it does not need to be. This is a throwback to the more fun era of superheroes, where stakes are just high enough to keep you interested and the characters are fun and memorable. There are complaints with this movie I understand, but I don't care. I still had fun with it. This story picks up with the last one. Billy is balancing his life with being Shazam, a new villain threatens the world, and the whole Shazam family comes together to stop it. Simple plot, simple direction, simple execution. All is well. I will say the exposition and story beats went on far too long for my liking, but in general, it kept the tone and