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Awix (3310 KP) rated Aquaman (2018) in Movies

Feb 12, 2019  
Aquaman (2018)
Aquaman (2018)
2018 | Action, Sci-Fi
DC Comics adaptation boasts a colour palette that will make your eyes bleed and some casting decisions that will leave your mind near-permanently boggled (Julie Andrews and Dolph Lundgren, together at last), but still manages to be one of their better recent films - I'm aware that probably isn't saying much, so let me clarify it: Aquaman is a lot of fun. Jason Momoa plays the scion of Atlantis as a slightly dimwitted bro, which is a curious but entertaining take on the character; he has to go off on a quest for plot coupons in order to stop a war between the underwater world and the surface nations.

It probably takes a bit too long, and if you don't like wall-to-wall CGI this is definitely not the movie for you, but it ticks all the boxes and manages to be jolly popcorn-blockbuster fun, unsaddled by references to other DC movies. There's a bit of dead wood along the way (Black Manta is just there to facilitate a big action sequence, and allow the designers to get away with one of the most ridiculous costumes in living memory), but this is a surprisingly confident and epic-feeling take on a perennially second-string character.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Shazam! (2019) in Movies

Apr 5, 2019 (Updated Apr 5, 2019)  
Shazam! (2019)
Shazam! (2019)
2019 | Action, Sci-Fi
The second Captain Marvel movie in as many months is an effective piece of entertainment, although I'm not entirely sure how it manages this. Foster-child Billy Batson (Angel) is chosen by an ancient wizard to become his champion - all he needs to do is say a magic word to be transformed into a powerful superhero (Levi), known as... well, the film awkwardly dodges the issue of what his actual superhero codename is, as DC have (essentially for legal reasons) decided to stop calling this character Captain Marvel, even though that was his name for over seventy years. Lawyers, eh?

Anyway, what ensues is recognisably a Captain Marvel movie, featuring all the things you would hope to see in one, but it's also really a spoof not just of this character but of the superhero genre in general. As I say, it undeniably works, due to good performances (Mark Strong is customarily good as Cap's nemesis Dr Sivana) and a sharp script, even if I can't help thinking that a character who was once the most popular superhero in the world, bar none, deserves slightly better treatment. Let's look on the bright side: it could have been a lot worse, and the general upward trend of DC Comics movies seems to be continuing.