Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Richard Willis]

When I watched Split it wasn't revealed until the last scene that it was related to Unbreakable. Suddenly, we saw Bruce Willis' character, David Dunn. It wasn't really publicized until they announced the third movie, Glass.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Richard, Unbreakable, Split and Glass is a trilogy I've been meaning to see ever since I found out it was a trilogy. We saw Unbreakable in the theater, and it also happens to be one of the first movies we ever bought on DVD. At this point it is the only one of the three we have seen. IIRC, you recommended (or perhaps I read it elsewhere) that the movies should be watched in order. I made a note of it but haven't yet followed through.

Speaking of movie I have seen lately…

SHAZAM!: This one is a very faithful adaptation of the origin of the current comic book version.

AVENGERS: ENDGAME: Trevor F. Noah spoiled this one for me. I have some thoughts but I want to read the discussion first.

[Richard Willis]

Yes, the three movies should be watched in order of release. 

Still haven't seen Avengers Endgame, or Captain Marvel. Haven't been going to the theater for very good reasons. Since I tend to buy the DVDs, I will either see them when the DVDs are available or on demand if sooner.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

SHAZAM! I've just seen it. Didn't like it. In his first scene, Billy disqualifies himself from what the wizard seeks. Once he gets his powers, he steals, which should disqualify him; he's cowardly. I don't know what the recent comics are like, but this film misses the intent of the original comics by a LONGSHOT.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

"I don't know what the recent comics are like..."

The recent comics are exactly like that. The origin (serialized, collected in tpb, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank)is, anyway. I quite like the current regular series, however.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

At least I have my reprints. This was like having HANCOCK as the first SUPERMAN theatrical film in 75 years.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

I bought Justice League #0 several years ago on a whim. When I first read it I hated it. It was actually the middle part of a serialized story. When the new Shazam! series began, I bought the tpb of the origin. It grew on me. As Geoff Johns did with Stargirl, he began with a basically unlikeable hero and forged him into a hero. The new “Shazam” (still “Captain Marvel” AFAIAC) is Johns’ version of the “hero with feet of clay,” and the series is his journey to becoming a hero. The theme is that we all have it within us to be heroic.

Back to movies…

GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS: This is not my favorite Godzilla movie, nor is it my favorite of the recent ones. The movies seem to alternate between “action” ones and “story” ones. This one gets off to a really slow start (it’s ages before the Big G. appears). They spend too much time setting up the hierarchy of monsters. There are a lot of “Easter eggs” from Godzila mythology scattered throughout. Stay until the very end of the credits for an extra scene,

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

I really don't like that re-design of Captain Marvel's uniform, and I really, really don't like the image on that cover.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Fair enough.

Did you see the the new hardcover collection of the 1973 Shazam! series (first 18 issues)?

I bought that one. It has a new introduction written by Jerry Ordway.

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

I'd seen that it was coming. I will buy it, but I haven't seen it yet. I hope there's a second volume collecting the rest of Shazam! and what was in World's Finest and Adventure Comics.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

One other thing about the Shazam! movie: I don’t like that when Billy is transformed into his heroic persona that he remains mentally immature. Included among his powers is supposed to be the “Wisdom of Solomon.” He was never portrayed as childish in the comics (childlike, maybe, but not childish).

[PowerBook Pete, the Mad Mod]

100% agree with you on that one.