Tag: Zachary Levi

Missed Opportunities with Harold and the Purple Crayon. Can Replacing That With A 3D Pen Do The Job?

While one star can continue to charm in Harold and the Purple Crayon, is that enough to carry a film?

harold and the purple dragon movie posterAvailable on VOD
Spoiler Alert

Zachary Levi may well be typecast, because the character he plays in Harold and the Purple Crayon is no different from Billy in Shazam. There’s a youthful exuberance that this actor loves to amp up, but I’d like to see him expand his range.

When I realised Alfred Molina is also involved in this film, I had to give this film a chance, and found myself enjoying this movie more because of his voice than Levi. He’s like that grandfather I want to spend my time with, but when his presence suddenly disappears, I’m like Harold and have to wonder why. After a few hours alone, he’s comes up with the idea to draw a portal to the real world with his magical crayon, where (like in Disney’s Enchanted) what he discovers is pure culture shock!

Everyone calls him a wacko, and even amusingly a Smurf. The only two people who are sympathetic are Mel (Benjamin Bottani) and Terry (Zooey Deschanel) to this child-like individual who needs to find “The Old Man,” the name he gave to the narrator.

Continue reading “Missed Opportunities with Harold and the Purple Crayon. Can Replacing That With A 3D Pen Do The Job?”

When Shazam! Fury of the Gods Has Focus, What’s His Inspiration?

When we’re dealing with the classical antiquity as core concept for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the entire Greek pantheon better show up!

Shazam! Fury of the Gods Movie PosterAll the DC movies from this year exist in a strange place. Since they’re not part of the new universe, they aren’t necessarily considered ongoing canon. That’s because of Warner Bros/Discovery wanting to revamp everything. After Black Adam (my movie review and commentary can be read here) did not invest enough into the legends and lore, I had trepidation regarding Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

I love the idea of incorporating mythology from ancient cultures into any superhero movie treatment. When done right, some heroes are just modern day updates to classical figures. For example, Horus is the spiritual predecessor of Hawkman. For the titular hero in this franchise, he embodies the best traits from six Greek divinities–Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury.

But when a sisterhood from Greek myth decides it’s time to torment Billy Batson (Asher Angel and Zachary Levi), he’s in trouble. They are targeting his surrogate family to reacquire the power bequeathed to them by Shazam (and The Wizard). The death of the gods and to resurrect them is a big theme.

Continue reading “When Shazam! Fury of the Gods Has Focus, What’s His Inspiration?”

All The Legends & Lore That Inspired Shazam

Shazam

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Amongst Baby Boomers, The Adventures of Captain Marvel defined the pulp-action superhero who would later be known as Shazam. For Gen X’ers, The Shazam/Isis Hour was a maligned television show of the mid-70s and it has its cult appeal. Jump to 1981, The Greatest American Hero showed how Stephen J. Cannell developed a fun, purposeful superhero sporting a different kind of symbol who wants to do what’s right in a cop buddy sitcom formula. The problems the character faced as the series progressed include learning how to use his powers, talking to the aliens in why he was selected and trying to keep those he loved safe.

To bring all those previous iterations of a superhero sitcom movie, Shazam, took several decades of storytelling in the television world to experiment with and the payoff is terrific. Ignoring the troubled property when it was first introduced in the ’40s to its reinvention by DC Comics, this 2019 movie borrows on many comedic tropes from the small screen as Billy Batson (Asher Angel) tries to figure out what being a superhero means. He has no book to guide him. He only has a comic book superhero obsessed foster brother Freddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) to offer tips and his own moral compass to keep him pure. The only misfire is in how nothing new is added to make it stand out.

Continue reading “All The Legends & Lore That Inspired Shazam”