Shazam and Aquaman - DC looking to win big

Comic-con 2018 gave us two great trailers for Aquaman and Shazam. The current state of the DC universe is not exactly where they would have wanted to be when they planned out their first few movies but these two movies look like they can change things. The truth is, DC rushed to keep up with Marvel instead of taking it slow and steady. However bad the reception for most of the movies was, it looks like they have no intention of starting fresh anytime soon because these trailers have just shown how serious they are about their universe.

Aquaman

When Jason Momoa was announced as Aquaman for Batman V Superman, it turned quite a few heads because Aquaman was always seen as a silly, useless superhero and casting a guy like him felt like DC were going to try something different. Jason was one of the positives of the Justice League and he put an end to all the Aquaman jokes just by the way he looked. Credits to Zack Snyder for that genius casting choice. Now it's up to James Wan to pick up where Zack left and it looks like Wan has tried to maintain the best parts of Aquaman. The Conjuring director has mentioned in previous interviews that he'd try to incorporate some horror elements in this and the tone of the movie does feel quite dark.

I've got to say, I actually feel a bit relieved to see DC coming back to the dark tone because the tone was kind of mixed in Justice League. This movie feels more organised as a whole. The plot seems pretty straightforward, the usual Lion King, Black Panther themes scattered throughout. Receiving criticism for borrowing from such movies are actually unfair because there's no other way to tell the story of Arthur Curry but casual moviegoers may not realize that because most of this material is straight from the comics and this is how it is in the comics too.

Patrick Wilson as Orm looks pretty intimidating, the CGI in Atlantis looks breathtaking and it's nice to see such good graphics in a solo movie, most of which looks far better than Justice League, which was a movie with a massive budget. We just have to hope that there should be no stupid CGI shaving, lesser politics and studio involvement because Warner Brothers have interfered in the past and made things worse. James Wan is a great director and I look forward to seeing his vision of Aquaman without having to wait for any kind of extended edition. The studio just has to let the directors tell their full story.

My biggest concern for Aquaman is the plot. However straightforward it appears, it has a lot of characters to balance which could be difficult most of the times. There's Arthur, Mera, Queen Atlanta, Thomas Curry, Orm, fishermen and Black Manta. The last time I remember seeing too many villains in a comic book movie, things didn't work out very well. One could argue that Balck Manta and Orm are partners in a way, in that they both want to get rid of Arthur and start a war against the surface dwellers but it is a difficult task to balance both these villains. The key to Aquaman's success lies in comic book accuracy and this trailer shows just how hard they've worked to maintain that. I'm sure that it can do wonders in the box office if they stay close to the comics. 2018 has been another great year for comic book movies, nothing is going to top Avengers Infinity War but Aquaman looks like its going to be really entertaining, serious and with a lot of CGI. We just have to hope Warner Brothers let Wan work in peace and that post-production should take place with little or no re-shoots.

SHAZAM

He's one of the less famous members of the Justice League. To see him get a solo movie before Flash, Green Lantern or even Batman makes me angry but I guess its worth a try to do something a bit different because that's exactly what's been missing in the DC universe. They tried to do something too dark with Batman V Superman, they also tried to make an attempt to fix their mistakes by trying to make it too light with Justice League. Shazam looks like the kind of movie the DC universe could really use right now. It looks like its going to be more fun than the previous movies but there isn't any risk of overdoing things because Shazam himself is a fun character. Trying to turn Batman into a fun character could really make things worse but trying the same with Shazam won't be a bad option.

Billy Batson is the kid we all dreamt of being and that's exactly why he's cool. Zachary Levi has a tough job to act like a kid in a superhero's body. There are two main complaints regarding his suit for me, one is the logo which looks like there's a light bulb underneath and another is the fact that his muscles look like balloons stuffed inside his suit. Clearly his suit makes him look much more buff than he actually is. I hope this is addressed as a joke in the movie, it could actually be a really good way of responding to haters of his suit including me.

Zachary looks like he could give Star-Lord a run for his money doing a dance off and that was one of the standouts of the trailer for me. This is such a fun loving movie and every scene here can be made into a meme. This looks like the kind of movie that could change things for DC and the superhero genre as a whole. Mark Strong has been cast as the villain in this, seeing him here just irritates me so much because I still feel like he would have made an awesome Lex Luthor in this same universe.

There are a few Batman and Superman references seen, Billy's friend, Freddy is seen wearing an Aquaman T-shirt and a Superman T-shirt. Freddy, however, seems like a better candidate than Billy to be picked as Shazam because he knows more about the superhero stuff than Billy and is much more enthusiastic about it. He's going to play a huge role in this. I hope that we get a glimpse of Cavill as Superman somewhere in the middle giving advise for Billy or teaching him how to fly, it would really make things so much more epic. Another thing I'm dying to see is Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, at least in a post-credits scene. That could open the possibility for a Superman and Shazam team up to fight Black Adam which we've seen already as a mini animated movie. The possibilities are endless but so far, the trailer looks great and I'm really excited about this.

Its important for both these movies to perform well among critics and fans, I'm sure DC would take precautions and learn from their mistakes because if they don't, I really don't see where they would go with this. I believe that Aquaman can do a great job and that Shazam is a great idea, a boy being given the ability to become a superhero, the possibility of him being careless with his powers then learning to channelise his powers to save the earth sounds really cool. DC is indeed walking on thin ice and I hope they can make both these work.