Shazam! Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Get in on the Joke

Written by Sam Dodson, Host of The Minute and Co-host of Movie Night Autopsy Podcast

The DCEU has been a troubled ship from the start.

Over a decade ago, “Mad Max” director George Miller had a wild idea for a Justice League film that was meant to be the big spark to a film franchise ultimately destined for development hell. After the moderate success of 2013's “Man of Steel”, Warner Bros once again considered the approach, this time putting Zack Snyder behind the wheel because... I don’t know, he was already there I guess?

Miller's plan was a gamble, but we don't know what would've happened had he made that movie. Snyder on the other hand got to make not one, not two, and also not three movies, because he didn't get to finish the third one.

Do I really need to get into it? I'll just leave a link here. Long story short, we know exactly what happened.

Admittedly, I’m in the minority that liked his take on Supes in “Man of Steel”. I liked how he pits the heroes against each other in :Batman v Superman”, even if it was overstuffed. I think I would've even liked his un-Wheedon-ed “Justice League”, all three overly dark hours of it. But average Joe and Jane Moviegoer did not, and the diminishing returns showed it.

 “Suicide Squad” was further evidence of a complete lack of direction other than an apparent need to "fix" what hasn't "worked" by trying to make it lighter and more fun after the fact with reshoots and WAY too many quick cuts.

But “Wonder Woman” was good, right? They even beat Marvel to the punch with that one.

Point: DC.

So the question then becomes "what did ‘Wonder Woman’ do right, and how can we do that with our other properties”? A question they were far away from being able to answer, with “Justice League” already deep in pre-production on ‘BvS' opening weekend.

From there it would be another year before “Aquaman” hit theaters, proving just how much box office potential a new, looser, more single-story focused direction has. And even though I didn't care for it, it marked an improvement in direction and vision from the likes of “Suicide Squad”, demonstrating that maybe the new execs learned something from “Wonder Woman” after all.

Because that is the lesson “Wonder Woman” teaches us: tell a personal story with compelling characters in a fun world.

“Aquaman” got two out of three.

 Now, not even four months later, “Shazam!” has arrived, bringing with it the final nail in the coffin for the Snyder-verse (note: documentary about all of this called “Snyder-Man Into the Snyder-verse”).

The film really is pretty great, but what's better is the boldness in its departure from (almost) everything that came before it. It has darkness, but fills it out with character and motive. It follows origin story beats, but grounds it with genuine childlike wonder. The stakes are high for Billy and his new foster family, but there's no need to call in the League. They've got this. Eventually.

This is a film that knows what came before it but doesn't live by it. The gods at war in previous films exist, but none of these charming, filled out characters know them so we really don't need connections to them shoved in our face. The sidekick happens to be a little obsessed with Superman, but it plays well. There is a running gag involving Batman merchandising that borders on grating but the jokes work often enough to warrant forgiveness.

 The most important takeaway from this film for me is this: the DCEU has firmly established themselves as contenders in the big screen hero war, and not by copying Marvel but by doing the opposite. It's technically still a big connected universe, sure, but it doesn't care because it doesn't have to. It succeeds on its own merits. The heart feels earned, and setups pay off. Comedy is built around character and situation, and the punchlines have relatable impact.

 For the first time since they started their own version of Marvel’s great cinema experiment, DC is flying high. “Aquaman” was an absolute smash at the box office, “Shazam!” is deservedly getting great reviews (hopefully it translates to the box office), “Wonder Woman 1984” is on the horizon, and... oh yeah. There was that little “Joker” trailer that just dropped.

 I don't know how they did it. They took three years to follow up on Man of Steel with a movie that felt like three movies crammed into one (ultimate cut helps, but only a little), forced “Suicide Squad” on us, and after rushing into “Justice League” were forced to put out the Frankenstein's monster they had to cut together in the biggest case of sunken cost fallacy ever recorded. But believe it or not, it looks like those days are behind us. And even though there's a few parts of that old world that I wish could stick around, it's nice to see these guys finally figuring their shit out.

On to “The Batman” in 2021!

#bringbackthebatnipples

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