Shazam has entered into the DC Cinematic Universe, with good success and minimal criticism from comic fans! To date, the film has generated $325.5 million worldwide and with Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90%, Shazam gains popularity like his cinematic counterparts the Justice League. This 2019 feature by DC Comics is a comedy action adventure, for it emphasizes Captain Marvel’s adolescent behavior to the audience. Billy Batson is a kid with superpowers, that must learn the importance of responsibility and family.

When Shazam was first announced with it’s release, fans instantly thought Shazam would battle Black Adam. Instead, Shazam’s first rival was with Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, a scientist who studied magic in hopes to achieve what science cannot. In the comics, Thaddeus is responsible for freeing Black Adam from imprisonment, believing he could learn the magical arts from the ancient being. In this film, Thaddeus gained powers from the collective force of the Seven Deadly Sins, making him as powerful as Shazam. DWayne “The Rock” Johnson continuously petitioned that he would love to play the role of Black Adam, instead becoming the executive producer of this film! Even though Black Adam was absent, Dwayne’s involvement leaves the door wide open for a sequel and his awaited appearance as Shazam’s primary nemesis.

Another notable change didn’t resonate with comic fans was casting Djimon Hounson as the Wizard Shazam. This is because Djimon played as the King of the Fishermen in Aquaman, and recently reprising his role as Korath in 2019 Captain Marvel. Was Djimon used to connect the two characters together on screen because of sharing the same name Captain Marvel? And how is it Djimon is playing two characters in the same universe?? The Wizard’s ethnicity changed, much like Samuel Jackson playing Nick Fury or Idris Elba playing Heimdall. Do you think changing the ethnicity of comic characters is necessary for story and character development on screen?

One surprise to the film was the introduction of the Shazam Family. Much like the Family of the comics, Billy passed on the power of Shazam to his adopted brothers and sisters. The Family assisted Billy in defeating, then imprisoning the Seven Deadly Sins. In turn, Billy gained not only an adopted family in human form, but also a super team of his own. Since this is the case, should Shazam even join the Justice League as a recruit? Do you think the Shazam Family is strong enough to overpower the League?

The DC Universe has yet to show a successful cinematic universe with the consistency like The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shazam could have been a great extension of the Justice League, as mentioned by Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince at the end of the 2018 film, where Bruce would use the old Wayne Manor as a place to expand the Justice League. Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck both dropped from their character roles, once again leaving fans wondering, who will be the next Batman and Superman? Not only that, will the next chosen actors supersede the earlier portrayals?

So what were your thoughts on the movie? Shazam is a great film that WILL be overshadowed when Avengers: Endgame is released as well as Star Wars: The Rise of SkyWalker later this year. Just between Captain Marvel 2019 and Shazam 2019, Marvel and DC, who do you think had a better movie between the two characters?? Leave your thoughts below!

Akira Toriyama is back with his third anime film Dragonball Super: Broly! Dragonball Super: Broly is the highest ranking film created around the Z Fighters and this film is a retold story of Broly and Bardock. This story takes place after the Tournament of Power, Goku and Vegeta are at new levels of power and are unaware there is another fighter in their own universe that is strong enough to challenge their refined saiyan god powers……

Broly of the non canon story,  grew up hating Goku because of the internal memory of Goku constantly crying in the saiyan nursery. Broly’s power was so great, it had an adverse effect on his personality and mental stability growing up. Paragus grew fearful of his son to the extent of controlling the saiyan through artificial means. This control later turned on Paragus in the form of hatred, thus losing his life to his son. In the canon story, Broly  grew up with a dislike for Vegeta, which was trained in him by Paragus. Just like the non canon version of Broly, King Vegeta didn’t accept Broly’s extraordinary power because the child was labeled as a lower class saiyan and Broly’s power challenged all those of royal blood. Broly and his father was exiled from the planet instead of going through a failed execution attempt. Paragus vowed to take revenge on the King for his oversight, with the extinction of the saiyan race, Vegeta was the next best option for revenge since Vegeta is the survivor of the Saiyan throne. The story of Bardock was retold as well, thus making Goku’s origin to Earth even more like Superman. In Bardock’s story, fans were also introduced to Goku’s mother Gine, a character never expressed in history until this movie.

Dragonball Super: Broly satisfied fans this time around with visuals of Vegeta as the super saiyan god. This form was introduced in the film Dragonball Z Battle of the Gods, which was a form attained by absorbing the power of 5 pure hearted saiyans. This is important among DBZ fans because this was the second time Vegeta was observed catching up to Goku in power but not displaying his work to attain each level as Goku did. Then the stage moved to Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, otherwise known as Super Saiyan Blue. Vegeta amazed fans becoming super saiyan blue in the Resurrection of Frieza, completely skipping over the super saiyan god level. Then Vegeta learned to evolve the super saiyan blue form into a new power level. Dragonball Super Broly has also made Gogeta an official character in the canon series. Not only that, Gogeta is able to become super saiyan god just like his fusion counterpart Vegito. Fusion is an extremely powerful card to play on the battle field and it was surprising to fans that Broly could withstand the power of the fusion before Gogeta went Blue. If this is the case, would Broly be in fact stronger than all the saiyans in the Tournament of Power?

Comic sites have theories on how the Super Saiyan Four could become canon. Sites such as Comicbookmovie suggest that the road map to Super Saiyan Four is through Broly.  Whis, being a witness to the entire battle, could give Goku and Vegeta new training methods to fully bring out their saiyan potential as Broly did. So far, Whis trained the Vegeta and Goku to master their ki to god levels but never taught the saiyans how to unlock the power aspects their race could wield. Or, is it possible Whis already knows the full potential of the saiyan race and could show the saiyans how to use the legendary stage as well…

Even with Broly eliminated in the non canon Dragonball Z story, that was something anime fans could not accept for the character. Dragonball Super gave fans the idea of Broly with the introduction of Kale. Her outstanding power amazed the Gods in the tournament and she was ranked among the top 5 strongest fighters. During the seasons of Super, fans can see that Goku, Vegeta, Caulifla and Cabba has similarities that make them parallel with each other.  Now that Broly is made canon, will he apart of surviving saiyans, even becoming a mentor with his parallel counterpart Kale? What was your overall feel for this movie? Do you think this Broly is the best we have seen or do you think his previous version was better left untouched?

ComicMultiverse fan favorite poster of Dragonball Super: Broly goes to the DeviantArt artist: Limandao! Excellent work!

The Justice League film spawned the solo movie for AquaMan with great success! This feature generated $1.150 billion dollars worldwide to date! Zack Snyder introduced the character to the big screen, but it was James Wan brought out the full details of the character. Jason Momoa turned out to be a perfect choice to portray the AquaMan character because Jason and Arthur both originated from people of the water and of the land. The costume designs were perfect for each character because they closely resemble those seen in the comic publications. Some comic fans find the underwater visuals on par with James Cameron’s Avatar. Even though this film used a lot of CGI, it, along with 2017 Wonder Woman, Man of Steel, and the Batman from Christopher Nolan, are the top-ranking origin films for DC Comics.

When it comes down to character development on-screen, what fans loved about this film was how producers took time to explain and show visuals of how AquaMan’s powers work, especially during the training with Vulko. Since Aquaman is half human, he is physically stronger than all Atlantians and he has the unique ability to communicate with the animals of the sea. This telepathic ability help prove Arthur’s worthiness to the Trident.  Once wielded, Arthur’s telekinetic abilities expanded, connecting him to the Life Force of the Seven Seas. Even the vast amount Trench creatures came under control of AquaMan, a task believed to be impossible because of their savagery. When making a worldwide connection to sea animals, this visually looks similar to Professor Xavier using Cerebro in the X-Men films. In magic, the Trident is similar to Mjolnir by way of controlling lightning and weather. So what Trident was Arthur wielding in Justice League if he had his mother’s Trident in his possession before the Trident of Poseidon?AquaMan 2018 would be Mera‘s second appearance on film, her first being cameo in The Justice League. In this film, Mera stuck closely to Arthur, helping him along the way to realize his importance as King of Atlantis, then later becoming his Queen to be. Mera is hydrokinetic like the Water Tribe of Avatar the Airbender. On film, we’ve seen Mera extract water from Arthur’s body, even turn wine into sharp, deadly projectiles. One question that was raised among fans is what was the reason for Mera to create an air bubble to speak to Arthur in Justice League, but never used that technique in this film? Was that a correction the producers wanted to make in concerns to Atlantean communication underwater? Or is this a different in style between Zack Synder and James Wan?

The main antagonist of this film was no other than Orm, Arthur’s half-brother. This family rival is similar to Thor and Loki or T’Challa and N’Jadaka. What’s common with these rivals is that the tensions begin for the rights of the throne. The unworthy King would use deception to become ruler but later become defeated by the rightful heir. Justice League: Throne of Atlantis was similar to this film, with the theme that a new King is needed in the underwater kingdom and to stop an impending war on the surface world. There were key differences in the films, but both were considered great origins stories of the AquaMan. Orm is imprisoned for his crimes but like most popular villains, it’s only a matter of time until he returns…

This film was big enough to feature another of AquaMan’s primary villains, The Black Manta. This Black Manta is quite different from the one in the comics. This film showed Manta as a pirate who has a strong relationship with his father. Arthur allowed Manta’s father die while they were on their hijacking mission, and this started the war between these two characters. In comic publications, during his youth, Black Manta was a victim of human trafficking. While at sea, Manta saw AquaMan and signaled for help to escape his kidnappers, but the King didn’t see this signal. Just as depicted in the comics, Black Manta is Orm’s human soldier who helped set up the stage for Atlantis and the surface to engage in war. Orm shared weapon technology with Manta so he could destroy Arthur but was defeated in the process. End credit scenes predict Manta’s return, but this time he may become a bigger threat than he was before….

What are your thoughts on this film? If we are to receive sequels to this film, how will they be incorporated in any future Justice League films? Rumors suggest Ben Affleck will not have his solo movie for Batman, and Henry Cavill is no longer playing Superman. DC Comics is down to two characters on-screen: Wonder Woman and AquaMan. Let’s hope the Shazam movie is just as outstanding as AquaMan 2018 to keep DC cinematic universe alive for the comic fans. Also make sure to Check out these amazing statues provided by SideShow Collectibles!!

Movie Review!!

Independence Day: Resurgence is the anticipated sequel to Independence Day. Resurgence brought in 143.7 million dollars opening weekend, much lower than the first film which was a blockbuster hit in 1996. The first film was released on July 2 coinciding with it’s film’s events, unlike Resurgence which was prematurely released from that date. In Resurgence, it took 20 years for the aliens to return to Earth which ran parallel in taking 20 years to make a sequel to the first film. Resurgence received much negative reviews than positive. What was your take on the film?

Twenty years ago Earth was invaded by hostile aliens, which in fact had Earth on it’s sights since 1947. On July 2, 1996, the invading alien forces came to Earth to conquer it, but on July 4th, the aliens were defeated by small collective of survivors before being brought down worldwide. Defeated, the hostiles sent a distress call back to their home world before being captured as prisoners or destroyed. During the 20 year span, Earth was rebuilt and improved by the salvaged alien technology from the two day war in 1996. Earth has accomplish what they always wanted: a space defense against future threats and the means to expand their space exploration within the solar system.

According to the first film, when the alien pilot invaded President Whitmore’s mind, it was revealed that the aliens move to different planets like locust, consuming the planet’s resources which results in the destruction of the planet. In Resurgence, it was explained when the aliens consume planets, they would drill down to a planet’s core to harvest it. Once harvested, the core is used to power all of the alien ships and weapons. The harvested energy is also used to sustain a planetary ecosystem on board of the mega mothership. This way of planetary consumption is very similar to how Galactus replenishes his cosmic power in the Marvel Universe.

Much of the cast returned to the film for the exception of Will Smith, who had the role of US Fighter pilot Captain Steven Hiller. Because of his commitment with Suicide Squad, his character Captain Hiller was killed off in Resurgence, with only portrait and photos cameos left of him. Within the 20 years between the two Independence Day films, Will has starred in many blockbuster sci-fi films. Could his experience in the sci-fi film category been a great influence on Resurgence, thus making it a huge blockbuster like the first film?

The return of Dr. Brackish Okun portrayed by famous Brent Spiner was the most confusing spin of the movie. In the first Independence Day, his character was actually killed after he was used as a voice puppet for the captured alien, brought to Area 51 by Captain Hiller. Resurgence changed Okun apparent death to a 20 year old coma which was uplifted when the alien reinforcements arrived. Not only was Okun able to connect with the aliens, the doctor made a friendly alliance with another extraterrestrial that arrived to Earth to help against the invasion. This alien technology also offered to level up the Earth’s advanced technology even further. The alien tech also set plans to level up Earth’s advanced space travel to interstellar traveling, all in hopes to invade the alien’s home world and end the alien’s reign of the universe. Do you think Independence Day was perfect the first time around without this sequel or should the story continue?

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