Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Another Marvel vs DC match up!

Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and his family get sucked into the Quantum Realm and end up in a civil war between the resident Quantumites and their over lord ruler. Since the setting is super alien they really just went wild with the story and ideas here, some of which are great and some... less so... like the main villains power level fluctuating between disintegrate and knock back. Awesome CGI though, and an entertaining enough story for the most part but it still falls under non-mandatory viewing with no real major change pushed forward. If you like Ant-Man and / or Marvel films then this one is for you, but even if you skip it you'll probably be fine story arc wise for the rest of this set of Marvel movies.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Freed from their not so eternal prison a few goddesses hunt down Shazam (Zachary Levi) to retake their powers. It's a super simple plot and while the actiony back end of it is pretty decent the first half is simply bad and corny. The characters on screen are as bored as the audience and the poor over acting from the primary "child" actor ruins most of the film. Somehow, Shazam acts more like a teenager than his "normal" self too probably is a lack of direction. Some funny moments but not enough to save this. If you're looking for a no brainer action movie with superheroes in it you could watch this, but I'd recommend Quantumania instead.

Black Adam and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

The king is dead!

Black Adam

In a fictional Middle Eastern place oppressed by Intergang (mercenary goons who apparently never flee), a dangerous artifact and a powerful being (the titular Black Adam, played by Dwayne Johnson) with the powers of Shazam are discovered and released into the world. While Adam is viewed as a savior by the locals, internationals forces feel he is a threat and send other heroes to apprehend him. Violence ensues because he's one tough cookie.

While the plot is mostly predictable here, the action scenes are a great spectacle and there are lots of them (though almost all are just of the CGI variety). I also do find it refreshing for this superhero protagonist to be super violent to the extent that he goes out of his way to kill people. Alas the main child actor is a bit weak in the acting department and suspect his "cool" skateboarding skills were meant to make up for it. Nope. At one point he tries to sneak quietly ON A SKATEBOARD. Expect silly things like that. Also the female hero was unnecessary and could have been cut from the film. Still an enjoyable flick if you turn your brain off.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

In an attempt to continue to hold monopoly on their space rock, the recently kingless Wakandians (futuristic spear wielding Africans) find themselves in conflict with the ocean city state of Talokan (futuristic spear wielding aquatic Mexicans) who happen to have space rock of their own. This results in ridiculous unnecessary pursuits, poor decisions, some flat comedy, stupid CGI battles (seriously, Black Adam's were better but at least here the are non CGI fights which are great) and a lot of bloodless violence. Did they really try make this movie for kids while also including numerous languages that you'd need to subtitle for?

The worst part is I didn't care about the characters at all. The antagonist is a moron, protagonist Princess Shuri (Letitia Wright) is a whiny know it all who doesn't obey orders and so obviously she gets along with student genious Riri (Dominique Thorne) who is introduced here to setup Ironheart (As an aside: Why? Is she so weak a character she needs a movie intro? Answer: Yep). But my favorite thing to laugh at here? The aquatic Mexicans were destroying people and buildings with water balloons! 

Terrible movie. Probably better if it had focused on the bad guy as the main character, ditch the Black Panther/Wakanda title, and explained better why he didn't try harder to make friends with the surface world or just Wakanda itself. As it is the entire plot could have been solved with simple diplomacy. Not recommended.

Shazam!

It's an acronym.

Due to a bumbling wizard, the seven deadly sins manage to manifest in the world once more. Fortunately the wizard lucks out when he decides to give powers to foster child Billy Batson (Asher Angel) to counter them as the titular Shazam (Zachary Levi). Of course, not only does he have to fight the bad guy - he also has to learn about his powers and find the true place he belongs.

Which somehow involves poses in muscle suits?

While the plot really is a simple one that has no massive surprises, it is quite entertaining and very funny mostly thanks to Zachary Levi's acting. Action sequences are helped by nice special effects and really only the muscle suit ends up looking a bit off in a few shots. Decent movie, and one worth a watch - I give it 3 centipedes out of 5. Probably won't watch it again though.