Shazam vs Captain Marvel: best Cap Marvel movie this year

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Thread title is self explanatory, vote away people

I enjoyed both but liked Shazam slightly more

 

[Mandon Knight]

Oh boy...….

 

[I Am The Knight]

Me personally, I'm waiting for the Captain Marvel vs. TDK / Shazam vs. TDK threads.

 

[Batmannerism]

I'll play.

Captain Marvel was a reasonably good film with good performances by Bem Mendelson, Jude Law, SLJ and Annette Benning. The problem is that the main character failed to inject much life or joy into the film - and felt very stiff, a forced rather than forceful performance. MCU films are not strong on subtlety but often give their audiences a bit of credit. The bit where, after having learned that everything she knows is a lie, CM shouts at the audience " Everything I know is a lie " almost made me burst out laughing.

I'm sure there are aplenty of arguments to be said about the film's social commentary about sexism and not judging an alien by the greenness of his skin or the size of his ears - but it doesn't address these things in an interesting or clever way. In Avatar James Cameron recycles the combined plots of Dances with Wolves and Ferngully and does it with even less subtlety, but manages to make the movie entertaining enough that we don't feel like we've been lectured - CM doesn't quite manage to pull this off. I give CM 7/10 for effort but it's pretty forgettable stuff.

Shazam is a different story, literally. It doesn't take itself seriously and rides on the comic timing and charm of the actors.

Probably the worst thing about it is the one note bad guy, but somehow Mark Strong manages to make Sivana menacing enough to do the trick - let's be honest bad guys are his jam, Mark Strong is just good at them.

Otherwise, the run time is a little long.

I can't say enough good things about the chemistry between Shazam and Freddy, which, along with the charm of Darla, carries the film. I liked the Philadelphia references too.

Shazam lacks subtlety much in the same way CM does - Billy has to visit his mom who provides painful exposition of how she abandoned him so he can realise that he's already found his real family.....but the movie is so fun we don't get bent out of shape about it.

All in all a much better execution and characterisation of the main character. Whereas CM drags out the character's origin throughout the film Shazam gets it out of the way in the first Act and concentrates on then letting the character have fun.

I give 9/10 to Shazam, the real Captain Marvel of 2019 films so far.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I think the main thing missing in Shazam was a standout action sequence,that would have put it in the realms of the best CBMs ever for me.

 

[Flint Marko]

I'll play as well.

Shazam is comfortably better than Captain Marvel. I really enjoyed both movies but Zachary Levi is charm incarnate and that moment in the third act (which I won't spoil but if you've seen the movie you know exactly what I'm talking about) is pretty hard to beat.

I also enjoyed Aquaman more than Ant-man and the Wasp.... I might have to turn in my Marvel shill card

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Despite the fact I didn’t need vote for it, I really enjoyed Captain Marvel and am surprised more people haven’t voted for it here

 

[Awest66]

Shazam, No contest.

 

[psylockolussus]

Let me just say that I would watch Captain Marvel the movie more than Shazam.

 

[Brother Jack]

Shazam and it's not even in the same ballpark. Shazam is probably the most enjoyable movie of the entire DCEU.

 

[Boy Scout]

I'll play as well.

Shazam is comfortably better than Captain Marvel. I really enjoyed both movies but Zachary Levi is charm incarnate and that moment in the third act (which I won't spoil but if you've seen the movie you know exactly what I'm talking about) is pretty hard to beat.

I also enjoyed Aquaman more than Ant-man and the Wasp.... I might have to turn in my Marvel shill card

I’m blanking.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I’m blanking.

I will simply say 'family.'

 

[jolldan]

I've got to go with the original Captain on this one.

In terms of just pure enjoyment Shazam was just all round a better movie imo, loved the tone the family aspect of the movie and how Levi felt like a kid in a man's body. Also one thing that I loved is Shazam is the quintessential power fantasy which everyone can relate to, being able to say a word and basically become Superman I feel is every kids (and adults) lol dream at some point.

Where as I felt Carol's story isn't quite as easy to connect with, same as her character who came off as cold to me at times. The action set pieces were definitely incredible though and Fury was for sure a lot of fun.

 

[Lantern Venom]

Captain Marvel felt much more important than Shazam. It feels unfair to compare a centerpiece of the next phase of the MCU juggernaut to the DCEU's intentional timeout, but that's what we're doing in this thread.

 

[Web-Head]

Captain Marvel for me

I just thought Shazam was "Alright" and nothing special. If I never see it again, I wouldn't care. The humor felt cringey, none of the action sequences stood out, Billy was far too unlikable and Shazam felt like a parody character at times.

 

[Erzengel]

I enjoyed Captain Marvel more probably because I'm invested in the MCU.

I almost took Shazam on it's own, which I'll admit may not be fair, but I thought it was really good. I just thought Captain Marvel was more enjoyable.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Captain Marvel felt much more important than Shazam. It feels unfair to compare a centerpiece of the next phase of the MCU juggernaut to the DCEU's intentional timeout, but that's what were doing in this thread.

Can we not just judge them as individual movies though?

 

[Pennywise]

Shazam, though I also really enjoyed Captain Marvel!

 

[Batmannerism]

Captain Marvel felt much more important than Shazam. It feels unfair to compare a centerpiece of the next phase of the MCU juggernaut to the DCEU's intentional timeout, but that's what were doing in this thread.

Dude, while I disagree with you I love how you wrote that - very insightful and nice use of "juggernaut" a word that doesn't get used often enough IMO.
Having said that, despite its importance I don't think CM came remotely close, as far as origin films go, to Shazam for pure entertainment value - it was more of a better version of Green Lantern, with a slightly better casting for the lead IMO.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

I think I have to give both films a rewatch before deciding. I had tempered expectations for CM and I enjoyed myself watching it, and I had high expectations on Shazam and left a bit disappointed. It's hard to say how much of the difference that was due to expectations.

 

[Rorschach2012]

These were two of my least favorite superhero movies in a long time. I am happy for people that enjoyed them. They've both been very successful and their success will be beneficial to this genre I love so much. But I have ZERO interest in rewatching either of these movies. Very disappointing. They were both so boring and humorless for me, and I usually find myself cracking up during MCU films at least. They both felt very pointless too, very formulaic. I was unimpressed by both leads as well. I'm really not trying to be negative, as I'm happy for the success these films have had. I just thought they were both pretty lame...

 

[kguillou]

Shazam by a wide margin for me. Captain Marvel barely made me feel anything BUT I really like Brie Larson in the role. Her movie just felt so “we’re just buying time until Endgame”-y. Plus the reveal about Fury’s eye infuriated me.

Shazam reminded me of a Steven Spielberg 80’s family movie. Its a kids movie but not one that talks down to you and is one adults can enjoy and appreciate the humor. But despite the humor there’s a real genuine beating heart to it that isnt undercut with comedy. Theres a scene right before the final climax where Billy learns something very important that was so well done, it was heartbreaking and heartwarming at he same time and it was genuine drama. I loved that. And of course that moment in the third act just put a big smile on my face and I never cared about Shazam before. I dunno, overall Shazam’s a more satisfying movie than CM to me.

 

[jolldan]

After giving both films a second viewing it has only reestablished my feeling that Shazam is the better movie overall.

• For Shazam I found second time around the jokes still landed (as well as some I missed the first time) and Levi's likeability as Shazam shines through
• For Captain Marvel second time around I was left feeling really bored in the middle, the pacing really makes the film feel longer than it is imo. The final battle for me is still my personal highlight.

 

[Tony Stark]

I enjoyed Captain Marvel slightly more because to me it was a throwback to all the great buddy cop movies I grew up on, Lethal Weapon, Tango and Cash, 48hrs, etc. But I enjoyed the bad place out of Shazam which IMO is the best DCEU film. This was the first DCEU film I saw that wasn't afraid to be a comic book movie. Aquaman came close but with an underwhelming corny villain like Ocean Master, when Black Manta was so much better even with limited screen time, Shazam just really seemed to shine. But most of all there were just way more moments that made me care about the characters, and I will say that the character of Billy Batson is more compelling than how Carol Danvers came off, although I think part of that was due to some bad direction not anything Brie Larson did or didn't do.

So there's my hedged bet, the better "Captain Marvel" character was in Shazam, but the better movie was the only one actually called Captain Marvel.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Anyone feel any different now that some time has passed on both?