I went and saw Shazam: Fury of the Gods this weekend, and there were a few movie trailers that played before the film that I wanted to talk about.
If you’re watching this more than a few weeks after it’s being posted, I make no promises that the embedded YouTube trailers are still online. Sorry!
First up: Disney’s Live-Action The Little Mermaid
I’m not into these live-action Disney remakes. They’re fine if you’re into them, but they aren’t my cup of tea. I probably won’t see this one either. However, Halle Bailey sounds remarkably similar to Jodi Benson’s voice from the 1989 animated film, and she nails the bit of “Part of Your World” we hear in the trailer.
Right after that was a trailer for Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken
Okay, watch the first 75 second of this trailer before continuing on. This had to be somebody in the theater I went to having a really good sense of humor, right? Following up the Little Mermaid trailer with a decidedly anti-mermaid trailer? And the mermaid in THIS movie has the same red hair and blue eyes as Ariel did, plus a turqoise outfit like her fish tail in the 1989 Little Mermaid?
Hilarious.
Speaking of hilarious…Barbie.
This 2001: A Space Oddysey parody had me laughing internally. But to top it off, as soon as this trailer ended, a grown-ass man sitting behind me said, “I can’t fuckin’ wait!!!!” A classic theater-going experience.
Finally, The Flash
So let me say right off, fuck Ezra Miller, the star of this film. My apologies to everybody who worked on this movie, but I will not be paying money to see it, because I do not want Miller receiving any residual profits from this movie. I’m very glad to hear that the titular character will be recast in any future Flash appearances.
But this trailer amused me, because despite having a show that’s been on the CW for NINE YEARS, the folks at Warner Bros.-Discovery apparently think that The Flash as a character still can’t sell a movie based on franchise recognizability. Instead, the trailer highlights the cameos of the OTHER DC Comics who will be appearing in the film — Most notably, Michael Keaton returning as Batman for the first time since 1992’s Batman Returns, and a version of Supergirl whose costume resembles the one from the Elsewords Finest comic. Hmmm.
(Or maybe they’re covertly begging people to come see the movie, despite Ezra Miller’s string of criminal activity over the last several years.)
They also showed the trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.
I like the visual style of the movie, but the humor shown in the trailer isn’t really my bag. But whatever, it’s TMNT, I’ll probably go see it anyways.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods was fun, by the way. If you liked the Shazam! movie from 2019, I think you’ll enjoy this one. Still no face-off between Billy Batson and Black Adam, and I hope that the recent announcement of the rebooting of the DC movie universe doesn’t prevent a movie where those two face off from happening. But yeah, I’m glad I saw this new one in theaters. Lots of fun special effects that benefit from being on the big screen.