DC

Shazam! - 2/5

This movie is infectiously funny, but humor alone does not a movie make. This is DC’s equivalent to Ant-Man, but it’s not as good. There are missed opportunities at every turn, as a character asks what makes someone a hero while standing among statues of the seven deadly sins and another character who is bullied finally has the strength to face his aggressors, but none of them pay off. The concepts are clumsily handled and fold in on themselves, actually creating logical inconsistencies and character motivation problems. Excellent effects and acting and all that, but there’s nothing else to it. And it shows.

Closest comparison: It’s like Big (1988), but instead of going the Bruce Almighty route it opts for the Venom route.

Setting: Fantasy
Plot: Super hero
Tone: Comedy

Click here for ThinkySushi’s in-depth analysis

Aquaman - 3/5

This is a very uneven movie. Many times the visuals are stunning, gorgeous even. Then the actors dump exposition on the audience for a several minutes at a time. Jason Momoa is fun and endearing; Amber Heard is grating. Every fight scene has something really cool and something either bad or just dumb. There are two separate villain plots that push the runtime over 2.5 hours, and that would be fine if the dialogue was good or the characters were likable. Unfortunately, the stiff performances and lousy writing won out. Except for a few really great moments, this film is not worth your time.

Closest Comparison: It’s Thor: Ragnarok by way of Jupiter Ascending

Justice League - 3/5

This is actually being rather generous. It's really a 2.5 but I had to pick a direction. The fight scenes are ok but uninspired and the writing is really really bad, especially in the dialogue. Everything is oversexualized and the way it's edited shows Joss Whedon tried to minimize that aspect as much as possible when he took over directing in the last month or so of film production. On the plus side it's colorful and the Flash has some funny lines with good delivery. Mostly a dud, but not a dumpster fire like Batman v Superman.

Full disclosure, we saw this movie last week but accidentally missed the first 30 minutes and didn't realize it until we got out and it wasn't as late as it should have been. We re-watched it today and my opinion of it actually didn't change that much. If it were a made for TV movie or a 90's direct to video special I would have said it wasn't too bad. But as it's a $300 million blockbuster it's hard to imagine how nobody on the production team threw up the red flag before it was released.

Wonder Woman - 4/5

The fight scenes are really cool, and they effortlessly walk a narrow line between the sexes. There really aren't many (any?) pandering shots of the title character, but they also don't fall prey to a feminist ideology. They did their heavy lifting early so some lines later on that could have come off as cheesy end up being actually meaningful. It's refreshingly fun and honest, definitely the best DC movie in the past 9 years.