This forgotten DC film does the family much better than the “ fantastic oven: firsts-ssps ” of MCU

Fantastic Four: First stepsIronically, made a big step by correcting the MCU, by rewarding fans and criticisms with a solid entry after the dull Captain America: Brave New World. There was everything we expected from the MCU: large action parts, humor, Easter eggs and a Dynamite configuration for Avengers: Doomsday. He even corrects what was generally the weak point of the MCU, the bad guys, with a really disturbing turning point of Ralph Ineson like Galactus.

But don’t be mistaken, Fantastic Four: First steps concerns the family. The main characters are a family, the world is a family, they all work together with the family. Of course, it’s touching and inspiring, but it’s almost too perfect, because, as everyone knows, the family can be messy. In a somewhat surprising way, one of the films of DC actually does a much better work to focus on what makes a family, and this film is Shazam!.

“Fantastic Four: First Steps” concerns the family – we get it

Fantastic Four: First steps Do not start with a large part of action, nor the initial stages of the harmful plans of the villain, or even the precursor of an original story. Instead, he starts with Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) Doing subordinate personal grooming before Sue (Vanessa Kirby) Share that they will have a baby. It’s a nice family moment that then extends to their wider family – Johnny (Joseph Quinn) And Ebon Moss-BarachIt is Ben (who may not be linked to blood, but who is really with the family) – a healthy group dinner.

The fact that the family is a major theme is immediately brought home. Indeed, if you do not realize it, then, to paraphrase a Lord Edmund Blackadder, “you would not see the subtlety if it was struggling purple and danced naked on a harpsichord, singing ‘` subtlety is here again! “Formed in the public from the start and throughout the film, there is still a specific scene where the Suee, the Suee, UPROAR on UPROAR on the top on the fact of not doing SUE and playing scabies, and not to play Sue and to play the family card at Abate to UPROAR on UPROAR on UPROAR on UPRODI everyone is buying! Seriously, there is no A Dissent worldwide? The theme of the family is as big as the film itself, an extravagance CGI brilliantly polished in the tradition of the Grand McU.

“Shazam! Explores the theme of the family with more nuances

Regarding the show, Fantastic Four: First steps strokes Shazam! out of the water. The sets are larger, the CGI is much better, and its significantly larger budget offers the film of luxuries, such as its distribution a-list, than the small scale Shazam! does not get closer. What he shares is the theme of the family. Again, where the old one surrounds this theme on your face for the duration of his execution time, Shazam! Has a much more nuanced approach that is built in an organic way as the film progresses.

It starts when we are presented to Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a 14 -year -old who left each reception house in which he was placed, who embarks on a quest to find the mother from which he was separated from 10 years ago – the only real “family” he has ever known. This quest to find his mother does not change when he is brought to a care home under the control of Víctor (Cooper Andrews) and Rosa Vásquez (Marta Milans). They and their five children with foster family – Mary (Grace Fulton), Pedro (Jovan Armand), Eugene (Ian Chen), Darla (Sath of Herman), and Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) – have made a real family together, but Billy is too blind to notice it. They try to invite him, but he is too closed, and it is only when he turns into his superhero alter-ego, Shazam (Zachary Levi), that he welcomes the help of Freddy.

But the strength of this family is slowly revealed to Billy, and above all, when, as Shazam, saves Mary to get hit by a car, to realize that she was not attentive because she is too upset by the idea of ​​moving away from the only family she has ever known. This is then intensified by the most poignant moment of the film – when Billy learns that he will not find his mother and that she left him behind all these years on purpose.

It was then that he realizes for the first time that he has a family, a real family, waiting for him and when he gives them the powers of Shazam during their fight with Sivana (Mark), this is the moment when he realizes that he can rely on them for family support. This is still solidified for the moment Billy joins the family’s tradition to say the grace to the dinner table – give them and kiss them like an one.

The smallest scale of “Shazam!” Aids the theme of the family

What also works in favor of the film is this small scale. The theme of the family is authorized to build naturally, without having to compete with the showAs he does in Fantastic Four: First steps. Because the film allows this theme to grow with Billy, us too, because viewers are brought with it. As Billy is ready to accept his new family, we are ready to do so. Please note, it would not be as credible if there was not such a palpable chemistry between family members, allowing the theme to take place organically gradually throughout the film.

We accept the family theme in Fantastic Four: Next Steps Because we are told to. There is no progressive accumulation, no development of chemistry. He is there from the start, and even the promotional material before the film deceived the theme like his ace in the hole. In the end, the nuanced subtlety of Shazam! is much more powerful to explore the idea of ​​what makes a family. Certainly better than having piled it in the throat.