By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
Now that the multiplexes are inundated with superhero movies, some are bound to be mediocre — and “Shazam! — a cinematic adaptation of the DC comic — is not great or even good.
Orphaned 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is always searching for the single mother from whom he was separated at a Philadelphia Winter Carnival. Billy has a pure’ish heart which, seemingly, qualifies him to inherit the powers of the Wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou), who protects the world from the Seven Deadly Sins.
Utilizing the iconic archetype of a childhood dream — aka saying a magic word and suddenly transforming into a superhero — Billy becomes a costumed, caped, muscle-bound man (Zachary Levi).
Billy’s newfound power arouses the envy of evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who was always disparaged by his dad (John Glover) and subsequently rejected by the Wizard.
Meanwhile, lonely Billy is remanded to new, compassionate foster parents (Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews). At their home, he’s befriended by disabled Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who’s eager to help Billy test his extraordinary abilities, keeping them secret from his other foster siblings (Grace Fulton, Ian Chen, Jovand Armand, and little, scene-stealing Faithe Herman).
Problem is: in Billy’s basic ‘identity’ story, screenwriter Henry Gayden and director David F. Sandberg never bothered to coordinate movements and gestures that young Billy might share with his older counterpart, so the two actors — Asher Angel and Zachary Levi — don’t seem to be playing the same character.
And the storyboarding sometimes gets confusing, particularly the conclusion when all the foster kids are suddenly replaced by adults whom we’ve never seen before and probably won’t in the near future.
FYI: While Marvel Comics has trademarked the name of Captain Marvel, casting Bre Larson as the newest Avenger, DC’s original Captain Marvel, dressed in a costume featuring a yellow lightning bolt, dates back to 1939 Whiz Comics and was modeled after actor Fred MacMurray.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Shazam!” is a silly 6, an irreverent, ebullient escapade.
Without much publicity or fanfare, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre has unbridled a most unusual animal-bonding story called “The Mustang.”
More than 100,000 wild mustangs still roam free in the United States. In order to regulate the horse population, the Bureau of Land Management captures several hundred. A few dozen are sent to prisons where they’re broken and trained by inmates, then sold at public auction, often to police departments for border patrol.
In rural Nevada, an inmate, Roman Coleman (Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts), incarcerated for domestic violence, has just been released from solitary confinement. When interviewed by the prison psychologist (Connie Britton), tight-lipped Coleman reluctantly admits, “I’m not good with people.”
So as part of his state-mandated social rehabilitation, he’s assigned to “outdoor maintenance.” Spotted by veteran trainer Myles (Bruce Dern), a crusty codger, Coleman is accepted into the selective wild horse training program.
That’s where he discovers a crazed, seemingly unbreakable stallion. Coleman immediately identifies with the horse’s ferocity and fury and begins to read equestrian magazines.
Left in the dusty ring with the mustang, Coleman takes more than a few tumbles as his frustration erupts into violence. Then another inmate, Henry (Jason Mitchell), an experienced rider tells him: “If you want to control the horse, first you gotta control yourself.”
Which leads Coleman into an anger-management session in which the inmates confess that acting on impulse is what led to their imprisonment.
Meanwhile, Coleman’s pregnant daughter Martha (Gideon Adlon), from whom he’s been estranged for years, comes to visit, asking him to sign some legal papers. At first, he refuses even to talk with her until, gradually, they begin to communicate.
This is French filmmaker Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s feature film directorial debut. She developed the equine-therapy concept through Sundance Labs, and Robert Redford is credited as executive producer.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Mustang” is a meditative, redemptive 8, an enticing tale.
In “Pet Sematary,” recently relocated from Boston, Rachel (Amy Seimetz) and Louis (Jason Clarke) Creed are young parents who want their children — 8-year-old Ellie (Jete Lawrence) and 2-year-old Gage (twins Hugo & Lucas Lavoie) — to live a quieter suburban life in rural Ludlow, Maine.
While exploring the forest behind their home, which is all-too-close to a busy highway, curious Ellie discovers a macabre place where generations of local kids have buried their pets. And she meets an amiable neighbor, Jud Crandall (John Lithgow), a widower who soon becomes a friend of the family.
Soon, Louis, a thoughtful physician, is experiencing nightmares that somehow evoke the memory of one of his patients who died. It’s Victor Pascow (Obssa Ahmedi), who warns” “The ground is sour.” Louis doesn’t relate that to Rachel, who is still guilt-ridden about a sick, disfigured sister who died young.
When Ellie’s beloved cat Churchill dies, Jud shows Louis a particular hilltop where dead creatures miraculously come back to life. Problem is: after rebirth, they’re not exactly the way they were before. The transformation is connected to Native American mythology and a beast called the windigo.
But Ellie, who didn’t know that Churchill died, realizes something is amiss. Her furry feline friend has changed! Eventually, as Jud duly notes, “Sometimes dead is better.”
Adapting Stephen King’s 1983 best-selling horror novel, screenwriter Jeff Buhler and co-directors Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer (“Starry Eyes”) devote little time to character development, preferring, instead, to press ahead with the various plot points, augmented by far-too-many jump scares and gross-out special effects, along with a senselessly altered ending.
FYI: Much of King’s novel was inspired by real events, including the near-death of his son Owen on a busy road near their Maine home and the death of his daughter’s cat Smucky.
On the Granger Gauge, “Pet Sematary” is a frightening 5, a blood-drenched nightmare.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
