By Chris Kavan - 04/04/19 at 07:42 AM CT
FYI, Captain Marvel just passed $1 billion, just in time to welcome a new (DC) hero to the big screen. Shazam!, which has been getting great reviews on its own, looks to give DC their next big boost - but it better be quick, because it doesn't have long until Avengers: Endgame is going to dominate everything. Along with dueling superheroes, we also have dueling horror as Jordan Peele's Us squares off against newcomer Pet Sematary, another Stephen King adaptation that looks to have a big impact. The odd man out is Best of Enemies, a searing drama about a civil rights activist and Ku Klux Klan leader that is sure to make critics smile, but probably won't have much impact on the box office.
SHAZAM! While DC had to endure some rough waters, especially in comparison to the seemingly unstoppable Juggernaut known as the MCU, things have been turning around ever since Wonder Woman. After the Amazonian warrior started things off, Aquaman kicked things into high gear and now David F. Sandberg, with an assist from star Zachary Levi, looks to keep things going strong. Shazam! is about a regular kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who meets a mysterious wizard shaman (Djimon Hounsou) who gives him the ability to transform into an adult hero (Levi) by uttering the titular phrase. His best friend Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) is ecstatic about his new powers while danger lurks in the shadows as a former Shazam! failure, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) plots a way to get those powers back. The film has been described as a mix of Big with a superhero twist, providing a lot of laughs and heart with Levi being singled out for an amazing performance. The film also stars Michelle Borth, Meagan Good, Grace Fulton, Adam Brody and Marta Milans. This just looks like a whole lot of fun - not quite as over-the-top crazy fun as Aquaman, but more grounded in reality (as much as a kid turning into a superhero can be) and while it's not going to post Captain Marvel numbers, it should still be a huge hit for the seemingly rebooted DCEU and I will be interested to see how they integrate this character into the new over-arching story.
I'm no expert on Stephen King adaptations, but in my personal experience, I though the 1989 version of Pet Sematary was certainly one of the better ones. I was especially terrified by the presentation of Zelda and the visual of a child wielding a scalpel will never leave my mind. So I'm a bit skeptical that Kevin Kölsch, Dennis Widmyer can have the same effect on me, but from what I've seen, they are giving it their all. Once again the film focuses on the Creed family - Louis (Jason Clarke), Rachel (Amy Seimetz), daughter Ellie (Jeté Laurence) and youngest son Gage (twins Hugo Lavoie and Lucas Lavoie) as they relocate to a new country residence that features a kindly, old neighbor Jud (John Lithgow) a road with high truck traffic and a local Pet Sematary where creepy masked kids bury their dead pets. But that's not all, beyond the Pet Sematary is an ancient burial ground where things that are buried come back, but as the tag-line is so keen to point out: Sometimes Dead Is Better. The twists thrown in this version is that Gage is not the child to die and come back, but the older daughter Ellie. The directors have said this allows for more range in that an older lead can do much more than a young child, even with special effects trying to balance things out. I'm okay with that, they still keep the dead cat, the dead patient Victor Pascow (Obssa Ahmed) and, of course, Zelda (Alyssa Brooke Levine). About the most worrying things I've heard (without spoiling myself) is that the third act and end take a crazy twist that will either leave you stunned or upset - or maybe both. In any case, I'm willing to give this a look as a fan of horror and King. I'm not sure where it will wind up, but I'm hoping for decent numbers.
If superheroes and horror aren't your jam, don't worry, there is something much more dramatic and deep to satiate your hunger. The Best of Enemies follows the story of civil rights activist Ann Atwater (Taraji P. Henson) who finds herself in Durham, North Carolina in 1971, facing off against the exalted cyclops of the Ku Klux Klan, C.P. Ellis (Sam Rockwell) over the implementation of school integration. Period dramas always score big with adults and throw in some race issues and you have the perfect storm of adult-targeting drama. As long as the critics don't absolutely trash this, I don't see why discerning audiences would avoid it. It's not going to open anywhere near the range of Shazam! or even Pet Sematary, but it will probably do good enough to justify the cost. The film also stars Babou Ceesay, Nick Searcy, Wes Bentley, Anne Heche and Bruce McGill among others. I expect a finish in the top 10 at least, but probably won't challenge the top five, but it could sneak in depending on how certain films affect other films over the weekend.
It should be another pretty impressive weekend with Shazam! and Pet Sematary leading the charge and we'll see what that means for Captain Marvel and Us come Sunday.
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