The previous year was definitely not a good year for the comic book movie genre. The case of the superhero fatigue that Marvel Studios and DC Studios have been battling ever since the onset of the pandemic is clearly still plaguing the community.
In the wake of the announcement of Razzie nominations, only two superhero films that bombed at the box office made it to the list: Shazam! Fury of the Gods and Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania. Now, where’s The Marvels and The Flash?
Shazam! Fury of the Gods And Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania Join Razzie Awards
Shazam! Fury of the Gods marked the worst opening for a DCEU movie, debuting only to $30 million at the box office, and its own star Zachary Levi blamed the creative team’s poor marketing. He addressed in a Twitter post:
“I think the biggest issue we’re having is marketing. This is a perfect family movie, and yet a lot of families aren’t aware of that. Which is just a shame.”
Even director David F. Sandberg was shocked at the underwhelming performance of the Shazam sequel. He admitted he was not expecting the same result as the first movie, but he believed the second installment was still a good one. Following the disappointing reception and six years working with Shazam, he finally quits the superhero genre for the time being.
As for Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania, it now ranks as one of the worst Marvel Cinematic Universe installments to date and worthy of the Razzie nomination. The audience heavily review-bombed the film which detracted future moviegoers. One of its major criticisms includes not raising the stakes on the significance of MCU Phase 5, and its only purpose was to introduce Jonathan Majors’ Kang the Conqueror.
Director Peyton Reed broke his silence and responded to the bad reviews of Ant-Man 3. He admitted feeling pressured to make the film, but he remarked that it was not from the outside force. The filmmaker told Newsweek:
“With Quantumania, the fact that we got to make a third Ant-Man movie, I really wanted to do something that emotionally sort of progressed these characters in an organic way but also opened up that world and made good on sort of introducing the quantum realm into the MCU.”
Shazam! Fury of the Gods was nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress, and Worst Screenplay at the Razzie Awards. Ant-Man & The Wasp: Quantumania received three nominations, including Worst Supporting Actors, Worst Director, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel.
The Marvels And The Flash Should Have Been Nominated For Razzie Awards
It is still incredibly insane that the Razzie Awards forgot to include Brie Larson’s The Marvels and Ezra Miller’s The Flash into its roster of worst films. The event is meant to recognize the failures of the movies from the previous year, and it absolutely failed to do so.
MCU’s The Marvels grossed over $206 million worldwide against a budget of $274 million, but more importantly, the 2019 movie earned a whopping $1.1 billion, so how was this not nominated for Razzie’s Worst Sequel category?
Miller’s The Flash was arguably the most controversial superhero film of recent times. The lead actor’s legal concerns tarnished the movie’s reputation, leaving the fans unenthusiastic to even give it a try. There was also an issue of unfinished visual effects. Surely, Andy Muschietti’s film should have landed a category or two at the Razzie Awards.
Hopefully, this year’s lineup of comic book movies will perform better than these four titles, because the only way to battle superhero fatigue is to deliver a really good, well-executed film.
