Shazam 2 lead Zachary Levi is clearly not happy with Hollywood these days.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Levi offered his views on modern Hollywood films and criticized them for bestowing “garbage” content to the audience at Chicago Fan Expo. In addition, he showed his support for the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.
“I personally feel like the amount of content that comes out of Hollywood that is garbage – they don’t care enough to actually male it great for you guys. They don’t,” Levi said during the fan event this weekend.
He added, “How many times do you watch a trailer and go, ‘Oh my god, this looks so cool!’ Then you go to the movie and it’s like, ‘This was what I get?’ They know that once you’ve already bought the ticket and you’re in the seat, they’ve got your money. And the only way for us to change any of it is not to go to the garbage. We have to actively not choose the garbage. It’ll help. It’ll help a lot.”
Levi’s comments have surfaced just days after he was widely criticized for his controversial statements regarding the ongoing strikes.
It seems like the Shazam actor has a bone to pick with the industry. Maybe he is just pissed off about ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ bombing at the global office. The sequel collected only $134 million globally in its entire theatrical run. Ironically, the movie’s trailer was ‘cool’. But the film must have forced many viewers to ask themselves this question: This was what I get?
‘Fury of the Gods’ was lamented for having an overstuffed and unfocused storyline, and relying too heavily on its silly humour.
But it doesn’t mean that Zachary Levi’s recent comments are completely irrelevant. Many of the recent big-budget movies looked impressive in trailers but fell flat at the box office or failed to impress the viewers. Disney’s recent theatrical releases serve as the epitome of this scenario. Projects like Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones 5, Elemental, and The Little Mermaid have been labeled as box office failures. Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ also met the same fate. The film was butchered by critics for lack of humour, poor characterizations, and horrible storyline. And we all know how badly the last remnants of the DCEU have struggled at the box office.
All these big-budget productions have proved that massive budgets do not guarantee good films.
Zachary Levi will be seen alongside Gina Rodriguez in the upcoming Robert Rodriguez’s directional, Spy Kids: Armageddon, scheduled to arrive on Netflix on September 22. Stay tuned for more updates.