by: keaton marcus

Watch Two New Flaming Superhero Trailers, “Hellboy” and “Shazam!”

“Shazam” drops its second trailer to date, promises many laughs.

“Hellboy” releases its awesome Red Band trailer.

Two new superhero trailers were dropped this week, and both fans/critics alike had their say.

The Baba Yaga in her chicken-legged house.

Firstly, the superhero-themed reboot “Hellboy” dropped its second trailer early in the week, and everybody seemed to take it on a generally positive note. The trailer promises plenty of blood, gore and R-rated laughs, with “Stranger Things” actor David Harbour starring as the title role. Critics say that the second trailer took a plot straight out of the comics successfully, and features titular characters such as Baba Yaga who supposedly has a long history with Hellboy, along with her chicken-legged house. The trailer also shows more of Nimue the Blood Queen who is now portrayed as one of the villains.

The original trailer was dropped a couple months ago, and received almost no popularity; fans compared the film’s teaser negatively to “Suicide Squad” which received lackluster reviews from critics. Generally, people are saying that the “Red Band” trailer is much better, bloodier and funnier and got fans a little more hyped for the somewhat “anticipated” April release. However, on a more negative note, fans are still judging Hellboy’s new, more modern look, apparently loving the original design much more.

Other notes from the trailer is that London get’s completely trashed, and looks like Hell on Earth. This destruction theme is promising a big-budget, and estimates say that a 170M+ cost looks suitable to keep up with loads of visual flash. Lot’s and lot’s of gross monsters, trolls and giants alike storm the beloved city, destroying icons such as the London Bridge.

Overall, our take on the new, flaming red trailer is generally positive; We liked how the reboot is going for the R-rating, promising much more blood and swearing than the original, also the role seems extremely suitable for David Harbour, although maybe not as legendary as Ron Perlman. The special effects look top-notch, and the film has some interesting comics mythology going, the only problems we had were the lack of originality, and creativity to differ from the original, and with all the chaotic action sequences, there are chances that it could end up a mess. Box Office estimates are moderate, standing at around 40-45M from a possible 4,000+ locations, and could easily top the Box Office, but would still need solid international numbers to break even with its big-looking budget.

Sivana (Mark Strong) using his crazy-cool powers as the villain.

A second superhero trailer dropped later in the week, this was the second released trailer for comedy-themed pic “Shazam!”. This was received as all-around awesome by both critics and fans, calling it “funny”, “entertaining” and most of all “badass”. The trailer teases many things, and we will list a couple. The trailer teases new characters such as Mary (Grace Faulton) who so far plays as the damsel in distress, otherwise we saw more of the teased villain Sivana (Mark Strong) who gets incredibly strong lightning-type powers in the new trailer; the certain villain is Shazam’s oldest foe, and is generally known as a character of science in the comics, and fans will be surprised to see him in such violent form in the film adaptation. The film is also trying to play a little like “Star Wars” as Sivana is the Wizard’s old pupil, before he turned on the hero. The trailer teases the origin of Shazam and Sivana becoming mortal enemies, as the hero seems clueless when the antagonist first attacks him. Sivana’s powers also provide visual flash, and will likely add to the expense, of a so far moderate budget cost.

Shazam in the middle of using The Speed of Mercury. — Shazam in the middle of using **The Speed of Mercury**.

A second thing the film teases is that “Shazam” is still nameless, and for sure, we know his name is not Captain Sparklefingers, which his friend teases him with. The comics were first released in 1940, before starting to outsell the “Superman” comics by far, and on the acclaimed pages, we always referred to the hero as “Shazam”, but the trailer promises something different and unique. Mary, also right after Billy/Shazam saves her refers to him as ‘the hero’ which is truly a subsequent moment—we still have no guesses for the name—but we likely know by the end of the movie, which releases everywhere April 5th.

The trailer teases a major power in the comics also, which is The Speed of Mercury which Shazam helms. Freddie, in both trailers helps Billy/Shazam find out his superhero powers, this is hoped to be shown in a good old-fashioned montage in the film. The Speed of Mercury is shown briefly in the second trailer, wen Shazam uses the speed to save the aforementioned Mary (Grace Faulton)—the certain superpower rivals even the Flash’s hysterically fast speed—as the superhero also uses his super speed to fly—and—well save buses.

Overall, we were both very happy with the second trailer for “Shazam!” which promises laughs, and many powers, villains and characters right out of the still-popular comics—the action sequences and visual effects look well-down, the humor is top-notch, and we are thinking Zachary Levi is an actor right for the cheeky hero. There are no “problems” that come straight to mind, except that the DCEU has had a rocky past, besides the well-reviewed “Wonder Woman” and “Aquaman”, but the certain franchise has never tried a full-on action/comedy flick—this could cause some big problems, but the ads object.