Tag Archives: rachel zegler

04.05.25
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Snow White (2025)

Some remakes get a chance to breathe new life into their stories and worlds, while others, like Disney’s new Snow White, feel like a film from 90 years ago was frozen in carbonate for decades and then unnecessarily turned into a different medium. In this case, Snow White feels like 30% that, while the other 70% feels like sprinkles of modern flare that feels out of place. Oscar winners Benj Pasek and Justin Paul add songs that feel to derivative and cliche, hitting all the same “Welcome to our lovely kingdom”, “I want a better life”, “Look how evil I am”, and “Maybe we’re attracted to each other” beats that are in nearly every other musical. In some instances, the songs even sound too much like the duo’s Dear Evan Hansen soundtrack.

Rachel Zegler tries her best to entertain in a sweet but one-dimensional role elevated by her charisma and strong singing voice. However, all the other elements around her distract, including the unconvincing and at times hideous CGI of the animals, surroundings, and let’s not even talk about those dwarves, who seem almost nightmarish. But a painfully glaring weak link is the miscasting of Gal Gadot as the Evil Queen. Her line delivery feels unnatural, and the character just gets more irritating as the film goes along.

Most sadly, Snow White is inconsistent and deeply hollow as a film. It has almost no charm that feels organic, and can’t decide between elements that feel nostalgic or new, like the very modern-sounding soundtrack. Nothing of importance is ever quite explained or given meaning to, things just happen because the point that we’ve gotten in the story needs that thing to happen. For younger children, being unconditionally kind is an important message, but even Disney has delivered this theme in a way that’s so much more tangible and heartfelt; take even their live-action 2015 Cinderella remake for example. This remake doesn’t expand on or reinvigorate its source material, simply morphs it into weird images that look colorful but never have any real sense of life.

03.17.23
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Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Billy Batson and his foster siblings protect Philadelphia with the powers that give them the strength of the gods, but soon the daughters of Atlas arrive seeking revenge for the stealing of their family’s magic ages ago, and declare war on the Shazam family and the human world.

Shazam! remains one of the best films in DC’s current shared movie universe, and Fury of the Gods brings forward everything that worked about the first movie, while expanding on the family dynamic. It’s very entertaining to watch as all the siblings are now superpowered and how it affects their interactions and characters moving forward, as the siblings who weren’t Billy and Freddy were much more minor characters in the first film. The movie also retains the same sweet, heartwarming energy that makes the Shazam saga irreverent, touching and harmlessly entertaining. The action is more in line with Tom Holland’s Spider-Man films than something as world-ending and grim as Justice League — though sometimes the world as still at stake. Zachary Levi’s charisma and natural sense of humor shines again, though it’s way more interesting to see him on screen than Asher Angel. However, Billy is a formidable hero who’s selfless, kind, and even clumsy. However, Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody shine equally as Freddy. Grace Caroline Culley also stands out as both the normal and superpowered Mary, as well as Rachel Zegler, who continues to take the world by storm after West Side Story. Though Helen Mirren is incredibly entertaining as a villain, Lucy Liu’s performance is occasionally eyebrow-raising and questionable.

The visual effects also have some moments that could have used polishing, including the creatures or large set pieces, but overall most of the sets fit the Sunday-cartoon-like vibe that Shazam has always been aiming for. Not to mention, the humor is easily as memorable as the first, though the themes aren’t so as much as Billy and Freddy’s bonding in the first movie. There’s also a few scenes with Djimon Honsou that are funny but the least interesting parts of the movie. However, Shazam! Fury of the Gods gives viewers everything they signed up for while making them laugh and smile at the screen.