Some of you remember what it was like to go to Blockbuster and spend more time in there picking a movie to watch than you would spend watching the movie. Well now with streaming, it's only a little better (because you don't have to get up off the couch). My family and I love to watch movies in the evenings, but sometimes... well... you settle.

So last night we watched Shazam: Fury of the Gods. I had actually liked the first Shazam movie, and we like Zachary Levi (we're big fans of the show Chuck and if you've never seen that show, do check it out). Also, I can remember that window of time in the late '70s when superheroes based on Greek and Egyptian deities were all the rage. I watched the Saturday morning live action show Shazam and right after it there was one where the hero was Isis! (I turned the channel at that point. Even then, I knew that was too much.)

So anyway, this latest Shazam movie proves my theory that the Marvel got all the good writers and DC got the dregs. It's all special effects with no story to speak of, and what story there is, is so ridiculous that even suspending reality for a fantasy superhero movie, I just couldn't get into it.

My point for this morning, though, is just to say that I find it really annoying, this fascination with pagan deities as superheroes (even in the Marvel universe, Thor and his crew hold no interest for me). Part of it - I admit - is that I really prefer science fiction to fantasy (a conversation we've had more than once here) and so the whole idea of a universe where magic is real but God is not - well, I just have no patience for that. And now I'm supposed to get into a story where there are multiple gods and demigods, and in fact humans can have divine powers, but no mention of the actual God. Not even a nod to God's existence, like we get with Captain America (thanks, Cap!).

At the end of the movie, when the "bad guy" gods are destroyed, and Shazam has sacrificed him self to make that happen, and it looks like he's dead, and (just because) someone says that if there were any gods left he could be saved, but there are no gods left... and then you hear a voice say, "Well, there is one god left." - dare I hope? Nah. It's Wonder Woman.

I know it's too much to ask to expect Hollywood to give proper acknowledgement to the real God. But they clearly don't mind offending God. And at the end of the day, that's what the "fear of the Lord" is, that's the beginning of wisdom - not that we are supposed to be afraid of God, but we are supposed to be afraid of offending God. Hollywood has no healthy fear of God.