Holes, Huts & Hidings: Mystery at Stockholm Public Library (2011) — Documentary short
Impossible Monday (2019) — Short
In Session (2012) — Short
In with Vinny (2020) — Short
The Librarian (2021) — Mockumentary short
The Library (2019) — Short
Library Soulmate (2023) — Short
Library Visitor (2009) — Short
Miss Bula Banerjee (2016) — Short
Overdue (2014) — Short
Packaged (2012) — Short
Quiet Please (2016) — Short
Strum For Hope (2013) — Short
This was another robust month for recent additions! As always, thank you to everyone who regularly reads this blog and who sends titles to add to this site. Please keep sharing!
For much of last year, I took a closer look at library and research scenes in the MCU, so let’s take an MCU breather and switch over to the DC Universe! 😉 Let’s be real, I never actually intended to watch Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023), a sequel to Shazam! (2019). But my ever-loving spouse, Sam, watched the sequel and alerted me that it includes a series of library and research scenes, breaking the news to me that I did need to watch this movie after all. If you’re a longtime Reel Librarians reader — as always, thank you! — you’ll know that sometimes, I watch bad movies so that you don’t have to. This is one of those times.
Here’s an official trailer to set up the plot and energy of this sequel (which bombed at the box office, by the way, and racked up 4 Razzie Award nominations, including Worst Picture).
And did y’all notice that we get a peek at the research scenes in the trailer? At 1:47 mins, Mary asks, “I don’t know how we fight powers like this,” surrounded by books. SPOILER: Look at the books around you, Mary. It’s going to come down to research. Knowledge is power, y’all.
Ok, as the trailer says, let’s get down to business. This sequel is jam-packed with characters: Billy/Shazam (played by Asher Angel and Zachary Levi, respectively); Freddy/Superhero Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody); Mary/Superhero Mary (Grace Caroline Currey); Eugene/Superhero Eugene (Ian Chen and Ross Butler); Pedro/Superhero Pedro (Jovan Armand and D. J. Cotrona); and Darla/Superhero Darla (Faithe Herman and Meagan Good). Djimon Hounsou returns as the Wizard, and Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler join the cast as the Daughters of Atlas: Hespera, Calypso, and Anthea, respectively.
But we’re here for the library and research scenes, right? Here’s how my husband Sam summed them all up for me. Another spoiler alert!
They never call this place a library. The sentient magic pen, called “Steve,” is something they consult kind of like a librarian, and the pen does recommend book titles as part of their “research,” but after this scene, “Steve” acts most like Grammarly/ChatGPT than a librarian.
A magic pen serves the typical role of a reel librarian in this movie. Because OF COURSE. Funny how this was NOT included as one of the reasons in Screen Rant’s “7 Reasons Shazam! Fury of the Gods Bombed at the Box Office.” But it’s certainly on my list!
So let’s break down this summary. First up, how we get to the place they never call a library.
The city of books
At 28 minutes into the movie, Billy/Shazam gets warned by the Wizard that “the Daughters of Atlas are coming for you.” Sufficiently freaked out, he calls for a family meeting at 32:30 minutes to tell them what happened. First bit of research: He googles the Daughters of Atlas on his phone, and he and Mary proceed to read off plot exposition to the audience:
Check out what I found. The Daughters of Atlas are the offspring of the Titan Atlas — which is obvious — but also Nyx, the Goddess of Night and Death. […] The daughters guard the mythic Tree of Life which grows golden apples that contain the seeds of life which gave birth to their realm, protected by a dragon.
Pedro reluctantly speaks up, sharing that he “might know somebody that can help.” He presses a button on a statue, which opens up a path or secret portal to a city of books piled up like skyscrapers, with books flying in and around like birds. In the middle is a large table, stacked with books.
Click on any image in the gallery below to view the image in a larger window.
Enter Steve. And at the center of this table is a scribbling, sentient pen. Pedro waves at the pen and shares with the team that he named the pen “Steve.”
For the elders like me, this immediately brought back memories of Clippy, Microsoft’s OG Office Assistant. (IYKYK.) Compare below!
Comparing Steve the sentient pen vs. Clippy, Microsoft’s Office Assistant. Credit: “Clippy” art by Anioco via Deviant Art, CC BY NC ND 3.0 License
Turns out, Pedro has been holding out on this library-that-shall-not-be-named for a reason. Steve is writing out a book report for Pedro! And now I’m thinking of ChatGPT and Generative AI tools. (SIGH.) 🙄
Billy/Shazam: Dude, that’s cheating.
Pedro: I mean, he knows everything. Seriously. Ask him.
Billy/Shazam: You can just ask him stuff? Ok, cool. Steve, we’re looking for information about the Daughters of Atlas. Can you please help us with that?
For the record: Within 3 lines, this movie goes from “that’s cheating!” to “ok, cool.” There’s as much critical thinking here as I’d expect from this movie. Hero to ZERO.
Steve [scribbling]: Greece Rebellion Vol. III, Council of the Wizards, Trials of the Mortals, Gods and Goddesses Vol. VII…
Mary: These are book titles.
Billy/Shazam: Ok let’s just all pick a book or something.
The only thing that Steve writes down are the book titles, and not any kind of call numbers to help the team to find the books themselves. But I guess you don’t need call numbers when the books can fly to you!
This initial research scenario scene ends at 35:42 minutes, clocking in at 3 minutes total.
Click on any image in the gallery below to view the image in a larger window.
But just two minutes later, at 37:45 minutes, we’re back to the research! Lots and lots of reading and exposition later, we find out more about the Daughters of Atlas and how all their father “crafted a quarterstaff from the tree of life and he used that staff to give powers to certain deities but also to take powers away from others” and how the “council of human wizards got together and they stole the staff from Atlas.” So now our plot points and central conflict are complete!
Billy/Shazam recognizes the drawing of the Wizard in one of the books, and Mary asks Steve to translate. And Steve writes out… du-du-dummmmmmmm…
The wisdom of Solomon
The strength of Hercules
The stamina of Atlas
The power of Zeus
The courage of Achilles
The speed of Mercury
Steve underlines the first letter of each God. All together now, what’s that spell??? SHAZAM! (This movie is so dumb.)
Side note: So many movies nowadays are obsessed about how to explain a character name, aren’t they? See Solo: A Star Wars Story, Cruella, etc. Is it just lazy writing? Feel free to discuss in the comments!
Moving on, the foster siblings watch TV and see a CNN report about a museum break-in in Athens, and they recognize the staff that two Daughters of Atlas stole. And then Pedro chimes in after looking in another book — glad to see he’s reading for once and not just ordering Steve to do his homework !– and reveals that Atlas had 3 daughters. This extended research scene lasts another 2 minutes.
Steve as scribe
Ten minutes later, at 49 minutes into the movie, we’re back at it, and this is the scene teased in the trailer, with Mary surrounded by books and lamenting how they “fight powers like this.” Back to Steve!
But they’re not using Steve as much for research anymore. This is when the movie shifts to Steve’s sentient skills as a scribe more than as a researcher. Darla shares how Steve can serve as dictation device via magical parchment that will fly to the Gods. (That’s a weird sentence to write. Make it make sense, y’all.) Billy/Shazam dictates a letter to Steve to send to the Daughters of Atlas. But because there’s no critical thinking in this movie, the superhero foster siblings don’t bother to realize or doublecheck that Steve is simply taking dictation, literally writing down each word they say, and not proofreading or editing what Steve has written. They even remark on it casually — “Steve doesn’t make mistakes. Just writes what you say” — and unwittingly reveal all of their names when the Daughters of Atlas read their letter.
This first “Steve as scribe” scene ends at 51 minutes and lasts 2 minutes in total. The second “Steve as scribe” scene happens 15 minutes later, at 1 hour and 5 minutes into the movie, when Billy/Shazam dictates another letter to Steve to send to the Daughters of “Asshat-las” (burn!)… and still do not realize that they are the ones who sound stupid.
It’s so good having Steve cover grammar and spelling and stuff. It makes me sound so much smarter.
Again, I am reminded of Generative AI tools and how they’re now built into writing help sites like Grammarly… and yes, I’ve heard and witnessed students say things like this. Real-life librarian lesson: Writing sites can help, sure, but they’re NOT A SUBSTITUTE for actual human thought or critical thinking or doublechecking your own work.
And because Billy/Shazam doesn’t take the time to think critically about anything, he unwittingly makes it possible for Hespera (Helen Mirren) to find her way to the City of Books and steal back the apple from the Tree of Life. This second dictation scene with Steve lasts a minute total.
Billy/Shazam finally admits some personal gaps in his knowledge, at 1 hour and 22 minutes into the movie. He wants to give his power back to the Wizard.
I didn’t even know who those Greek sisters were. I had to Google them.
We know, dude. You already told us, word for word.
Steve as savior
Now to Steve’s final transition in the final act of the movie. The Tree of Life gets planted in the human world, and monsters are terrorizing the city. What to do? Back to the (削除) library (削除ここまで)(削除) librarian (削除ここまで) Steve!
At 1 hour and 27 minutes, Darla takes out a notebook and Steve the pen from her backpack. She asks him “What are monsters afraid of?” Steve responds, “The king of beasts,” which leads to a gasp from the Wizard. Turns out, unicorns are the king of beasts and are terrifying!
But unicorns are NOT terrifying to the adorable Darla, who has an idea that turns the movie into a Skittles ad. This final research scene lasts a minute.
Long story short, unicorns do their bit in helping save the day. But really, between you and me and Reel Librarians, it’s really Steve who saves the day. (Just like it was Wong who actually assembled the Avengers! That is a hill I will die on, y’all. Read all about that here.)
Final lessons?
Almost at the very end of this very long movie, at 1 hour and 55 minutes, Billy/Shazam seems to have learned a little something.
Mary: Number one sign of wisdom, admitting there’s always more to learn.
Billy: I’m coming around to it.
That’s a much better message and lesson to end on!
Steve then returns for a final cameo to pen the credits, featuring illustrated scenes from the movie.
Ultimately, this movie lands in the Class V category, films with no identifiable librarians and/or archivists,although the films mention librarians and/or have scenes set in libraries. I am not going to count Steve as a librarian, although for the research scenes (and NOT the dictation scenes), he does serve a purpose usually reserved for reel librarian characters. But I am going to count that city of books as a library, a very special kind of library (although the word “library” is never used in the movie). All together, the research scenes lasted a total of 6-7 minutes, and when combined with the dictation scenes, Steve graced the screen around 10 minutes total.
And there is a post-credits scene, which includes ONE MORE source of research! Billy/Shazam does a search on his phone for synonyms for the word “justice” and calls out his use of thesaurus.com, which is a real site! Steve not included. 😉
Continuing the conversation
Have you bothered to watch the Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) sequel? No judgment either way! 😉 Did you enjoy the Steve the sentient pen? Did you lament the lack of a reel librarian? What grade do you think Pedro got on the book report that Steve wrote? Please leave a comment and share what you think!
Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Dir. David F. Sandberg. Perf. Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Adam Brody, Grace Caroline Currey, Meagan Good, Djimon Hounsou, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler. Warner Bros., 2023. Based on the comic book character from Fawcett Comics and DC Comics.
Let’s wrap up our most recent foray into revisiting library and archives-related scenes in the MCU, this time with Eternals (2021), directed by Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao. The cast is impressive: Salma Hayek as Ajak; Gemma Chan as Sersi; Angelina Jolie as Thena; Richard Madden as Ikaris; Kumail Nanjiani as Kingo; Lia McHugh as Sprite; Brian Tyree Henry as Phastos; Lauren Ridloff as Makkari; Barry Keoghan as Druig; and Don Lee as Gilgamesh. And upon rewatching Eternals, I’m going to argue that it includes a special kind of archive. Hear me out!
In this Phase Four movie, we meet the Eternals, immortal beings with superpowers who arrived on Earth thousands of years ago. Created by the Celestials, the Eternals reunite to battle the Deviants. Here’s a trailer for this movie, to help sort out who is who and what is what in this (literal) world-building:
That wide shot of the wall of memory crystals was included in the original trailer, and at that point, it looked like a forest to me. Watching this movie, this shot serves to visually emphasize how many times these Eternals have been reset. Their memories have been "stored," as Arishem puts it, but you could use the word "archived." And what a vast archives collection it is! And because I’m considering this an archive, that’s why I’m adding it to the Class V category, movies that include no identifiable archivists, although they mention archives and/or have scenes set in archives.
And here’s a quick bit about how at 1 hour and 30 minutes into the movie, the Celestials revisit their ship, and find Makkari waiting for them. Phastos exclaims, "Is that a sarcophagus in my lab?!" I mused that you could think of the contents of that room — a jumble of books, paintings, statues, a throne, and yes, a sarcophagus — as like an archives of human existence on Earth? But ultimately, it’s really just a junk room, disorganized and complete with junk food wrappers! One man’s junk is another man’s treasure... 😉
Makkari’s junk room also reminded me of the "Room of Requirement" from the Harry Potter series... any other impressions? Are you convinced that Arishem’s storage of memory crystals counts as an archive? Please comment and share!
