As quickly as she enters the display screen in Shazam: Fury of the Gods, Lucy Liu’s Kalypso instantly elevates the movie’s camp issue. As signaled by the armored miniskirt costume she wears all through everything of the movie, Kalypso is designed through extra, theatricality, and a focus to look — lots of the qualities that outline the queer aesthetics of camp. Portrayed by homosexual favourite Liu, Kalypso is an instantaneous addition to the canon of campy diva supervillains alongside Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman and Uma Thurman’s Poison Ivy.
Kalypso’s campiness is baked into the character’s basis. Though paired with Hespera (Helen Mirren) because the movie’s main antagonist, Kalypso is depicted as Hespera’s needy youthful sister. The two enter the movie after they steal the Wizard’s (Djimon Hounsou) damaged workers from a museum in Greece. As Kalypso strikes her hand ahead to seize it, Hespera stops her so she will be able to seize it first. From this second on, it’s clear that Kalypso is sequestered beneath Hespera’s shadow. The camp facet of this dynamic is two-fold. Number one, the truth that an historic, omnipotent Greek god’s motivation is about the identical as your common attention-starved youthful sibling is completely ludicrous. Number two, as a result of this needy character is performed by such a groundbreaking, versatile, and recognizable actress as Liu, the character’s mere look on display screen yields over-the-top delights.
What Makes Kalypso Campy?
Liu’s contribution to Kalypso’s campiness isn’t remoted to her casting, although. Throughout the movie, Liu delivers a collection of appropriately cartoonish traces with such stone-cold severity that her efficiency radiates the theatricality of camp. Some of those traces of dialogue are already arrange for comedic supply, similar to when she asks a captured Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) if Gatorade is a weapon. The even higher line readings, although, are those the place Liu’s extreme supply yields fierce outcomes that wouldn’t land the identical with a unique actress. When Freddy pleads for Kalypso to not injure his trainer, Mr. Geckle (Diedrich Bader), she responds, “I won’t lay a hand on him,” earlier than inflicting her chaos powers on him via her voice. Liu’s supply infuses the road with Big Mean Girls Energy, turning Kalypso right into a full-on petty diva.
Most considerably, particularly in a superhero movie, is simply how camp Kalypso’s powers are. Kalypso has the powers of chaos, which permit her to hypnotize people with whispered spells. Kalypso’s powers are first seen within the museum sequence, wherein Kalypso warps the minds of the museum goers, seemingly for pleasure greater than out of necessity. The movie depicts her powers via Kalypso leaning into the ears of her victims and spellcasting in a hushed voice. However, the spell doesn’t simply cease there. Once warped, the hypnotized people rush to a close-by individual and carry out the identical whispered spell. The use of this energy reads like Kalypso whispering secrets and techniques into her victims’ ears, after which the hypnotized individuals unfold her secrets and techniques round like the most popular new gossip. What’s a campier energy than hypnotic tea-spilling?
Kalypso’s Perfect Appearance
Kalypso’s dishing of the chaos dust isn’t her solely camp energy, although. For virtually everything of the movie, regardless of the extent of motion on display screen, Kalypso’s hair and make-up stay, like Liu herself, completely flawless. It can be simple to chalk this as much as commonplace Hollywood magnificence practices. However, in a battle scene with the Shazamily, Kalypso is distributed flying via the air and into a close-by constructing. When she emerges from the rubble, her face is dirtied and overwhelmed up. But, as she runway-walks away from the particles, her visage is cleared up and returns to perfection. This fast second reveals that Kalypso truly has the power to heal herself and preserve her excellent look. There is nothing that highlights the aesthetic pursuits of camp fairly like the facility to manage one’s personal esthetics.
As the movie approaches its climax, Kalypso vegetation a golden apple in Citizens Bank Park, which sprouts the Tree of Life. Riding on the again of her pet dragon, Ladon, Kalypso’s Tree provides start to dozens of mythological monsters that terrorize Philadelphia. If her character, powers, and Liu’s efficiency weren’t sufficient to solidify Kalypso as a camp icon, then her reign because the mom of monsters definitely does the trick. After all, what’s campier proper now than being Mother?