For the past decade or more, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated box the box office
and pop culture as a whole.
But sandwiched in between the MCU mega-blockbusters Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, there's
another little superhero movie from the underdogs at DC Comics, and it's actually really awesome.
How awesome?
Well, here’s a spoiler-filled look at the four best and four worst things about Shazam!
The films of the DC Extended Universe have a well-earned reputation for being dark, grim,
and gritty, which a lot of audiences felt weren't too much fun to watch.
There’s a lot of angst and moral ambivalence and very little in the way of actual heroism.
Instead, they seem to feature angry people who clearly aren’t getting enough fiber
in their diets.
So maybe the biggest surprise about Shazam! is that it’s not just funny, it’s also
actually fun from start to finish.
Director David F. Sandberg mostly does a great job keeping the tone upbeat and energetic
as teen Billy Batson discovers his incredible new powers.
It’s true that Aquaman also dared to have at least a good time along the way, but Billy’s
exuberance at becoming a superhero is something we haven’t really seen before, and is a
welcome change compared to the DCEU’s usual dark and violent fare.
"Did you believe?"
"...yeah!"
On the other hand… while Shazam! is mostly family friendly fun, once in awhile it just
sort of forgets itself and veers off into the realm of horror.
Of course, this makes some sense considering that Sandberg is best known for directing
the acclaimed horror hits Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation.
Still, the tonal shifts are jarring.
One minute, Billy and his foster brother Freddy Freeman are clowning around doing the floss,
and then the next minute, the evil Dr. Sivana is summoning a horde of demons to literally
eat people’s heads off.
"Oh, snap!
You're like a bad guy, right?"
These abrupt detours into terror feel kind of out of place and unnecessary.
Luckily, it doesn’t happen often, but even a couple of times might be a couple of times
too many.
Across the board, the stars of Shazam! deliver and then some.
Zachary Levi, as the superheroic adult form that young Billy takes, maintains a level
of boyish wonder while using his grown-up physicality to great comedic effect.
He also has terrific rapport with Jack Dylan Grazer as Billy’s foster brother Freddy
Freeman.
And Grazer similarly has excellent chemistry with Asher Angel, who plays the younger, less-mighty
mortal version of Billy.
It’s hard enough for most movies to find even one star that’s right for any given
part.
But Shazam! somehow nailed the casting for its three biggest roles, and the movie is
much better for it.
Still, not every role comes off as well as it could have, and one area where the movie
really falls short is its villains.
That’s not actually a knock on actor Mark Strong, who plays the lead villain, Dr. Thaddeus
Sivana.
Strong has a long history of playing baddies in films, and he’s very good at being very
bad.
But unfortunately, while all the stuff with Billy and Freddy feels fresh and new, the
scenes with Dr. Sivana feel like they were cobbled together from a list of boring super
villain cliches.
Plus, his demonic CGI helpers have boring designs.
The coolest thing Shazam! did with villains was teasing Mr. Mind, an evil genius worm,
in the mid-credits scene.
We just wish he had been the lead villain of this one too.
At least that wouldn’t have been just more of the same.
When moviemakers don’t respect the comics their films are based on, the result is always
bad, and always disappointing.
Just look at films like Jonah Hex, or even Man of Steel, which was controversial among
longtime comic book fans.
In that one, many have said that director Zack Snyder didn’t believe the concept of
a pure hero like Superman was relevant.
The impulse to make comic book movies "more serious" because the filmmakers want to be
taken seriously is never a good thing.
Which is why it’s so great that Shazam! actually revels in its comic book origins.
The filmmakers don’t mind being goofy, because they know it's fine as long as audiences are
brought along for the ride.
Characters like Mr. Mind are silly but they're exactly the kind of silly we’ve been waiting
for all along.
Shazam!
Is trying to do a lot of different things.
It’s got comedy, it’s got action, it’s got a heart-warming family message at its
gooey center, and it’s a modern superhero fable.
But while it does most of those things pretty well, trying to do them all at once results
is a movie-going experience that's kind of like trying to eat a Chipotle burrito: it’s
just overstuffed.
And that over-ambition shows in the film’s run time.
For a fast-paced, fun movie, Shazam! isn’t actually all that fast-paced.
Instead, it runs a whopping 2 hours and 12 minutes, which is maybe a half hour too long.
Shazam! is really good, but like the old saying goes, sometimes you can get too much of a
good thing.
A little restraint would have been better for the movie… and better for your bladder.
"Superpowers?
Dude, I don't even know how to PEE in this thing!"
Like all good films, Shazam! is actually about something more than simple superhero fist
fights.
At the heart of the film is young Billy Batson and his quest to find his family.
In the end, he realizes his true family was right in front of him all along.
It’s a great arc, made all the better by the performances of the actors who play his
foster siblings, especially Faith Herman as the precocious Darla.
Even better, the twist ending where all his siblings are granted the powers of the wizard
Shazam is a great callback to the comics.
Seeing Billy and his siblings come together to fight crime was a great surprise that delivered
both the action and the feels at the same time.
About the only thing that could have made the superhero family twist even better was
if we hadn’t already known it was coming.
So who spoiled it for everyone?
No, it wasn’t some paparazzi or gossip website.
Instead, it’s the modern scourge of film fans everywhere: merchandise tie-ins.
Yes, unfortunately images of the action figures were leaked months before the film’s April
release, spoiling the surprise.
Hey, toy companies, next time could you please keep it zipped until after the movie is out?
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