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Shazam! Review

By Stuart Shave

The Latest American Hero

Did you know that DC also has a Captain Marvel?  Just as the MCU "Captain Marvel" crosses the billion dollar box office mark, the DCEU debuts what is essentially a magic-powered copyright infringement on Superman who sports a modified take on the Flash's color scheme and a slightly silly name. With "Shazam!" director David F. Sandberg ("Annabelle: Creation") wages the classic superhero genre battle: make an origin story movie that isn't terrible.  Despite choosing the expert difficulty setting - delivering origin story for hero AND villain - "Shazam!" manages to mostly pull it off, providing a genuinely funny movie while only suffering a few superpowered punches in the face.

Following a dour prologue establishing the villain's origin, we flash to present day Philadelphia where young Billy Batson, played by Asher Angel (Andi Mack), is an orphan in search of self-reliance and his long-lost mother.  After a run-in with the law, he is placed in a foster home that is so achingly loving and perfect as to beggar belief - but which introduces eventual manager/sidekick Freddy Freeman, played by Jack Dylan Grazer ("It").  Following a wild ride on a SEPTA train - Life Pro Tip: NEVER FALL ASLEEP ON THE SUBWAY! - Billy encounters Djimon Hounsou ("Aquaman") as an ancient wizard seeking a champion upon whom to bestow his magical powers.

Shazam_poster.jpg

These powers turn Billy into the titular Shazam, played by an EXCELLENT Zachary Levi ("Thor: Ragnarok"), and from here the movie finds its footing and comes alive. Freddy and Billy immediately go to work doing what any early teen boy would do with superpowers: they goof off.  This leads to a series of amusing tests to determine Shazam's powers (because they're millennials, of course it all goes on YouTube) along with a couple of riffs on the classic joke of "a boy in a man's body." A few gags draw inspiration from the Tom Hanks classic "Big" but are not beholden to it.  The fun eventually runs out as Billy and Freddy are still children who have dumb fights over pointless things, which draws the attention of the villain Thaddeus Sivana, portrayed in an able but unremarkable performance from Mark Strong ("Kingsman: The Golden Circle"). Sivana is imbued with the evil powers of the Seven Deadly Sins, but desires the powers of Shazam for himself.

Overall, "Shazam" is a bit uneven. It has an odd mix of melodrama surrounding Billy's birth mother and present relationship to his foster family, and much it fails to land.  Outside of that melodrama, the tone is certainly lighter than other DCEU fare, and it owes a not-small portion of its feel to "Spider-Man: Homecoming."  It puts humor front and center, and a great deal of it works really well; Levi does a capable job with both the physical comedy and the verbal delivery. The film also manages to weave in the broader DCEU in effective ways - how is fish telepathy a useful superpower anyway?!?  And there is an excellent moment between Shazam and Sivana that skewers the idea of The Villain's Monologue in a new way.

But there are times when the writing really trips. A few of Freddie's tangents sound too much like Adam Brody's character Seth from The OC, which feels weird and meta when Brody shows up later in the movie.  But I'm mostly distraught by their waste of Djimon Hounsou. He's too talented an actor to just stand around for a few minutes, gesticulating and shouting, but that's what we get.

Sandberg stages several good action sequences across a variety of locales. A few of the more frenetic moments in a night time fight scene are hard to follow, but you typically know who is punching whom. The film does devolve into the classic DCEU third act: invulnerable superhumans punching each other through buildings.  But it also delivers some interesting variety in set pieces and players to offset that one-note action. The special effects were acceptable; Shazam's powers and abilities are effectively rendered, but I can't decide if I liked the CGI of the sources of the villain's powers. The Seven Deadly Sins portrayed as hideous monsters feel like they were drawn from the artwork of the Diablo videogame franchise.

Benjamin Wallifisch's score is suitably heroic. I didn't walk out of the theatre humming the "Theme to Shazam," but he delivers the right notes at the right times to support the fun and excitement.

"Shazam!" manages to break free of the "invulnerable people face-punching each other" problem with a double dose of funny.  This single film may not alter the broader trajectory or overall fate of the DCEU, but it's enjoyable in its own right, once you hear the magic word: SHAZAM!

What did you think?

Movie title Shazam!
Release year 2019
MPAA Rating PG-13
Our rating
Summary This fun addition to the superhero mythos emerges as a winner in the perennial genre battle to come up with a hero origin story that isn't terrible.
View all articles by Stuart Shave
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