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Shazam!
Director: David F. Sandberg
Writer: Harry Gayden
Starring: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Mark Strong, Djimon Hounsou
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Cinematography: Maxime Alexandre
Production Design: Jennifer Spence
Distributor: New Line Cinema/DC Films
Characters by: Bill Parker & C.C. Beck

On the Rock of Eternity sits the mighty wizard, Shazam, last of his brothers and sisters, guarding the Earth from the imprisoned Seven Deadly Sins. Shazam is growing older and seeks to find a new champion to carry on his powers and duty but needs someone pure of heart who can resist the temptations of the Sins. Billy Batson is a trouble-making fourteen year old orphan running away from every foster family he’s put with so he can try and find his mom, who he got lost from over a decade ago. After trouble with the cops, Billy is placed in a new foster home and meets his new parents, brothers, and sisters, particularly his bunkmate, the superhero loving Freddy Freeman. Billy’s life changes when he is chosen by Shazam to carry on his name and powers but left to fend for himself as he learns that the Seven Deadly Sins have been freed and have their own champion now, who seek to take the power from Billy, who is still trying to figure out his powers and his place in the superhero world.

The original Captain Marvel was a comic that once sold millions of copies back in the 1940s about the ultimate wish fulfillment, say the name of the wizard Shazam and becoming Earth’s mightiest mortal. So popular, DC Comics would eventually sue its distributor, Fawcett Comics, into oblivion for ripping off Superman. During that down time where there was no Captain Marvel, Marvel Comics scooped up the name and made their own Captain Marvel hero. DC would eventually buy up the rights to the Fawcett Comics characters and so Captain Marvel would become a colleague of Superman’s and no longer a competitor in the market. As time went on, Captain Marvel had to go buy Shazam, to not conflict with Marvel’s character now.

At its core, the character of Shazam is about wish fulfillment and family, in his Golden Age appearances, Billy Batson would go from a homeless child working at a radio station, to building a found family that included his long lost sister, his uncle, his best friend, and even a talking tiger, all while being able to turn into the toughest, strongest, and fastest hero around. This movie takes this concept and updates it to modern times, Billy is more cynical and desires to be a loner due to being an orphan, he struggles to accept his new family because he finds it all to be so temporary. When Billy is given his superpowers and new form, he’s at first terrified but then elated to have such abilities and does what a lot of kids would probably do, monetize it. Some of the funniest scenes are with Billy and Freddie testing his abilities or Billy hamming it up for an audience to get money.

The movie does have a lot of heart though, it shows that Billy is part of a found family where even the parents were former foster kids themselves who want to pay it forward for others now. Billy’s foster siblings are fun with their own easy to identify quirks, there’s Mary, the eldest who is hoping to get into a good college, there’s Darla, the youngest, friendliest and sweetest, Eugene the gamer who is always with a screen in his face, Pedro, the silent giant, and Freddy, the snarky superhero expert. Freddy and Billy have great chemistry, both when Billy is in kid or adult form, there were times when I was forgetting that this wasn’t actually a duo but technically a trio of actors and that was really nice.

When it comes to villains, this is where the movie gets surprisingly dark and it all made sense to learn the director of the film is known for horror movies because several scenes involving Doctor Sivana and the Seven Deadly Sins. Some of these scenes could be really intense for your kids, so if you got extra sensitive kids, take that into consideration. Sivana was a prospective champion that Shazam had plucked from his life as a kid, much like Billy, but was deemed unworthy and being sent back caused so much trouble for Sivana he harbored a hateful grudge and grew up seeking to find his way back to the Rock of Eternity. There are even hints at other enemies on the horizon.

Visually the movie goes for bright colors for Billy and his family while Sivana and the Sins are earth tones, the designs for the Sins are fairly generic and don’t really get much screen time but they were always sort of the weakest designed parts from the series. A nice touch is that Billy rescues people, this new spin of DC films had a habit in the Superman films to leave citizens to die and just be collateral damage, this movie has a key threat be that people need saving, when your hero is nearly indestructible, the threat has to be from outside him. Musically, I’ll admit, most of it is evading my memory but I do remember it filly a more old school hero theme from something out of the 40s, which was appropriate, I could imagine it being part of a radio show or an old black and white TV show.

This movie continues DC’s trend of fun superhero movies like Wonder Woman and Aquaman, you could make a new Justice League filled with just these characters and it would be a very fun and powerful team. Shazam ends making you want more since it adds a lot to the story and hopefully we’ll get the chance to see that. This movie has one of my favorite moments in a superhero movie, ever. There are things to be discussed but they’d spoil the fun of seeing it for yourself. There is still the question of what to do with the name of the superhero, as the movie itself makes into an ongoing joke, Billy can’t call himself Shazam without transforming so he’ll need a new name, the question is, what? I look forward to finding out what that could be.

If you want a fun, funny superhero film, Shazam! is a good choice. It’s got some intense scenes maybe for some, but still a good flick to take the family to.  If you’re a fan of the Big Red Cheese (what if they just went with that for his in world name?) then this is a pretty dang good adaptation. There is no Tawky Tawny as a heads up, but maybe the talking tiger can be saved for the sequel.

Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net