Warner Bros. Pictures
It looks like the folks overseeing the DC Extended Universe have finally gotten their act together and realized that people actually go to the Marvel movies because they’re bright and colorful, and audiences generally have fun watching them (well, perhaps fun isn’t the best word for the last and upcoming Avengers movies). With DC’s and Zack Snyder’s attempts to go darker with their classic superheroes, and then rush into their own Avengers-style team movie before actually introducing the members of the Justice League in their stand-alone movies, audiences just didn’t enjoy those films as much as the Marvel output. But then a solo Wonder Woman movie proved they could do drama without going dark, and Aquaman proved they could do bright, colorful and over-the-top just as well.
And now DC brings us another hero who is not part of the Justice League — which is why Warner Bros. sent him over to New Line Cinema — but still exists in a world with Superman, Batman, et al. The hero in question is Captain Marv … I mean Shazam! and the new movie Shazam! does a nice job of blending the goofy, over-the-top parts of Aquaman with the drama of Wonder Woman, even though it does tend to lean more into the goofy side of things.
The story begins when a young boy, Thad Sivana, is transported to a mystical cave by a wizard looking for someone pure of heart to transfer all of his magic to, but the boy turns out to be more tempted by the Seven Deadly Sins. Decades pass and another boy, Billy Batson, is transported to the cave. Billy is a foster kid with a history of running away from his families, so he seems an unlikely choice but when he says the wizard’s name, Shazam, the 15-year-old is turned into a grown man in a red suit complete with glowing lighting bolt on the chest and a crazy white cape. Not knowing how to deal with (a) being an adult and (b) being a costumed superhero, Billy must rely on his foster brother Freddy to walk him through the hero part of things (Freddy has an actual ‘batarang’ and a bullet that had been fired at Superman). While Billy enjoys the superhero life, he also begins to abuse it (performing for cash), much to the disappointment of Freddy. Billy also wants to find his birth mother whom he lost all those years ago at a carnival. What he doesn’t realize is that his very public displays have drawn the attention of Sivana who will stop at nothing to take the powers he believes were meant for him, and he’s got the Sins on his side.
Shazam! is not a deep movie, but it’s a heck of a lot more fun than the cheesy old 1970s Saturday morning ‘message of the week’ TV series. Although it does ultimately have a heartfelt message. The movie succeeds due to the performance of Zachary Levi as Shazam (okay, that’s not really his name but the movie does spend a lot of time with Freddy and Billy trying to come up with a good superhero name that isn’t Captain Sparklefingers). Levi, who brought great nerdy charm to Chuck, is terrific capturing the spirit of a teenage boy in the body of a grown man (think Tom Hanks in Big … and the movie will make that connection very explicit in one scene), while still being a boy who is excited about his newfound powers. Even when he has to ‘grow up’ to go against Sivana, he still retains the essence of a teen-aged boy, something that can’t be easy to do when you are a 39-year-old man in a padded, superhero muscle suit who also has to coordinate a performance with another actor playing the alter ego. If I have one complaint, it’s just that the grown up version of Billy as Shazam seems a bit more outgoing and over-the-top than the actual Billy played by Asher Angel. It’s a bit of a disconnect between the characters but that’s a small quibble.
Speaking of Asher Angel, he’s fine as Billy but he’s certainly more low-key than Shazam, more brooding and definitely not eager to blend with his new family despite their best efforts to make him feel welcome, because he’s so focused on finding his real mother. Angel does some good work, managing to make you not hate Billy when he’s being such a jerk to the other members of the family. But matching Levi’s performance is Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy. Freddy has a disability but he never lets that get in his way, using a sarcastic sense of humor as a shield, and putting his nerd knowledge to the test as he basically becomes Shazam’s coach. And you really feel for him when Billy is continually brushing him off even with all the help Freddy has given him. Grazer was a stand-out in It, and he’s a stand-out here.
Mark Strong takes on the role of Sivana, and I couldn’t help but think back to his villain in Kick Ass. It’s a pretty one-dimensional role, but Strong makes the most of it. It was nice to see John Glover, the former Lionel Luthor on Smallville, as Sivana’s father, and kind of interesting to see Djimon Hounsou as the Wizard Shazam while he’s also appearing as Korath in Captain Marvel, which makes him the one actor to appear in two movies whose lead character is/was known as Captain Marvel (a name not spoken in either movie, by the way). (Hounsou has a history with both DC and Marvel, providing the voice of King Ricou in Aquaman, appearing as Korath for the first time in Guardians of the Galaxy, and voicing Black Panther in an animated mini-series on BET.) The rest of the cast is uniformly good and I dare you not to be completely charmed by Faithe Herman as Billy’s ‘little sister’ Darla.
The movie contains some great special effects, particularly the flying scenes and the climactic battle, and director David F. Sandberg keeps the movie rolling, never feeling like it’s two hours and some change. And following the Marvel template, there are two extra scenes, one mid-credits that definitely sets up a sequel, and one all the way at the end that pokes fun at another DC hero. Shazam! may not be as great as Wonder Woman, but its a heck of a lot of fun and manages to not get bogged down with the origin story. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.
Shazam! has a run time of 2 hours 12 minutes and is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action, language, and suggestive material.
Share this post
