Movie Review: Shazam

chekohler(76)

Published in

#movies

Words

988

Reading

5 min

Listen to this post

~7 min

Hey My J's and movie fans

I know I'm a bit late to the party for this one and everyone is already raving about end game, which I have yet to see so please no spoilers, but I had some time to kill and I'm a big DC fan so I thought I'd give Shazam a shot, even though I was pretty disappointed by their previous offering in Aquaman, a guy still tries to go in with an open mind.

We all know the DCEU hasn't been the most coherent or well-executed movie franchise so each time you go into one of their movies its a possibility of a hit or miss, where Marvel seems to have the formula on lock, as sad as it is to admit.

What is Shazam about?

An ancient wizard has spent his life keeping at bay the demons of the 7 deadly sins and has sacrificed everything to do so, he is now ageing and cannot keep these demons captive. In looking for a replacement when time is of the essense he intrusts his powers to a 14-year-old Billy Batson.

All Billy needs to do is shout out one word to transform into the adult superhero Shazam. Still a kid at heart, Shazam revels in the new version of himself by doing what any other teen would do -- have fun while testing out his newfound powers.

In pretending to be a superhero in modern times he eventually has to man up and become one for real when a new villain comes to town.

Poster for Shazam

What did I think of Shazam?

Shazam! is of the more family-friendly variety but despite having that kind of pretty packaging, there were scenes in Shazam! that was dark and unflinching. The beginning is very sobering, it's reminiscent of Guardians 1 where you think you're stepping into this zany comedy and you get slapped with some pretty intense drama from the beginning and holds through the story right to the end.

Shazam embraces something that more superhero movies could stand to make a focal point. The movie is so gleeful about the superhero concept and they refuse to let the conflict bring down the fun vibe the rest of the movie is going for.

Zachary Levi fits this character like a glove, he's so earnest in his portrayal of this teenager playing with his newfound powers that I was never not impressed with what he accomplished (even if Shazam gets a little annoying as a character, its not Levi's performance which is consistent and well done).

The movie runs a little long at 2.25 hours and they could have trimmed down the final fight scene since there wasn't much action in it. I would have much prefered if they used that time on the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) and his conflict with the 7 deadly sins, it would have helped flesh out Dr. Sivana's character and understand the Wizard's fear of these things getting out into the world again.

Trailer for Shazam

My rating for Shazam

I can honestly say it was a fun movie and a welcomed change of pace for DC movies. Story-wise, it does its job without much surprise or imagination. The little drama with Billy searching for his long-lost mom while being unable to accept companionship from others does get pretty grim but other than that the movie is a barrel of laughs.

The special FX are good, but there aren't any mindblowing scenes while Mark Strong is a pretty good villain. Mark Strong was able to pull something off that many actors couldn't. Dr. Sivana is not an engrossing or deep villain, he has an interesting backstory/motivation but we spend very little time with him before he gets his powers as an adult. Its literally Strong's presence and charisma that makes it work.

Shazam is a step in the right direction for the DCEU and gets a solid 7 Wizards out of 10. Pretty sure there will be 5 movies to follow so Shazam is here to stay.

Have your say

Have you seen Shazam? What did you think of the movie?

Holla at me in the comments! All my commenters I will now refer to as Jessie. Jessie is a good friend of mine, but Jessies got a girl, and I want to make her mine.

So have at it my Jessies! If you don't have something to comment, simply comment "I am a Jessie."