Review: Shazam!
Shazam!, directed by David F. Sandberg, tells the tale of Billy Batson (Asher Angel), an orphaned kid in search of his mother until he runs across an old wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who finds him worthy of using his powers to defend Earth and gives Batson the ability to become the champion Shazam (Zachary Levi). Now with his newfound powers, Batson must go forth and defeat the EVIL Dr Sivana (Mark Strong) from destroying the world or something and learn about the importance of family along the way.
The DC films has had quite a rough time lately. A lot of the films in the DC “Extended Universe” ranged from just being decent (Wonder Woman) to being god awful (basically everything else). I was afraid that this film would also be a mediocre entry in this dying universe, but thankfully it wasn’t. Shazam! takes a departure from the dark and gritty tone established by the DCEU and instead goes for something fun and playful. It’s easily one of the best DC films to come out late, but that’s not really saying much when the rest of the films in your shared universe was basically garbage.
Shazam as a character in the comics was essentially a kid with a body of a god, and the film utilizes that concept really nicely. Zachary Levi makes a great Shazam; he sells as a superhero and he also has great comedic timing needed to help the film be more light-hearted. Asher Angel also gives a great performance as the young Billy Batson, being able to nail the film’s more dramatic role. The action is fast and fun to watch, the message is very wholesome, and there’s a lot of great humor sprinkled here and there to make this film stand out in the DCEU.
This was a fun film for sure, but it doesn’t really do anything more than that. The villain was really dull and generic; Mark Strong is just a big bad guy with CG monsters who wants to take over the world or something. There’s nothing about that villain that makes him memorable in any sense; he’s just a boring bad guy for out hero to beat up. The climax of the film in particular gets very tiresome and drags out unnecessarily. Visually the film was also pretty basic; none of the cinematography, the editing, music, or anything else stood out.
Say what you want about Zack Snyder’s DC films, but you can at the very least acknowledge that Snyder makes every shot epic and grandiose. James Wan makes all the action scenes in Aquaman visually stunning, and Patty Jenkins does the same with Wonder Woman (got nothing on Suicide Squad though). This film does nothing special with the film-making, making it ultimately forgettable in the long run, but at the very least compared to the other DCEU films this was actually watchable in a sense.
Overall this was a fun movie, nothing more and nothing less. If you’re looking for something a little more thought-provoking than this film might not cut it for you. If, however, you want to see something fun to pass the time or you’re just a hardcore DC fan then you’ll probably like this film fine. Go check it out and see for yourself.
Final Verdict: 6/10