Shazam! Review

Last month the Marvel Cinematic Universe released Captain Marvel – but it is not the only film based on a character called that. Warner Brothers and DC give audiences they offering with Shazam!

Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a 14-year-old troublemaker that runs away from foster homes. Billy is given one last chance when he is placed in a group foster family and he befriends his disabled foster brother, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer). When Billy is chased by a couple of bullies he gets transported to another world and given the powers of a wizard. Billy with Freddie set out to discover what powers he has.

Since the negative reception films like Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad the DCEU has been recalibrated. Aquaman was a big, colourful orgy of special effects that was lighter in tone and Shazam! carries on this lighter feel. It makes a lot of sense because it is a story focused on teenagers and children and focuses on someone who gets magic powers from a bearded wizard. It couldn’t be as po-faced as the Snyder films.

Shazam! was directed by David F. Sandberg whose previous work was in the horror genre. On the surface he seemed like an odd choice to make a light-hearted superhero film, yet he is following a similar career path as Sam Raimi. Raimi famously made The Evil Dead trilogy before making the first Spider-man movie.

Shazam! does have some similarities to the original Spider-man – both films are bright origins stories about teenage characters. Billy and Peter Parker have to learn how to use their powers and learn the important lesson ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’ Billy uses his powers for financial gain and he has to prove why he’s worthy of these powers. Both films also focus on the personal lives of their protagonists.

As well as being like Spider-man Shazam! has elements of 2012’s Chronicle. Billy and Freddie act like how the characters in Chronicle when they discovered they had powers. They trained, filmed themselves, and use the powers for their benefit. Freddie filmed Billy practicing with his powers which was similar to Chronicle‘s found footage style. Due to the character’s ages they do prank each other, similar to what the boys in Chronicle did with other people. Shazam‘s! training sequences, the superpowered fights, and the transformations were wonderful to see.

Sandberg stated that Big is an influence on Shazam! Both films have young characters who wake up in adult bodies and this is played for comedy. There are some visual references to the ’80s film.

Sandberg does allow some of his horror experience to shine through. Like Annabelle: Creation Shazam! focuses on orphans in a care home and have one character afflicted with a supernatural force. Plus there is some horror imagery and ideas like the statutes of the Seven Deadly Sins who corrupt anyone near them. When the Seven Deadly Sins physically appear they are violent beings that push the film’s rating to a 12A/PG-13.

Despite this being a film that features magic, wizards, and parallel worlds Shazam! is actually the smallest scale DCEU film to date. The film is set in one city instead of a global adventure or visiting an underwater kingdom or alien planet. Billy’s main mission was to find his mother and this gave the film its dramatic and emotional core. Billy’s arc is finding his family and where he belongs. It is a simple case of less is more.

The use of Billy and Freddie helps fresh out the DC film world. Their eyes show the world from a ground-level perspective. Freddie is a superhero fanboy who happens to live in a world that has real superheroes. A description of DC Comics heroes is that they are characters you look up to and Freddie idealises Batman and Superman. He even has their merchandise including a bullet that was shot at Superman.

There are parallels between Billy and the film’s villain, Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong). Both characters are cursed with obsession. Billy wants to find his birth mother which leads to him pushing people away and Sivana literally gets corrupted by demons because of his obsession.

Shazam! has a mostly young cast and they do a good job with their roles. Angel had the dramatic and comedic crops and Grazer had great chemistry with Zachary Levi as they experiment with superpowers. Faithe Herman was incredibly sweet as the youngest child in the foster home. However, Jovan Armand barely had anything to do as Pedro and Ian Chen was playing a stereotypical geeky Asian kid. The multi-ethnic foster home made me think of a Family Guy joke in the episode “Love Thy Trophy.”

Shazam! shows that Warner Brothers and DC are moving in the right direction. It is a joyous and effective superhero film that can compete with its contemporaries.