Shazam! Review

(A version of this article originally appeared on kernelnow.com / mynewslike.com)

Off the bat, Shazam! seems like an odd choice for the next stage in the DC Extended Universe. This hero is a spell-powered, bright red, literal ‘man-child’ previously nicknamed ‘The Big Red Cheese ’and originally not even a DC property; releasing such a risky property before The Flash or whatever Batman does next certainly diverts from the expected Warner Bros strategy. 

Curiously, it is a quick look across the battlefield to Marvel Studios that reveals method to this box office madness. Few could have predicted the popularity of Guardians of the Galaxy before August 2014, and the first hero of the Marvel Studios era – Iron Man – was a veritable nobody fortunate enough to be the most well-known character that wasn’t licensed out to another studio. Fine super-company to be keeping, and perhaps evidence of DC’s shrewdest on-screen move since WonderWoman replaced the Bat and the Cape as the Justice League’s moral compass.

Captain Awesome

One of the main and more attractive benefits to bringing an unknown to the big screen is, surely, a lack of expectation and demand. Despite being around for 80 years – only a year less than Superman– the majority of a movie-going audience is likely blind to the legacy of Shazam. Director David F. Sandberg and writer Henry Gayden are unafraid to manipulate these factors to their film’s advantage, deep-diving into the character’s colorful weirdness and magicks which are mostly unfamiliar to comic book cinema-goers.

If ever there was a man to embody such a self-aware yet family-friendly project, then it’s surely Zachary Levi. A self-pronounced fan-boy who has long seemed on the cusp of getting “that one big role”, there is no doubt that Levi is embracing the dream in every scene even if this isn’t necessarily the dream superhero role. As physically imposing and handsome as Henry Cavill’s Superman, his super-grown Billy Batson is never without a starry-eyed surprise or grinning wonderment that was previously the domain of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. Over the course of the film, his teenage alter- ego (Asher Angel) is compelled to accept a new family that any Clark Kent or Peter Parker would say is crucial to retaining one’s heroism.

 

Don't freak out..

With a bulletproof goddess and an overpowered video game bro-tagonist in its last two solo releases, DC is finally starting to find its own identity – even if only to find one different to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That identity is one that largely embraces the fantasy over the science-fiction genre, which comic bookery in its original form has always thrived upon. That is in full force here in Shazam!: the realm of Djimon Hounsou’s sorcerer in the film’s opening is more reminiscent of Harry Potter than Man of Steel, and Benjamin Wallfisch’s score certainly gives into those fantasy leanings. That the Shazam! powers are rooted in Greek myth goes largely unmentioned, surely for fear of alienating the film’s young hero and audience.

Of course, this isn’t a flawless film. Like many modern origin stories, it often struggles with the placement and strength of its villain. Mark Strong, though consistent and undoubtedly evil, suffers from being a trial run for Shazam’s real arch-nemesis Black Adam. There is an attempt to parallel Dr. Thaddeus Sivana’s backstory with Billy Batson’s ongoing childhood, and his absence from the trailers is compensated for in large part by his dominance of the film’s opening twenty minutes. Sivana acts cool and convicting, but the main problem is that his issues aren’t actually with the superhero he faces off with. Time will also prove to be an issue with this film; in committing so wholly to the technology and culture of ‘Today’, in years to come repeat viewings may foreground the film’s age as opposed to its quality. Nostalgia is a funny thing.

Guys.. iPhone kung fu!

As an orphan with a dogged determination to investigate his own past and ignore the super- powered present that exists around him, Billy Batson is in a unique position to encounter heroes, gods and cyborgs – basically for the first time. As a film, Shazam! seeks to do much the same thing. It would be very easy to dismiss the superhero tropes that it celebrates and parodies as lazy writing and in some cases that may be right. What seems to have happened is, after the miserable misfire of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and its heavy-handed attempt to rush literal Doomsday into its universe, Warner Bros and DC Entertainment have placed a renewed emphasis on making their movies fun again. Perhaps it is a fool’s errand to go immediately toe-to-toe with a decade of storytelling and apocalyptic world-building, or perhaps it was just time to return to when comic book films were mere pieces of escapism than chapters of narrative. In any case, just as Billy Batson does off the roof of a Philadelphia skyscraper, Shazam! takes a leap of faith that rewards the child viewer in all of us with this knowledge: being a big, bold hero can be rewarding, and to watch it can be genuine and simple entertainment.