DC and its comic book adaptations, better said the DC Extended Universe actually had a good start with a new Superman in Man of Steel which was released in 2013. The movie was extremely interesting, dark and I had been looking forward to even more but then the whole thing went down with Batman. Although the plans were first class, the realizations were rather third class. Justice League or Batman vs Supeman weren't what you expected. Suicide Squad was also a title that had a lot of potential but didn't reflect what it was supposed to. After all this fiasco the responsible ones probably learned from their mistakes, because there came again well realized titles like Wonder Women or Aquaman, which gave hope for a franchise again, which deserves to tell good stories and to show us this visually. And the last adaption Shazam belongs to the better turn.
The Story:
As a child, Thaddeus Savana is enchanted to a mystical place where he gets the chance to become the successor of the sorcerer Shazam. With magical powers he would have to protect the world from the invasion of the seven deadly sins. But Thaddeus fails the test through the temptations of the deadly sins and is rejected by Shazam. Thaddeus can't handle that and searches his whole life for a way to get back to this mystical place and when he gets the chance, he comes back to this mystical cave and is subject to the temptations of the seven deadly sins.
The 14-year-old Billy Batson is assigned to a foster family in Philadelphia and has to get used to his five foster siblings. One day, when one of his foster brothers is harassed by rackets, Billy intervenes but flees very quickly. On the run from them Billy is enchanted into the mystical cave of Shazam, where the magician gives him the magical powers. As the new Shazam tries Billy to explore with his foster brother Freddy his new superpowers. In the meanwhile Thaddeus Savana becomes aware of Billy and wants Billy's magic powers...
My Opinion:
As I already mentioned in the introduction, the turnaround of the DCEU, from the darker and more serious to the more cheerful and colourful, but without losing the more serious, has been well accomplished. Too much seriousness gives the heroes too much hardship and they break at some point. The fun factor is in any case a good solution and gives the newer DC films a certain sympathetic character. Nevertheless, DC faces some problems with their movies, which the fun factor can't drown out.
On the one hand there are the very weakly elaborated opponents, the villains are not that what they sould be and on the other hand they either get too short in the movie or way too long, as in Shazam, where the end didn't want to stop. But I think this was to give Shazam more depth, to show his development and how crazy strange Shazam is.
But alongside this crazy strange superhero, the film attaches great importance to family, friendship and togetherness so that the story of the foster child Billy Batson can be told with his whole depth. This is what makes this DC film so different from its previous ones, because Shazam is more based on family friendliness and it really takes a while until you get to see real action. That's also probably the reason why the villian and also the seven deadly sins are look very weak. Because when the seven deadly sins are unleashed on the world, something else should happen than that seven ugly and evil monsters just eat people.
But apart from these little things Shazam is a lot of fun and Zachary Levi, who plays the grown-up Billy as Shazam, gives the figure his convincing appearance. He seems to be made for this role and you can really tell that he really enjoys it and of course the character he plays. Narratively, the whole movie seems a bit like the 80s movie Big with Tom Hanks but again has differences like the scenes in which Shazam and Freddy test the superhero's abilities which are childishly naïve and very funny at the same time. Sometimes Billy, played by Asher Angel, comes too short, but for that we have a lot of screentime with Freddy, who seems to form a dreamduo with Shazam.
All in all Shazam! is a very good movie, which is a lot of fun and also comes across very sympathetic. In my opinion this is due to the factor Zachary Liv and the two young actors Asher Angel and Jack Dylen Grazer. The effects and the CGI are very well worked out and have no more mistakes, like for example in Superman vs. Batman or Justice League where Superman sometimes had a much too big head and the body looked too small, where the porpations just didn't fit or some effects seemed to have slipped. Shazam! does a lot right and yes, it's a good start, which should also appeal to the younger audience. It's good that the dark atmosphere was omitted here and that there is a slightly different film in the DCEU that sets a different tone.
I really enjoyed the film, but there is still more that DC and Warner Bros. can do with the cool stuff they have in their hands. I gave Shazam 7 out of 10 stars at IMDb, if I could I would rate it 7.2.
