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Shazam! for me was massively different to DC’s norm of usual darkness. The movie portrayed everything you want from a superhero movie, especially from Shazam! For me, the movie stands as an example for everybody to enjoy. I went to the cinema to watch this with my partner, and two of our friends that are not remotely interested in comic book movies, and even they enjoyed the movie. That is what is great about the movie, die hard comic book fans, and non-fans alike can really sit down and immerse themselves into some fantastic storytelling.
Zachary Levi portrays Shazam! in his full potential, while Asher Angel portrays Billy Batson at ages 14. Both of them characters nail their respective roles to the character. Zachary Levi really is the most perfect casting for Shazam!
During the movie there was so many unexpected twists you just never saw coming, from all angles. The main villain was Dr. Thaddeus Sivana portrayed by Mark Strong, who most of us know from the Kingsman movies. He was incredible during this. For me, I really understood the characters reasoning behind what he was doing. Bullied and left out by his father, and brother, and looking for power. His heart is not pure, simply because of the anger he feels deep inside. The scene after he gets his power, and goes after his brother and father was incredible. Not at any point did you actually see him as the villain during this scene, for me, I was begging for him to kill them, and he did.
The story felt natural as it went, it never felt rushed for me at all. Shazam! felt like one of those heroes that doesn’t learn his powers for a few minutes then naturally owns them. Pretty much throughout the entire movie we see Billy really try and master each of his different powers respectively, failing at others while thriving on some. For example, he struggled to fly through pretty much the entire movie, but mastered the lightning strikes from his hands early on. It’s paramount to the characters progression into potential future sequels for Shazam! that he learns as he goes. He gets help mastering his powers by his foster brother, Freddy whilst he films and puts it all on YouTube. Some of the references made by Freddy were comical, especially when he asks if Billy has laser eyes referencing Superman.
Moving onto the humour. The movie didn’t feel too over the top with it and had a balancing element to that and the seriousness of the plot. For me, it brings the realism back that Billy is really only 14 and has barely started his teens, so it’s natural that he wouldn’t actually understand as much as the adults would. Basically, as the movie progresses, the character progresses too, and I liked that.
The best part of the movie comes at the end fight scene when Shazam! is really struggling against Dr. Sivana and the demons he has fighting alongside him. His foster brothers and sisters are with him, and for me I never expected to see this in the first movie. What did we get?!
SHAZAM FAMILY!
Never in a million years did I expect this. I was so hyped. All the members just looked incredible, the suits looked incredible. Weirdly they actually all looked like older members of their younger counterparts and I think WB and DC did a fantastic job in the castings to really make this look real. The fact we got this, and all of them were incredible just really makes me beg for more. I want another sequel planned soon if I’m honest.
DC have done a good job since their flops, more so with Justice League. So far, DC and WB have pumped out two incredible movies with Aquaman and Shazam! I think DC can now begin it’s catchup game to Marvel. If Wonder Woman 84 does as well as the first, I see no reason we can’t plan towards another team up movie!
However, with every movie that is full of amazing content, we do have some negatives. They aren’t major, but did leave a sour taste in my mouth.
First comes first…
Where the hell was Henry Cavill? I understand scheduling conflicts and recent rumours surrounding Henry and Superman, but the end shot in the school cafeteria would have took an hour or so to shoot. We see Shazam! enter the cafeteria to help Freddy with his bullies, Superman also walks in but we only got a body shot and not the face. It’s been confirmed it was not Henry, I think we all gathered that otherwise they would have shown his face, but it annoyed me. For how short this shot was, I see no reason why Henry couldn’t make the cut. It was nice to see Supes and the suit again, however I feel like they could have implemented any Justice League member and it still would have been amazing. Whether it be Flash, Wonder Woman or even Aquaman. However, I hope this sets up a future fight between Shazam! and Superman!
Secondly I wasn’t a fan of waiting for the after credits to be disappointed. Obviously the first when Dr. Sivana is writing the symbols on the prison wall, we see a caterpillar tell him there’s more ways to get magic. I liked this, because of how important the caterpillar is to Shazam!’s story. The next end credit came where Freddy was conducting a test to see if Billy could telepathically talk to fish. I waited around 10 minutes just to see nothing come of it. Where was Black Adam? I would’ve liked to see a tease of what’s to come if there is a sequel planned.
All in all, a fantastic movie. One that I really want to go and see again. DC delivered, again. It’s refreshing to see DC do so well with two movies in a row, and I truly cannot wait to see what’s next for DC. Each actor played their characters extremely well, the movie had me laughing throughout, and had some emotional and serious moments throughout. More so with Billy’s mother.
Recommendation
My recommendation would be to go and watch this movie in the cinema as soon as you get the chance.
Rating 10/10.
