Review of Shazam! (2019) by Mrmoviebuff — 05 Apr 2019

'Shazam!' is an easy movie to love, and that's because it is told through the eyes of young teenagers who aspire to be noble and powerful heroes, the spirit of this film is what keeps it alive. The story centers around a young, 14 year old boy named Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who is alone, and is searching for his mother ever since they were separated when he was just a young boy.

He is then forced to bond with a new foster family after having a reputation for running away numerous times, but decides to finally settle in. His new family is big, many different siblings of various ages and personalities, the one he gets closest to is Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who is a big fan of superheroes and collects all kinds of special merchandise, even right down to the bullet that Superman himself deflected.

Billy struggles at first with his new family and school, but is still motivated to find his mother. We also meet Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who, when he was a child, he encountered the wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) and was cast out as he could not resist evil, and was deemed not worthy to possess such great power.

He manages to get himself back in and snatch the evil power, and the wizard must find someone truly worthy enough to defeat Sivana. That is where things get interesting for our young Billy, as he also comes across the mysterious temple and is told what he must do, when he says "Shazam!", he turns into a fully grown-up superhero (now played by Zachary Levi), but still has the mind of his own, young self.

What really surprised me about this movie was how charming, heartwarming and funny it all is. Directed by David F. Sandberg ('Lights Out' and 'Annabelle: Creation'), the movie's tone is surprisingly light and much different than what he maybe used to.

Despite maybe one or two moments when we constantly cut back and forth between Billy and Sivana, it can feel like two different movies, making it tonally uneven, but that's just a small percentage. The movie mainly works because of its youthful spirit.

Teenagers always wanted to be a hero, and how Levi plays a 14 year old trapped in a 30 year old's body and his reaction to everything from super strength, to flying, really adds to the movie's joyful quality.

The third act also, can get a little too cheesy at times, but maybe that's intentional, overall, this is pretty much 'Big' (1988) meets 'Superman' (1978), also, it does remind me of 'Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse' (2018) and that's a high compliment.

It knows the concept is a little silly, it embraces its light spirit, and it has fun with the material, like how most kids have fun when they use some powerful piece of technology. Imagine if you were a kid, and you found out you could fly and have super strength.

This movie is a joy to behold.