A delightful superhero affair full of laughs, heart, and genuine emotion that will make you shout, “SHAZAM!”.
After all the rough patches and criticism towards the earliest stages of the DC Extended Universe, it seems as if DC has found its stride in delivering three straight solo hits, and Shazam! might just be the best of them.
Starring Zachary Levi (Shazam), Jack Dylan Grazer (Freddie), and Asher Angel (Billy Batson), director David F. Sandberg expands the universe with familial threads tying together it’s amazing cast, thrilling action scenes, and prominent themes. Following a familiar origin story path, Shazam! could have easily fallen prey to sub-genre trappings, but instead of being maimed, it picks up those trappings and carries it with them. Sandberg fully understands the repeated and tired formula that comic-book movies offer, but he pumps the deflated tires full of youthful air, that balloons Shazam! to unimaginable heights.
From it’s marketing campaign, Shazam! promised a hilarious dynamic between Zachary Levi and Jack Dylan Grazer. It doesn’t use that dynamic as the crutch of it’s entertainment value, but it definitely works as the sturdy threshold for Sandberg to build upon with ease and confidence. Although Freddie and Billy face the same issue with not having a family as defined by societal norms, they work beautifully as an embodiment for the tragedy of Mark Strong’s campy turn as Dr. Sivano. The film surprises us with interesting storytelling beats one may not come to expect, and the way that it’s visualized and explored is delicate and thoughtful. It never goes out of it’s way to nudge the audience on the arm to ask them if they get it, but it sprinkles in moments that eventually add to the larger whole. The film understands where it wants to go, and understands even more how it wants to get there.
Surprisingly, there’s a lot of downtime, but each scene ranges in meaning on different levels. Whether it’s an intimate exchange of dialogue that develops characters further, or seamlessly builds it’s world, Shazam! discovers the value of small scale storytelling. Although familiar plotting returns, it relishes in that standard to be about something to allow us to relate to someone. Shazam! reminds us that these stories are bound to be told the same way almost every time, but it’s what you do with that time that makes the journey worth something. It exchanges exposition and over-complicated story for easy to follow laughs that serve a purpose in defining character. Shazam! is a prime example of understanding how to use bathos properly and never shies away from the significance of it’s drama that leaves lasting implications on it’s cast of characters. Rather than being funny because it has to, Shazam! is funny because it knows that it is. There is a recognizable identity to it’s direction that fully grapples with the history of comic-books, iconography, and the moments that fill these films up with the same clichéd findings as the last. Overlong monologues, different visual textures to flashbacks, the hero getting their powers right when they need to, all that jazz, but it rings with such authenticity and joyous charm that there isn’t a single comic-book movie like it.
Overall, amidst all the fight or flight revolving around superhero films on social media, Shazam! injects a jolt of electricity that resurrects the power, joy, terror, and curse of being a superhero. That it isn’t a gift that makes the hero invulnerable to life’s problems thrown their way, but a gift of discovering the true potential of the human spirit, and in this case, a youthful one. What’s so deeply affecting about Shazam! is that it reinvigorates the awe of being a superhero. Taking a teenager who just wants to grow up, and he does, but growing up and being powerful doesn’t get rid of the problems that have haunted Billy since he was a child. Rather new problems arise for Shazam that pile on Billy’s, and his approach to overcoming those hurdles is joyous, heartwarming, and rewarding to watch. Shazam! tells it’s story with an inherent level of campiness that levels the field to allow for an exploration of themes centered around the significance of a family dynamic and how that can mold the youth of America into the people they grow into. There is a keen attention to character that works with a pep in it’s step that opens up doorways to showcase the dramatic circumstances and punishments one can face if gifted with a beautiful curse. The power that Shazam! exudes is off the charts, a film that will make you believe that a kid can fly, and that you too are super in your own unique way. SHAZAM!
Shazam! gets a 94/100
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