Directed by: David Sandberg
Screenplay by: Harry Gayden
Cast: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Mark Strong, Dijmon Hounsou, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans
“Shazam”, I shouted aloud and…poof? No poof! Nothing happened; I guess I’m not a super hero. Too bad, might have been lots of fun fighting injustice on an earth saving level rather than writing about the fantasy ones that do!
I remember a series on TV years ago (The Greatest American Hero) about a teacher named Ralph Hinkley who is given a super suit by aliens, promptly loses the instruction booklet, and has to learn how to use it one disaster after another. It’s kinda the same thing here, with the twist that now it’s the student not the teacher that gets the powers he doesn’t know how to control.
Filled with the joyous wonder of childhood and overflowing with endearing performances by a diverse cast of talented teenagers, Shazam turns out to be an entertaining mix of humor and heart that pays homage more to the early films of Spielberg (ET) and Abrams (Super 8), than those of the typical DC universe heroes.
Here’s The Storyline…
It all starts in the “Rock of Eternity” lair with the dying wizard SHAZAM (Hounsou) who is searching for a person “pure of soul” to take over his position as Hero/Overseer of the incarnate seven deadly sins. After rejecting centuries of potential subjects, he finally settles on streetwise 14-year-old foster kid Billy Batson (Angel).
The wizard endows Billy with his powers before he fades to dust, by making him shout out one word SHAZAM!, which instantly turns him into the adult super hero, the new ”Shazam” (Levi). Problem is he’s still a kid inside this big muscular, Utopian body. A kid who has no idea of what he can and can’t do with his powers.
So he does what any teenager would do with superpowers, he has fun with them! Testing the limits of his abilities with reckless abandon, trying to fly, see through objects, shoot lightning bolts out of his hands, run faster than a speeding bullet. You get the idea. The trouble is he has an arch rival that wants his powers. Can he master his abilities before the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Strong) can defeat him?
The film is actually all about family, what it means, how it’s changed, and how it fits into in our new reality. Not that it’s preachy, it isn’t, it just forms the basis for everything that happens.
Director Sandberg has crafted a silly, yet quite dark at times, fantasy for teens. His biggest misstep is that he made the adult version of Billy stupid, while the younger version is quite smart. It’s often hard to believe, even in a fantasy, that an insular streetwise kid would all of a sudden start taking selfies on a street corner to amuse people. Oh well, I guess you’re supposed to just go with the flow.
My take… I went with the flow and enjoyed watching the film, though I thought it was a bit too long. It’s good goofy fun for a teenage audience hungry for effects ridden super hero films.
