Striking Lightning, Finding Sparks - Shazam! Review

The DCEU has finally found its footing, even if they may be a bit off balance still. After Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and now Shazam, I think we’re on the track to success. You’ll notice that success isn’t quite here yet in my opinion. I think that there’s one key difference that puts Marvel movies ahead of the game and I’m going to explore that some later, but of course I’m here to talk about Shazam. It’s not perfect, and it shows those imperfections very plainly, but David F. Sandberg put together some of the most fun you’ll have in a theater this Spring.

First off, the story of Shazam is, and always has been, perfect for kids. A young boy whose good qualities shine is given incredible superpowers and can access them, changing his appearance, if he shouts the magic word: Shazam! It’s a kid’s dream and the movie plays that up really well. The film focuses on Billy Batson, a young runaway orphan who is moved to yet another group home. This one, though, is filled with a loving family and an adorable cast of characters for Bily to be around. After saving his new roommate Freddy from some bullies, Billy is transported to a magical realm and given the powers of Shazam: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. It’s a laundry list of abilities and is very comparable to Superman if you need a reference for what he can do, save for the lightning of Zeus.

From there, Mark Strong provides the villainy as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (they really went for one of the most evil names possible) who is looking to absorb Shazam’s powers for himself in a storyline that is a little overdone, but gives him enough motivation that I wasn’t bothered by the great, over-the-top performance Strong gives. Billy must learn to control his new powers with the help of Freddy, a superhero nerd in a world where they actually exist, in order to stop Sivana from exacting his plan.

The beats are familiar for any superhero origin story, but due to the overall fun and new premise, there is very little boredom to be had. Zachary Levi plays adult Shazam with such enigmatic fun, that his happiness and excitedness about every new facet of his powers is infectious. He plays incredibly well off of Jack Dylan Grazer’s performance as Freddy, as the very odd looking pair of an adult superhero and his 10-year-old best friend. Everybody fits into the story well, especially all of the side characters. Billy’s new group home is filled with several other children all with their own distinct personalities who really get a chance to have fun along the way. With a brisk pace, the two hour runtime really does fly by here.

The parts where I had troubles are, unfortunately, staples of DC’s newer slate of films. For starters, there is a lot of CGI that comes along with Dr. Silvana’s henchmen, and it is all over the place. Sometimes looking like the big budget movie that it is, and sometimes looking like it went straight to DVD in 2009, I was thrown off quite a bit by how out of place the bad guys often looked.

Another issue I took with the movie was its atrocious editing. There are so many scenes with terrible edits. Whether it be how long we’re forced to look at a boring, unmoving scene, or the lack of focus that gets put on a character who’s speaking, or one particular instance where the screen cuts to black for a solid five seconds for suspense which is the absolute worst way to do that. It doesn’t help that a very similar scene is shown later where the editing is executed far better either. There are some really poor choices on what to show the audience in a medium where that’s the most important thing.

Other nitpicks boil down to a lot of small story things. Some bad guys have powers that get used at one point to win a fight, and then they never use that power again for the sole reason that they’re supposed to lose now. Little beats where characters make a big scene which would probably catch the attention of the millions of people who live in Philadelphia, but seem to go completely unnoticed until, again, it suits the story felt weird too. On their own, these aren’t dealbreakers, but added up they bugged me a bit.

I brought up Marvel earlier because the comparison has to be made here. DC has embraced that superheros are fun and their movies about them can be fun and funny. The drawback here is the talent behind the camera. Marvel’s writing and directing teams work together in perfect harmony all the time, and especially do so for the first film in a series to set the tone for future films with the characters. Jon Favreau helmed Iron Man with a team of writers known for crafting a great story on Children of Men and comic book nerds who would keep things together for the fans. James Gunn put together Guardians of the Galaxy with Phil Lord and Chris Miller, two of the most respected and fun comedy writers in Hollywood. Joss Whedon took over The Avengers singlehandedly as one of the greatest nerdy heroes and capable directors in cinema.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there is almost always great synergy behind the camera with Marvel, and these teams are constructed with such intentionality based around the feel of the story. That’s what makes their movies work so well. Shazam is helmed by a director known for two great horror films and the writer of Earth to Echo. That’s not synergy behind the camera and it shows. Aquaman had a similar issue, as James Wan is a great action and horror movie director and he stylized every action sequence incredibly well, but it was written by people with no experience crafting anything but excuses for those action sequences.

The DCEU continues to make their movies fun and interesting, and they’re building off of the good work that has been laid down to far. The issue is that there is very little consistency and comradery behind the scenes. Until that’s fixed, we’re going to continue getting movies that are a bit of a mixed bag. And while we all love searching through bags for loads of treasure, we’re going to keep finding some trash in there as well.

7/10