Director: David F. Sandberg
Distributor: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
Duration: 131 minutes
Shazam! (Blu-ray) – Movie Review
The cinematic DC universe is slowly expanding, even though it seems that Warner has already given up on the Justice League as a whole. Nonetheless, with Wonder Woman and Aquaman hitting the cinemas some time ago, we reckoned that The Flash or Cyborg would be the next superheroes to step up to the plate. Quite unexpectedly we got to see Shazam! steal the other heroes’ thunder, quite literally.
Shazam! tells us the story of the fourteen-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who is going from one foster home to another, running away each time, hoping to find his birth mother. At a young age, he was separated from his mother, and he is desperately trying to find her and become a real family again. Now, he ends up in a home where the foster parents used to be foster kids as well, and while Billy tries to run away again, something happens that made him come into contact with an ancient wizard that transferred his power to Billy. He now finds himself stuck in the body of an adult man (Zachary Levi), with powers he can’t explain. To help him, he’ll need the expertise of Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), his new ‘brother’. While learning the ropes of using his powers, Billy only uses them for parlor tricks and to score a few bucks now and then, but when a villain steps into the limelight, trying to destroy Shazam, he has to man up, buckle down and try to save the world from the seven deadly sins that reside within Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong).
You’ll notice that the flow is pretty much like any other superhero movie, albeit a bit quirkier and funnier than the typical DC film. You’ll have a fourteen-year-old kid playing the lead in the movie, which means that his ‘adult’ form also has to act like a teenager, which creates some humorous situations, making this movie a bit more lighthearted than the other movies in the DC universe. The movie goes from the origin of the superhero to the young successor failing to fill the shoes of the original Shazam. A villain arrives on the stage, and he’ll have to man up to save the world, or at least the people he cares about. It’s pretty standard stuff, but it’s all wrapped in a fun package.
Acting performances are top-notch in this movie. It’s actually quite rare to have a movie with such a young cast who can act, who don’t feel like they’re overacting and aren’t excruciatingly annoying. Asher Angel plays a great young Billy Batson, and Zachary Levi does a formidable job in conveying the young attitude of Billy into his ‘adult form’. Mark Strong is a great villain for this movie, as he not only has the looks but also the acting capabilities. We can say that the casting has been handled with care for this one.
The special features on the Blu-ray edition of Shazam! are quite plentiful and will extend your superhero experience for quite a bit. You’ll see parts about the cast, how the movie was made, alternate and deleted scenes and a fun voiced comic book story. If you didn’t know anything about Shazam yet, there’s also a short informative snippet about the series as a whole. There’s a lot of extra content, making getting a physical copy totally worth it.
Conclusion
Shazam! is another successful entry in the DC universe of superheroes. While Justice League pretty much bombed and there are rumors a second movie will never be made, the standalone films prove to be very entertaining, and Shazam! can easily compete with the likes of Wonder Woman and Aquaman. If you want to learn a bit more about a superhero that’s often background noise in the world of Superman and Batman, then Shazam! will provide you with a very fun experience.
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