Shazam! Sparkles

Shazam! (2019)

Shazam! was a great time, even though it has some flaws. It has all of the fun that Batman v. Superman and Justice League were missing. It nailed the tone of a movie about a superhero that is a child in an adult’s body. Zachary Levi did a great job of capturing the youthful exuberance as he discovered his true power. You could tell that he had fun playing that character, who never was given a name. I will refer to him as Shazam for the rest of this review, even though Shazam is the name of the wizard who gives him the powers. It is confusing when you think back, but it made sense in the movie. Shazam is a relatively by-the-numbers origin story, where the hero gets his powers and has to face off against a dark reflection of himself to save the day. While the framework was very ordinary, the characters carried the film. Beyond the lead, Billy Batson, and the villain, Thaddeus Sivana, most of the characters are given small arcs in order to create investment. Each minor character gets at least one moment and even the child actors do a great job of shining in those scenes. Batson and Sivana are given in depth character development, building until the climax of the film. Those building scenes were the strength of this movie. Watching Batson deal with being a superhero parallel Sivana dealing with being a super villain made me reflect on how I would react in a similar situation. Their arcs were the most human reactions to having powers that I have seen depicted in film. Batson used his Shazam powers for fun and then to protect people, while Sivana went for revenge. If I were given powers, that is what I would do. I would either be a villain, or, more likely, an antihero and do what I want, which may be saving some people some of the time. I was smiling for the entire movie until the final battle, which was just another fight with CGI monsters. It was quite underwhelming for a final battle, but the scenes after returned the fun. I thoroughly enjoyed Shazam! and am very excited for Dwayne Johnson to play Black Adam in future movies. Overall, I give Shazam! the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, but not the speed of Mercury (basically, 6 out of 7).