This film is a 12A, was released on April 5th 2019, and this review will contain NO SPOILERS
Introduction
As much as I've rambled on about superheroes over the past few months, you may have noticed there's one studio that specialises in these films that I haven't spoken much of, DC. The only reason why I haven't seen any films from DC, more specifically the DCEU, is because they weren't well received and I just didn't think they were worth my time. Plus I want to stay a solid Marvel fan and not support its rivaling franchise. However, the films seemingly have gone up in quality, with Wonder Woman seeming to be a powerful and inspiring film, and Aquaman being a mindless but fun caper. But the film that finally convinced me to check out one of these films was Shazam!
Thoughts Going In
I didn't know what to expect from Shazam!, it was getting some very good praise from critics and fans alike. The reasons I chose to see it was because, firstly, I'm overloaded with exam revision and felt it could cheer me up, and secondly, it just looked like fun and perhaps could convince me to jump on board with the DCEU. So, I decided to give it a chance.
The Story
14 year old Billy is a foster child who runs all over his home city to find his mother. However, he is put into a foster home where he meets a lot of new 'siblings', one being another boy named Freddie, who is obsessed with superheroes. After being chased by a pack of bullies, Billy ends up in a mysterious cave where he meets a mystical wizard, who grants him all his remaining power. Billy is then turned into a grown superhero by the name of Shazam! But, he doesn't know what he is capable of. So, he and Freddie have to find out what he can do before Mark Strong's villain, who was deemed unworthy of the the same power, tries to kill him.
What I Liked
This film is SO FUNNY! I honestly didn't expect to get this much out of the film in terms of comedy. Zachary Levi as Shazam! is such a likeable screen presence and his childish personality within his grown body makes him a really endearing character. There are numerous entertaining scenes with Billy and Freddie trying to get an understanding of what Shazam! can do, resulting in situations like deliberately asking to be shot by robbers to see if he's bulletproof, or crashing into buildings when seeing how high he can jump. This was a superhero movie in which the comedy was much stronger than the action, I laughed thoroughly throughout.
Alongside all the humour, the story has plenty of heart and doesn't lose sight of some of the themes tackled. Not everything is explored in great detail, but it was nice to see the filmmakers wanting to make this all seem realistic and believable alongside all the bonkers action. That and the fact that a 14 year old is the main character gave the film a nice tone and charming setting within a school. It reminded me of Spider-Man: Homecoming, in that there's plenty of action and thrills, but a great story and a nice tone alongside it.
The other thing I enjoyed was the villain. Of course there is a slight bias coming from me as I'm a big fan of Mark Strong after seeing him in Kingsman, but he was really enjoyable and was clearly having a lot of fun with his scene-stealing villain.
What I Didn't Like
My biggest problem with Shazam! was that I think it was overly long. The film is about two hours and fifteen minutes and it definitely felt that way. A lot of scenes dragged on and felt kind of boring and tiring at certain points. This is most evident with the final battle. I'm not sure exactly how long it was, but it felt at least like it was half an hour. A lot of times during this scene felt repetitive of moments earlier in the same scene. There are two epic suit up to Shazam! moments and multiple "all seems lost" moments. So it felt quite shallow as a final battle and this wasn't helped by the fact that seeing all the characters fly around or get smashed into walls and such got a bit fatiguing after a while. So that's really my major criticism with Shazam!, if the final battle was condensed and the pacing was better at certain points, I would've liked it much more.
Conclusion
I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I really like a DCEU film! Shazam! isn't by any means a classic nor is it a stand out in the superhero genre, but it is a really funny, thoroughly entertaining and tonally charming film that I think works very well on its own and will serve as a nice watch on almost any occassion. I enjoyed it so much that I may even check out some other offerings from the franchise. It's much better than Captain Marvel for sure, but I don't think that it'll be the best superhero movie of the year...
I'm going to give Shazam! an 8/10
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