acid reflects

What a complete joy to watch.

#Shazam!
Directed by David F. Sandberg
Based on the DC Comics characters created by Bill Parker and CC Beck.

The bottom line: Shazam! is pure childhood wish fulfilment that throws you back to the days when you first started liking superheroes.

It’s quite curious that Warner Brothers and New Line undersell this fantastic tale with basic, somewhat subdued trailers and visual marketing that only shows the costumed Zachary Levy in various poses because it’s a big surprise that #Shazam! has a complete, family-oriented story with solid storytelling, bigger-than-life cinematics, and unbridled escapist entertainment.

WITHOUT (much) SPOILERS, as I can.

Fourteen-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) isn’t keen on joining his new foster family, the Vasquezes in wintertime Philadelphia. He’s been deliberately running away from every foster home in an unsuccessful attempt at finding the mother he lost as a child. But the optimistic, cheerful Vasquezes seem to understand him quite well since they too were all orphans themselves.

Meanwhile, the Wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) has been in search of a worthy replacement to his aging, weakening self for many years, barely holding back the Seven Deadly Sins from escaping the Rock of Eternity chamber to unleash hell on earth.

Rich scientist Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) who has discovered his way into the Wizard’s chamber is intent on claiming the magical powers of the Wizard for himself.

So for his final attempt, the Wizard finds Billy and with the magic word, transfers the wisdom of Solomon, strength of Hercules, stamina of Atlas, power of Zeus. courage of Achilles and speed of Mercury to become the best version of Billy – Shazam (Zachary Levi.) Looks like a grown-up, but basically 14 and 1/2 on the inside.

Confused, Shazam hurries back home to seek advice from the superhero geek roommate Freddie (Jack Dylan Grazer) who essentially becomes his mentor. Plus/minus a few sibling issues that they have been thrust into as a consequence of these new daily and magical developments.

Sivana isn’t as cheerful as the Vasquezes, though, after the Seven Deadly Sins took over his body, they’ve all been hell-bent on taking Shazam’s powers. What would poor Billy do, if the evil Doctor came for his new siblings?

Pardon the lengthy summary. It’s quite necessary to set up Billy’s relationships with his new family as this is the core strength of the film. From start to end, Shazam! sustains that thread of family connection in the narrative. A few scenes with parents Rosa and Victor (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews respectively,) a scene with Mary (Michelle Borth,) with Eugene and Pedro (Ian Chen and Jovan Armand) and cute little Darla (Faithe Herman) – just a few meaningful scenes with Billy or with Billy as Shazam, but it is always there – the family. Casting cheers here for retaining the diversity of the Vasquezes and every one of them is just adorable.

The film also got the superhero origin down just pat – no extended drama on how to be worthy of the powers, we know from the get-go that Billy is a good kid looking for his mom (not Martha!) Just say the word and ZAP!⚡️he got the power.

If a superhero movie is only as good as its villain, then Mark Strong makes for a great case for delivering one of his most memorable villainous roles as the insidious Dr. Sivana. He may be all parts evil and brooding, but because of a back story, his Sivana is as hurt and as lonely as Billy is for his true parents – a great counterpoint to Billy’s Shazam with a very intense screen presence to boot. Like, people won’t mind cosplaying as Sivana at all.

In all this is the film’s unbridled, constant humor. Whether it’s poking fun at all DC and Warner Bros franchises to the dynamic duo of caffeine-charged motor-mouth Freddie (Grazer AGAIN making a steal for the show as he did in IT) and Levi’s surprisingly apt portrayal of a young teen trapped in a grown man’s body, eager to experiment on anything adults can (legally) do. Although I must observe, Angel has a slightly subdued Billy compared to Levi’s Billy-trapped-in-Shazam.

The film accomplishes so much without being too compicated, and that’s another one of its powers. In these days of super-sayyan mega-power, scorched earth, the-chosen-one-alone-can-save-the-universe type of films, Shazam! tones it down a notch and with a little family-friendly humor, throws back to the old days when superhero movies were plain simple fun (maybe since the Raimi Spiderman series.) It’s almost old-school but not feeling old at all. For superhero fans, that means going back to the young days of discovering why they liked superheroes in the first place. It’s plain-old joy.

There’s a slight caveat though. For a family-friendly film, this can get a bit dark and violent (no thanks, Dr. Sivana and demons!) and Santa appears in a not-so-jolly way. Best if parents can actually explain some things to bewildered children afterwards.

Feel free TO CHEER IN THE THEATER if you feel like it, because I did – A LOT.

PS: TWO end credit scenes. Stay for those.

Images and trailer link from Warner Bros Pictures