A mixture of dark tones and laughs at super hero origin movies: Shazam! electrifies the audience with a script that must be 50% comprised of two words that are shouted over and over SHAZAM! and BILLY!!
I won’t spoil anything here and I will keep this review rather short.
Do you enjoy super hero origin stories?
Do you enjoy every other scene being in slow-mo and over the top action scenes?
Adults acting like children?
You know video game humor right! Boy o Boy does this movie deliver on that!!!
How about fights that take place in several locations thanks to super speed and flight and whose purpose was a joke, does that tickle your fancy?
Well not since Thor: Ragnarok! have I heard so many one liners and seen so many attempts to pull at the heart strings that ends up combining into messy tonal shift between lighthearted fun and wanting to be dark and brooding.
I want to like this movie and maybe I have been watching too much RedLetterMedia’s Half in the Bag series lately but this movie falls a little flat.
The main villain is a joke to his family and the audience, who ends up as more of a comic relief rather than someone who feels strong and presences should be feared. At one point I was sitting in the theater waiting for a laugh track to start up, as the delivery and silence that followed after some of these lines felt more like Seinfeld than an action super hero movie. The super hero is a little too super and is able to do anything without any real consequences.
So Anthony would you recommend Shazam!
I imagine that fans of comic won’t be disappointed by the debut Shazam! on the big screen but as a casual fan I am a little torn. If you can suspend your disbelief and enjoy that delicious buttery and crunchy popcorn throughout you may find yourself wrapped up in all of the aren’t we having fun wink wink nod nod taking place on screen. For me there were too many moments of the film that broke down to two words BILLY!!!! and SHAZAM!
WARNING WARNING MINI RANT INBOUND —- MINI SPOILER KINDA IDK. IF YOU MADE IT THIS FAR YOU PROBABLY DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS KIND OF THING!!!!
One scene that I can’t get out of my head and just took me out of the movie is during the big action scene towards the end. Billy and the foster gang find themselves fighting the laughable super villain at a Christmas themed carnival. (Was this movie originally supposed to be released around that time?) Billy says some brave thing about if a super hero can’t take care of his family what kind of super hero is he.
Boom Boom Pow! Yadda Yadda Yadda….
Zipping around the screen, throwing punches, and slamming each other into the ground as hard as possible. SHAZAM! find himself unable to beat up one of the Seven deadly sins as it keeps turning into ash whenever SHAZAM! goes to attack him.
The Sin pins down SHAZAM! who then quickly escapes by changing back to BILLY! Billy runs across a stage that is made of fake ice and the Sin smashes the stage with enough force to send Billy flying face first into a hole. Fine I am okay with all of this so far. On the stage that has the fake ice is what looks like Santa’s House and a place for parents to bring their kids and take pictures with the fat man himself, think of any setup that are at malls in America.
THIS IS THE PART THAT IS STILL IRKING ME…
Under the fake ice stage is a pool, not just any pool but one large enough for a teen to drown in… why in the name of all that is holy is that there. Why would the people setting up the carnival go through all of that trouble to make this elaborate stage, that no one will appreciate since the entire stage is covered in fake ice and there is no display for the water to be seen otherwise. The main villain is able to hold Billy’s head under water and since the word SHAZAM! isn’t audible under the water Billy can’t transform….. is the only reason that this stage and pool exist. END OF MINI RANT.
Final Thoughts
As much as I crapped on this one in that mini rant… I still found myself laughing and having somewhat of a decent time. Go see this one with the analytical side of your brain turned off and have yourself a blast, if that’s not possible avoid this one. You could probably already tell me everything that happens thanks to the trailers.
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