Shazam!

3/5

You almost can’t avoid superhero films this year and every month in 2019 feels like it has a comic book related release. April is no different and has bought about the first DC film since last year’s popular, if not ground breaking, Aquaman.

Shazam! follows the story of 14-year-old foster kid Billy Batson, who after being summoned to the Wizards cave takes on the power of ‘Shazam’ and can transform into a fully grown up adult superhero. Upon returning home Billy (now as Shazam) and fellow foster kid Freddy do what every modern teenager would do if your best friend turns into an adult superhero. They bunk off school, make YouTube videos on their phones, buy beer and visit a strip club. But every superhero has a supervillain and Shazam’s growing social media presence puts him directly in the firing line of the evil Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).

All DC films will inevitably be compared to their Marvel counterparts and this film is no different, probably being most comparable to 2015’s Ant-Man. As with Ant-Man, Shazam has more of a direct focus on the comedic element and whilst there is power at play the plot is smaller and threat more inwardly focussed than some superhero films which quickly turn into worldwide disaster movies.

The slapstick comedic elements may not be to my personal taste, but the film is funny and there were numerous laughs throughout the cinema. The child becoming an adult storyline is not an original idea, but this film doesn’t take itself seriously enough for that to be a problem, even making a joke about a stand on keyboard in homage to Tom Hanks in ‘Big’.

The film isn’t perfect and does have some problems. Firstly, it’s just too long.  The build up to the final showdown does start to drag on slightly and by the end you feel like they are really exhausting the storyline. The film does end on a strong note that makes some of the build-up worthwhile, it could have just been edited down 20 minutes. Similarly, the writing at times is a bit sloppy, for example a character manages to know the name of something that hasn’t been introduced at all with no explanation to how they know so much. Overall the writing is focussed on the gags rather than the storyline dialogue and its funny enough for the viewer to ignore some of the nit-pickier issues like the above.

There’s no denying that Shazam! is an enjoyable film and like last year’s Aquaman it’s perfectly fun with quite a few laughs without being hugely memorable or game changing. DC nevertheless should regard this film as a success and whilst their magnum opus is still ‘Wonder Woman’, this film feels like another step in a stronger and just genuinely more enjoyable direction for the DC Universe.

Written by Will