Troubled
teen Billy Batson (Asher Angel) repeatedly runs off from foster families to try
to track down his birth mother. His decision to stick up for his newest foster
brother, Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazier), catches the attention of the
wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou). Severely weakened and in need of a good person
to champion his cause, the wizard transfers his powers to Batson, who, upon
speaking the wizard’s name, transforms into a might adult superhero (Zachary
Levi). Though Billy and Freddy at first exploit the former’s newfound powers
for amusement and personal gain, they face a threat in the form of Doctor
Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), a scientist and rejected would-be champion who
has been corrupted and empowered by the Seven Deadly Sins.
The character now known as Shazam has a long and troubled history. Debuting all the
way back in 1939 as Captain Marvel, the character was enough like Superman to
prompt a lawsuit that buried its publisher. DC, who published Superman, then
acquired the character, only to come into conflict with Marvel Comics over the
latter’s own Captain Marvel. As if that wasn’t enough, Billy Batson was given a
major overhaul during the past few years, chucking decades of characterization
to make him edgier and more contemporary. All of this adds up to a property
that should have been unfilmable, but that didn’t stop Warner Brothers from
trying, and, surprisingly, succeeding.
What makes
Shazam! both a solid film in its own
right and a welcome change-of-pace from Zack Snyder’s dark pseudo-realism is
its lighter tone, self-awareness, and infectious sense of fun. In his classic
incarnation, Billy was the embodiment of pure good, making his superhero form a
hopelessly naïve bore. Here, he’s got more baggage while still retaining a
moral core. Credit Angel for being able to convincingly portray both the façade
and the vulnerability that it conceals. Levi, for his part, channels Tom Hanks
in Big (there’s even a shout-out to
that film’s giant keyboard), playing Shazam as immature and selfish yet also
well-intentioned (sometimes) and giddy. As a kid in an adult’s body, he screws
up a lot, and much of the film’s humor derives from watching him try to play
hero in a superhero-aware, social media-driven era. Levi’s timing and penchant
for slapstick are assets here.
The film’s
sensibility is a head-scratcher given that its director, David Sandberg, is
best known for horror fare. Then again, amid all the hijinks, Shazam! still
touches on the weighty theme of parental neglect, a trait common to both Batson
and Sivanna. Speaking of Sivanna, his reimagining is questionable to say the
least. In the comics, he’s a diminutive, quintessential cackling mad scientist.
Here, he is played by the aptly-named Strong, who is much more of a physical
threat and whose cool, dry menace does more to channel Lex Luthor. Beefing up
his powers will make it hard for the next nemesis Shazam faces (set to be
Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam) to seem as impressive in comparison. Hounsou’s
casting is equally suspect as Shazam! is his third superhero outing of the
year: he played a fish king in Aquaman
and reprised his role as Korath in, ironically, Captain Marvel. Hounsou is a talented actor (as anyone who
remembers Amistad can attest), and
had a Black Panther movie gotten off the ground twenty years ago, he would have
been a strong candidate for the lead role. It is somewhat disheartening to
watch him slum it in bit parts under heavy makeup and/or ridiculous costuming.
These gripes
– and a lack of an empowered tiger (it makes sense if you read the source
material) – aside, Shazam! remains a competent
action-comedy with a heart. It doesn’t do anything genre defining/redefining, but
its lack of pretension and embrace of its own goofiness is an achievement in
and of itself.
