Shazam!

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.