Shazam!

Growing up I was a regular viewer of the Shazam and Isis Super Power Hour on television. Back before the days of mega-budgeted Super Hero movies; we had to content ourselves with cartoons and low budget television offerings which did their best to capture the look and action of comic characters within the budget and technology limits they had to deal with. Warner Bros. has brought their latest DC hero to the big screen with Shazam! and it looks to launch a new franchise for the studio and build on the success of Wonder Woman and Aquaman following some earlier disappointments with their planned hero franchise films. The film follows the story of young Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who has grown up in and fled several Foster Homes after being...

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First of all, I didnt know anything about Shazam. What his powers were, what story did he have Basically, I didnt know who he was. This is what David F. Sandbergs movie does best: introduce the audience to a new DC superhero, by delivering an uncommonly well-structured comic-book screenplay, packed with laughter and entertaining action. Zachary Levi is undoubtedly the standout! Not only is he hilarious, but he perfectly captures the childlike personality that a kid-turned-adult would have. His expressions of absolute surprise and awe of his powers are extremely precious, and he effortlessly carries the more lighthearted tone on his shoulders.

Asher Angel is brilli...

It's entertaining, it has heart, and it's joyful. It has been proven time and time again that these things are what is required for a good Superhero film.

After the spiderman movies, this has to be the most annoying superhero movie I've seen to date. It took nearly an hour for the movie to actually get interesting and during that whole time one is treated to 2 super annoying teenagers.

Honestly, I'm glad I didn't go to the cinema for this otherwise I'd constantly be reaching for remote to press the fast forward button. About the only redeeming quality of this film was the picture and acceptable acting from everybody involved. Pity everything else was bad.

There's no way I'd willingy watch this again. No way.

Definitely has its moments, bit in total the movie feels inconsistent which kills most of the buzz. It switches from rather serious scenes where people actually get hurt to PG-6 compatible simple humor back and forth a few times. With ever transformation the whole character changes, Shazam acting more like a 5 Year old than the 15 Year old Teenager he's supposed to be. Freddy sometimes acts downright malicious, which is not a problem per se except that everyone else doesn't really seem to be bothered much by it.

Still not a bad take on the comic, but it feels inconsistent and left me wondering what age the target audience is supposed to be ...

The titular Shazam and has alter-ego Billy Batson feel like completely different characters. This is not unheard of for a superhero by any stretch, but when accompanied by a change of actor, it's a pretty jarring situation. I also have a hard time figuring out who the target demographic is with this thing. Seems all over the place.

But! at the end of the day, the most important question is "Did I enjoy Shazam!?" and to that the answer is still somehow yes. Probably the best that the DCIThoughSheWasWithUniverse has to offer (with the glaring exception of Wonder Woman).

Final rating: - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.

Zachary Levi is a hoot in this super-hero comedy reminiscent of the now classic Big with Tom Hanks. We get a solid first half, even two thirds, but why oh why do these movies almost always seem to revert to formula in the 3rd act? Been there, done that...

Second viewing and my feelings pretty much remain the same. Fun moments and Zachary Levi was very good in the leading role and although not terribly memorable, Mark Strong made for a fine villain, that said, some of the humor wasn't for me, although I did enjoy some of director David F. Sandberg's more horror-centric style shined through with the Seven Deadly Sins.

Shazam! is a heartwarming funny origin story for kid struggling with family, friends, and his new gifted superpowers. I had a lot of fun with this film, whether it was kids buying beer with their new appearance, the crazy fun training montage, or the humor that surprisingly hit more often than not. Zachary Levi and Jack Grazer had really awesome chemistry, and I loved every minute they were on screen together. Although the same cannot be said for Asher Anger, not that his scenes were bad they just didn't do much for me and felt flat. I felt that they lingered on for too long and I just wanted Shazam back which led to some pacing issues. The villain was nothing to write home about either. He had a very generic motivation and suffered from th...

Well, this is diversity done right. I want to get that out of the way, probably the most diverse cast in any super hero movie to date and... no one complained. No one really even noticed. But that's because, unlike a lot of diversity driven movies, the creators didn't get on a soapbox and shout "like it or else! If you criticize any part of it your a (insert popular woke accusation)!"

The result was that they made a hysterical and totally entertaining movie lots of people loved. The plot was fun and entertaining, the characters were fun and entertaining, they were deep, they had struggles, they overcame the struggles, and they developed over the course of the film.

In other words, they told an actual story and they did it with grace. ...