After Marvel established the MCU decades earlier, now DC Comics ramps up their offerings to solidify the DC Universe. After the success of Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Aquaman, they released another super hero in Shazam.
Movie starts off with a youthful Thaddeus Sivana in a car with his dad and brother when suddenly he gets transported to the Rock of Eternity. The ancient Shazam was searching for a new champion so he was thinking Thaddeus was someone with a pure heart but he failed when he was tested and he was returned to the car right away. Thaddeus return resulted to a car accident where his dad was injured and became a cripple.
Fast forward to the present times, another teenager Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel) comes into view. A troubled teenager, he is a regular in and out of foster homes as he tries to search for her birth mother. After a few families, he is now fostered in the home of Victor and Rosa Vasquez (played by Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans respectively) who has 5 other foster children. Even with the Vasquez love, Billy continued to be alone and would not want to have anything to do with the Vasquez home.
During this time, an adult Thaddeus Sivana (now played by Mark Strong) finally made his way back to the Rock of Eternity and was able to get the Eye of Sin. He won over the ancient wizard and used this power to kill his dad and his brother along with the board of directors of Sivana Industies.
After a few scenes in school and at home, we find him running away from bullies and hides away in the subway when it was now his time to be transported to the Rock of Eternity. Finally the ancient wizard found his champion in Billy and he transferred his powers to him via Billy shouting the name "Shazam" while holding the magic staff. The ancient wizard turned to dust and Billy now Shazam, went back home as Shazam and sought the help of his foster brother, Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer) who knows about superhero stuff. The latter helps him discover his powers until Thaddeus confronts him Shazam. A fight ensued and Shazam being inexperienced, he barely escaped Thaddeus' wrath, but the latter was able to guess his true identity. Thaddeus then kidnaps the other foster children hoping that Billy would rescue them which he did.
When Billy came as Shazam, he knew he can't fight all the seven sins, and remembering the last words of the ancient wizard, he shares the power to his foster brother and sisters. Now that he has levelled the playing field, he was able to confront Thaddeus alone while his brothers and sisters took care of the other sins. In the end, Shazam was able to outwit the seven sins and got the Eye of Sin from Thaddeus.
The movie for us was quirky and funny as they intended it to be. We thought they followed the formula for Deadpool complete with funny antics and lines except for the R-18 jokes and graphic representations. Consider this as mellowed down or GP rated Deadpool aimed for the younger crowd. We like Zachary Levi as Shazam and boy he is funny. He really was a good pick to play the title role while the foster parents were a perfect fit. The other foster kids gave decent performances in the minimal screen times they were given.
Storywise, as an origin story, it wasn't boring and slow. They told the story in such a simple and fast pace that we didn't miss or skipped a beat as to how he became Shazam. There might be more to the story which was "skipped" but we didn't mind it all, as long as we know where he was coming from, its okay with us. The origin and character development of the anti hero Thaddeus Sivana was similar with that of Billy Batson but we find him being resentful and wants to return to the Rock of Eternity enough motivation to be bad.
The pacing of the story was nice and it we liked the roller coaster type of story telling where you find some parts slow and then picks up the pace again. What diminish our interest is the build up of some scenes. Comedy situations were fine, but sometimes we are confused when the scenes turn to drama of sorts. We were expecting a scene to be funny then it becomes serious and then vice versa. These scenes we mentioned are just subtle so if you are not much into this film, you will never notice them. You will still be entertained by this movie. Shazam is a good super hero movie and kudos to the DCU for striking a home run with this. We just hope they can mirror this success along with that of Wonder Woman, Deadpool and Aquaman to their Batman, Superman and Justice League franchises.
Since this is still new, you can buy the DVD or Blue-ray to watch this.
