The 'Not-So-Critical' Critic: SHAZAM!

The 'Not-So-Critical' Critic: 

on SHAZAM! (2019, 132 minutes, PG-13)

The Quick of It -

To be a kid again.  What a joy it… would… be…

Okay, maybe a bit different now than I remember.  A different ‘age’.  But, seeing that same sense of fun and adventure in SHAZAM! does make me kinda want to get on my bike and ride off to meet with my friends at the park or the mall.  Adulting is not so fun.  And, this is the magic that is embraced in SHAZAM!

I can honestly say that the combination found in these superhero movies of action and comedy was not quite the same here as Marvel has been releasing in redundancy.  Director David F. Sandberg, of LIGHTS OUT and ANNABELLE: CREATION, switches from horror to superheroes, maybe one way to enact a slight change in perspective.  Sandberg puts to film the tale Henry Gayde wrote, a joyous escapade you would find similar to BIG and THE GOONIES.  Both seems new to the big-budget film world but have here a defining contribution to the DCU.  There is plenty of humor but a resounding sense of childhood wonder and the love a family can provide makes this work.

Zachery Levi, of ‘Chuck’, TANGLED, and THOR: THE DARK WORLD, does a fine job, embracing his Chuck-side again.  I will say after having watched ‘Chuck’ long ago, I had a hard time seeing him in that inflated suit with glowsticks.  I have been spoiled with DC TV shows having more grounded super-suits.  The kid crew, led by Jack Dylan Grazer as his moral and superhero compass Freddy Freeman, holds up well as a central character, demanding a lot to make the theme authentic.  Kid actors can really complicate a story with just subtle things, but we do not see much of it here throughout the story.

SHAZAM! is an origin story having the Billy Batson, a boy put into foster care after losing his mother in a crowd.  He faces of against Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, played by the busy and remarkable character actor Mark Strong, who was previously rejected as the inheritor of the Shazam power.  The stories pacing shows what DC does best, building a well-rounded villain.  You quickly become sympathetic and understand why he goes down this dark path.  Billy must work through his struggle, trying to find his mother while learning to survive as a near-homeless, angry boy who is gifted with powers.

The lighthearted feel makes this a bridge between the childhoods of yesteryear and today.  I think that is the greatest gift this film offers, to see the same, simple desires we had as children reach the newer generation that is submerged in technology.  Magic still exists.

Grade: A-