Film of the Week: Shazam

A superheroes go, Shazam is one of the weirdest yet, especially when wording the synopsis as “a fourteen-year-old boy is chosen to wield the power of Shazam; by calling out the name, he transforms into a superman-like, grown man superhero and must save the world from the seven deadly sins.” Doesn’t get any weirder than that, can it?

Well, it does, but unfortunately, not for the best of reasons. Shazam is the first DC movie within the extended universe to be lighter in tone than any movie before it. DC is known for being dark and gritty with serious tones throughout, which no one has a problem with if the films were made well. Batman Vs Superman was slaughtered by the public for various reasons, The Justice League was panned by the public for poor special effects of the main villain, Batman’s seemingly drastic personality change from the previous film, and Suicide Squad has been ridiculed by even the studio itself in other films, such as The Lego Batman movie. It’s all well and good poking fun at yourself from time to time, but the moments those movies chose to parody shouldn’t have been those moments anyway.

Shazam is – and I’m going to say – the most MARVEL movie DC has done yet. Not nitty and gritty, but instead light-hearted throughout, with jokes scattered throughout. Except, those moments you know were blatant jokes, made with the intention of making the audience laugh, fell flat. There were only a couple of times throughout the movie where I laughed, every other time I just sat there, with a blank face. The concept of Shazam, where a fourteen-year-old boy magically changes into a super-powered man whenever he says the word, “Shazam” is never taken seriously until the climactic battle – and that is a tactful move to make, because of course it is a strange idea.

The handling of the character suddenly changing from fourteen-year-old boy to a grown man at the beginning, was done well. At the start of acquiring his powers, there was a montage of him testing what powers he does and doesn’t have, then going overboard with it and not taking the powers seriously, as one wouldn’t be considering the character of Shazam is, technically, still fourteen-years old. But when it came down to it, he did step up and started using his powers on a more responsible level. There is some good character growth within the movie, I’ll give them credit for that. The special effects are also good enough to not be distracting from the rest of the scene, so it is a good watch, but noticeably, just about a tolerable one. I haven’t seen any official confirmation of this, but they should have stated the target audience of this film was four children, because that’s exactly what this film is, a children’s movie.

There is one decent Easter egg in the movie which I found was rather clever. During the first fight between Shazam and the host for the seven deadly sins, he momentarily halts as he discovers to be standing on a piano on the floor, incredibly similar, if not identical, to the one seen in Big – a classic film starring Tom Hanks, about a boy who wishes himself to be an adult and wakes up the next morning an actual adult. Since the piano dance seen in Big is one of the most memorable moments, and the two films sharing the connection of a character becoming an adult in one way or another, I found it a touching reference, albeit a now unfortunately obscure reference that would wash over people’s heads as the majority of people who would watch the film wouldn’t have seen Big.

Shazam isn’t a bad film, and maybe I’ve been too harsh on a few points. In conclusion, it just isn’t my cup of tea, but I do see how children would enjoy and learn from the moral message within – “there’s a superhero in all of us.”

What is strange, is how Captain Marvel and Shazam were both released in the same month, and technically, those two are the same characters...

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)