‘Shazam!’ Review: The Magic Word Is ‘Fun’

The DC superhero movies we’ve gotten so far have mostly been dour, downbeat movies that were a slog to sit through, such as “Man of Steel” in 2013, and “Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice” in 2016. Fans and critics alike pleaded for a more lighthearted approach, something akin to the Marvel comics adaptations, which are filled with one-liners (though even they are getting darker now, with the upcoming “Avengers: Endgame”). With “Justice League” in 2017 and “Aquaman” last year, Warner Bros. seemed to overcompensate, taking a much too comic stance. The problem with “Shazam!” is not that it is too comedic in tone, but that there is not enough comedy. In essence, the parts that are funny or heartwarming are good, and the parts that are serious or action-filled are not.

“Shazam!” takes its name from the wizard who passes on his powers to Billy Batson (Asher Angel). Those powers include flight, super strength, superspeed, and the ability to zap electricity out of his fingertips. The catch? Billy is transformed into an adult played by Zachary Levi when he utters the titular word. Then, and only then, can he use his powers.

Billy has gone through a series of foster homes, all while still searching for his long-lost mother. We know that he is a kid that has not lost hope because we see him approaching a potential parent with the last name of Batson with the same jittery nerves as the last 50 or so on his list.

Billy ends up in a group home headed by two charming parents who were once foster kids themselves. His new brothers and sisters are a motley bunch of more than one cliche, but they are likable enough to make you forget that. Jack Dylan Grazer plays Freddy, the fellow foster kid that Billy becomes closest to. He helps Levi’s Billy discover his new powers, and the two form a dynamic duo of laughs. They are given plenty of juicily funny lines and were clearly having a raving good time. in a wonderful sequence of childlike fun that is filled with joyful energy.

Unfortunately, that energy is rapidly sucked out of the movie whenever the terrifyingly dull villain, Thaddeus Sivana, shows up. Not helped by a manipulative score that attempts to sound impending doom whenever he takes off his glasses to reveal one blue eye, Sivana is a villain as boring as they come.

His family looked down on him, saying he wasn’t good enough when he was a kid (shocker), and the same wizard who provided Billy with his powers passed on Sivana because he didn’t have a “pure” heart. Sivana (who is an adult, to be clear) now wants to destroy Billy with the help of the seven deadly sins (basically, just average CGI movie monsters). The sins could have been an interesting concept, adding some level of nuance to a movie trading in the obvious, but instead they are cut down to the bare basic: they just want to kill people.

There are too many scenes of Sivana up to no good, and they go on for too long. The real core of the movie is Billy interacting with his foster family. Those scenes bring the humor, emotion, and conflict. Quite frankly, this movie didn’t need a villainous villain like Sivana to shake things up. It was doing fine on its own until he showed up again and again. I would have loved to see a superhero movie without the average melodramatic action and instead with a real heart.

“Shazam!” does have consistent themes of family and working together, celebrating outsiderness. It is at its best when the charismatic Levi and Grazer are on the same team, joking around with each other and their brothers and sisters. In the end, “Shazam!” suffers from the same pitfalls of most superhero tales: a weak villain, weak action, and not enough of that “special sauce” that makes a movie memorable.

{★★½☆}