'Shazam!' movie review: Quaint wish fulfillment

DC manages to put in another winner on its plate after Aquaman

The attempt at making a cinematic universe that can rival Marvel has been a long-running dream of DC and Warner Bros., which has largely been more miss than hit. The franchise did find good footing with Wonder Woman and Aquaman, but it is with Shazam! that the troubled franchise finally finds a solid base.

The message that Shazam! embodies is plain from the beginning: family, and for its interpretation of the word, the film follows Billy Batson, a street-smart, though a troubled boy who dislikes the idea of family - having run from several foster homes in the many years after being abandoned by his mother. However, Billy's need to run seems to stem from his idea of finding his way home, an idea instilled by his mother shortly before she abandoned him. He carries a singular belief that his mother is searching for and worrying about him.

Contrasting him is Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), whose relationship with his family is far simpler: He hates them; rather, he hates their guts and how they belittled him his entire life. His part of the family is something the film does away with very quickly to establish him as the antagonist, but he is clearly not calling the shots despite all appearances.

The DCEU has run on fumes since basically since its inception, with Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Justice League all getting less-than-enthusiastic receptions despite the box office numbers.

The franchise made a fatal mistake by setting an ensemble film first rather than taking its time like Marvel did, establishing most of the players before The Avengers first rolled in 2012. Since then, however, DC seems to have understood how to do things, and you need look only at Wonder Woman, Aquaman and now Shazam! to understand it.

Zachary Levi and Asher Angel are the real stars of the film, both literally and metaphorically, as they bring a perfect realisation of what every kid with comic books grew up with: dreams of being a superhero. Along with an almost-too-good performance by Jack Dylan Grazer's superhero fanboy in Freddie Freeman, they steal the show with a mix of childish innocence and a very devil-may-care attitude about superpowers. Levi, in particular, brings his best superhero performance since the early days of Chuck, having graduated from his more sci-fi power days to literal fantasy superpowers.

Sivana, on the other hand, falls rather flat as a villain. His motives are questionably comical at best with the cliche "I want to rule the world" motif, but the Seven Deadly Sins are not even that. They are characters with little personality beyond the urge to destroy things and an almost parasitic desire to have Sivana take the power of Shazam for himself. It feels like there was more to the Sins than just gruesomely killing people while looking like just big, brown demons with glowy eyes but, if there was, it's gone on the cutting floor. Their only saving grace is that their entrance is really scary. However, seeing as this film isn't a deep dive into the Shazam! mythos and is really just an introduction to the character, it can be given a little leeway.

Sandberg's direction lives little to be desired. His balance of unabashed fun and serious brooding is well done and the use of contrasting colours between the characters and the world is eye-catching. The effects could have used some work but they are by large prim and proper.

Overall, Shazam! is exactly the kind of film it's advertising itself to be: A fun time at the cinema to be spent with friends and family, laughing at the gags and going "Whoo!" when the heroes step in to smack the gob out of the bad guys. It's the kind of power fantasy wish fulfilment that anyone can get behind and opens doors to a much deeper and richer mythology.

Director: David F Sandberg
Cast: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Djimon Hounsou

Score: 3.5/5