Shazam!
I'm probably the last person in the world to review this but I can't help but throw in my own two cents on a superhero movie. Especially not one I enjoyed as much as this.
Unsurprisingly, this review ran a little long and more than a little late but, as I'm about to post my *shudder* Hellboy (2019) review, spending some time on a film like Shazam feels all the more appropriate...
The Plot: Billy Batson is a troubled teenager who has spent his childhood being shunted from one foster home to the next ever since he was separated from his mother at a carnival when he was a toddler. After stopping his latest "foster brother" from being beaten up by a group of school bullies, Billy finds himself before the wizard, Shazam, who bestows on Billy superhuman powers in an effort to stop Thadeus Sivana, a ruthlessly ambitious Evil Scientist who dedicated his life to finding the Wizard and stealing his powers but instead, in his failure, let loose the embodiment of the Seven Deadly sins on the Earth and became something even more deadly.
Review: You wait all your life for a Captain Marvel movie and two come along (almost) at once...
By now, I'm sure everyone knows that DC's Shazam was originally published by Fawcett Comics and named Captain Marvel before DC sued Fawcett for ripping off Superman, only to end up licensing and then buying the character a few decades later. No? Just me?
Anyway, the character was recently rebranded Shazam when DC's Marvelous competition won the fight over the name "Captain Marvel" - well, sort of: DC has even recently published comics of an alternate-earth version that still goes by the name Captain Marvel (confused yet?) - and he's been stuck as the one superhero who can't say his own name for fear of losing all his powers. It is, to say the least, the sort of ludicrously complex character history that kind of only happens in the mad, mad, mad world of the comic book industry and it is even acknowledged by the film itself with a running gag where the Good Captain can't decide on a superhero name for himself.
Carol Danvers, Marvel's uber-powerful superheroine who "stole" his name, on the other hand, has a rather storied history of her own and when she beat DC's Big Red Cheese to cinemas by a matter of weeks, she represented a major sea-change for Marvel Studios. After years of believing that no female-led superhero film would ever do as well at the box office as their male counterparts, Marvel noted the massive success that DC had with their Wonder Woman film and, finally, after twenty MCU movies, released their first film with a woman in the lead role. For DC, though, their Captain Marvel also represents a sea-change to their own "Extended Universe" - or at least solid confirmation that one was already in place.
The whole DCEU started with a massive thud as Zack Snyder took Superman, the superhero that most represents optimism and hope, and cast him in a grey, gloomy, dirge of a film called Man of Steel and, despite allowing Snyder to drive the whole franchise further and further into the ground with Batman v Superman and Justice League, they have been trying to course-correct ever since. Wonder Woman (probably still the best film in the franchise) did offer a glimmer of hope but it could easily have been written off as a fluke - especially after being followed by the atrocious Suicide Squad (itself up for a reimagining in the next couple of years by Guardian of the Galaxy's James Gunn). Last year's Aquaman, however, proved that Wonder Woman was the start of a new look and feel for the DCEU rather than just the once-off anomaly it could have been - even if it was more massively enjoyable for its sheer lunacy than for being a truly great movie.
If it's true that you need three to prove a change in status (a chazaka for my Jewish friends) then Shazam is the film that proves that the DCEU has really gotten past its inauspicious beginnings to provide something suitably different from Marvel but hardly any less enjoyable for it. Wonder Woman is still the better film (especially its first two thirds) but Shazam comes a pretty close second and is easily the DCEU's most purely entertaining film to date.
Partly, of course, this is thanks to the film's fidelity to, well, if not the source then at least the most recent take on the character in the comics by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (now Johns and Dale Eaglesham). It's a strange thing but radical adaptations of these characters almost never, ever work. Most importantly, though, more than just faithfulness to their source medium, superhero films are at their very best when they are able to distill what's particularly great about these characters and these comics into big-budget blockbusters that appeal to the widest possible audience at the same time. It's not for nothing that superheroes have been called, time and time again, the closest thing we have to modern myths. Warners screwed up Superman almost beyond recognition with their latest big-screen adaptations but Shazam/ Captain Marvel is very nearly as iconic and I'm pleased to say that they've gone a long way to redeeming themselves here.
One of the most significant changes that happened to the character in the comics over the years was that instead of Captain Marvel being, effectively, a completely different character from Billy Batson to being literally an adult version of Billy. It gave the character a dynamic that finally fully separated him from Superman and made the franchise an even greater representation of adolescent wish fulfilment than Clark Kent bursting out of his stodgy, starchy suit to become the greatest hero the world had ever known.
It is precisely this dynamic that writer Henry Gayden (working off a story by Gayden and Darren Lemke) and director David F. Sandberg tap most directly into; a dynamic that already has a rich tradition in film, most notably Penny Marshall's classic Big. Sandberg was, it has to be said, a strange choice for the Big Red Cheese when you consider that he was previously known almost exclusively for horror films Lights Out and Annabell: Creation. He is clearly not a one-genre pony, though, because Shazam, which indeed plays out as a mixture of Superman and Big, delivers all the joy, laughs and huge-heartedness one could hope for in a Shazam movie.
Shazam is pretty much the anti-Man-Of-Steel as it is every bit as bright, colourful and fun as Snyder's movie was dour and joyless. It's filled to the brim with great characters (Billy's foster family are immediately appealing while Mark Strong, once again, is clearly having the time of his life playing a very sinister and wildly Evil baddie), fun action sequences, genuinely great jokes and an ability to tug on the old heartstrings that is fully satisfying rather than cloying. It's also super, duper cheesy but always in a way that is exactly appropriate for the character.
The film's big (if you pardon the multi-faceted pun) secret weapon, though, is Zachary Levi. The cast, from top to bottom, is fantastic with Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer being particular standouts as young Billy and his foster-brother/ potential-BFF Freddie, respectively. It is Levi, however, who as the adult (not) Captain Marvel that is key to the film working as well as it does.
With a bit of help from padding in his wonderfully garish suit, Levi cuts an intimidatingly huge figure but he brings this child-like, goofy and utterly guileless charm to the character that utterly convinces that this is a 13-year-old boy in an adult body - but, crucially, without the creepiness that could so very easily come with such a conceit.
It's true, young Billy is a much more sullen character than his older self so the two don't quite work as exactly the same character but if you look at "Captain Thunderfingers" as Billy with the entire weight of the world lifted off his hormone-filled teenage shoulders, it actually makes perfect sense that Captain Marvel would be more carefree and happier (and, ironically, more child-like) than his younger self.
It's an especially smart dynamic to play with when it comes to Billy's inevitable hero's journey. Playing like a much more innocent version of Thor's evolution from worthless lout to champion of the people from the first Thor film, Shazam does a beautiful job of playing with the lines between childhood, adolescence and adulthood, even as it tells a story about belonging, family and, of course, Stan Lee's immortal motto about the relationship between power and responsibility.
This is all the more impressive because, by all rights, Captain Marvel/ Shazam should not work as a film. Even in more recent comics, Captain Marvel has a gee-whiz, utterly uncynical earnestness about him that absolutely should not work in modern cinema and certainly not in the DC Extended Universe. It says a lot about both how fantastic a job everyone involved did with the film but also about just how much we regular humans, in our crazy, scary world, crave something as unabashedly warm-hearted, sincere and good as Shazam.
Now, sure, the film isn't perfect. There's a bit too much in the way of light swearing and genuinely quite scary moments for it to be appropriate for kids significantly below the age-limit, which is a pity because it's otherwise ideal for younger children. It's also a wee bit too long and could do with having ten minutes or so shaved off from its slightly repetitive action-heavy finale. And, of course, no one really expected it to do all that well (which, by all accounts it is) so it has a much smaller budget than most superhero films, which means slightly dodgier CGI.
All of these, however, don't add up to much more than nitpicks in the grand scheme of things. Shazam is just an utter, utter delight that doesn't just further redeem the DCEU but contributes a fresh new perspective to the rather well-populated superhero-movie landscape.
Unsurprisingly, this review ran a little long and more than a little late but, as I'm about to post my *shudder* Hellboy (2019) review, spending some time on a film like Shazam feels all the more appropriate...
Review: You wait all your life for a Captain Marvel movie and two come along (almost) at once...
By now, I'm sure everyone knows that DC's Shazam was originally published by Fawcett Comics and named Captain Marvel before DC sued Fawcett for ripping off Superman, only to end up licensing and then buying the character a few decades later. No? Just me?
Anyway, the character was recently rebranded Shazam when DC's Marvelous competition won the fight over the name "Captain Marvel" - well, sort of: DC has even recently published comics of an alternate-earth version that still goes by the name Captain Marvel (confused yet?) - and he's been stuck as the one superhero who can't say his own name for fear of losing all his powers. It is, to say the least, the sort of ludicrously complex character history that kind of only happens in the mad, mad, mad world of the comic book industry and it is even acknowledged by the film itself with a running gag where the Good Captain can't decide on a superhero name for himself.
Carol Danvers, Marvel's uber-powerful superheroine who "stole" his name, on the other hand, has a rather storied history of her own and when she beat DC's Big Red Cheese to cinemas by a matter of weeks, she represented a major sea-change for Marvel Studios. After years of believing that no female-led superhero film would ever do as well at the box office as their male counterparts, Marvel noted the massive success that DC had with their Wonder Woman film and, finally, after twenty MCU movies, released their first film with a woman in the lead role. For DC, though, their Captain Marvel also represents a sea-change to their own "Extended Universe" - or at least solid confirmation that one was already in place.
The whole DCEU started with a massive thud as Zack Snyder took Superman, the superhero that most represents optimism and hope, and cast him in a grey, gloomy, dirge of a film called Man of Steel and, despite allowing Snyder to drive the whole franchise further and further into the ground with Batman v Superman and Justice League, they have been trying to course-correct ever since. Wonder Woman (probably still the best film in the franchise) did offer a glimmer of hope but it could easily have been written off as a fluke - especially after being followed by the atrocious Suicide Squad (itself up for a reimagining in the next couple of years by Guardian of the Galaxy's James Gunn). Last year's Aquaman, however, proved that Wonder Woman was the start of a new look and feel for the DCEU rather than just the once-off anomaly it could have been - even if it was more massively enjoyable for its sheer lunacy than for being a truly great movie.
If it's true that you need three to prove a change in status (a chazaka for my Jewish friends) then Shazam is the film that proves that the DCEU has really gotten past its inauspicious beginnings to provide something suitably different from Marvel but hardly any less enjoyable for it. Wonder Woman is still the better film (especially its first two thirds) but Shazam comes a pretty close second and is easily the DCEU's most purely entertaining film to date.
Partly, of course, this is thanks to the film's fidelity to, well, if not the source then at least the most recent take on the character in the comics by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank (now Johns and Dale Eaglesham). It's a strange thing but radical adaptations of these characters almost never, ever work. Most importantly, though, more than just faithfulness to their source medium, superhero films are at their very best when they are able to distill what's particularly great about these characters and these comics into big-budget blockbusters that appeal to the widest possible audience at the same time. It's not for nothing that superheroes have been called, time and time again, the closest thing we have to modern myths. Warners screwed up Superman almost beyond recognition with their latest big-screen adaptations but Shazam/ Captain Marvel is very nearly as iconic and I'm pleased to say that they've gone a long way to redeeming themselves here.
One of the most significant changes that happened to the character in the comics over the years was that instead of Captain Marvel being, effectively, a completely different character from Billy Batson to being literally an adult version of Billy. It gave the character a dynamic that finally fully separated him from Superman and made the franchise an even greater representation of adolescent wish fulfilment than Clark Kent bursting out of his stodgy, starchy suit to become the greatest hero the world had ever known.
It is precisely this dynamic that writer Henry Gayden (working off a story by Gayden and Darren Lemke) and director David F. Sandberg tap most directly into; a dynamic that already has a rich tradition in film, most notably Penny Marshall's classic Big. Sandberg was, it has to be said, a strange choice for the Big Red Cheese when you consider that he was previously known almost exclusively for horror films Lights Out and Annabell: Creation. He is clearly not a one-genre pony, though, because Shazam, which indeed plays out as a mixture of Superman and Big, delivers all the joy, laughs and huge-heartedness one could hope for in a Shazam movie.
Shazam is pretty much the anti-Man-Of-Steel as it is every bit as bright, colourful and fun as Snyder's movie was dour and joyless. It's filled to the brim with great characters (Billy's foster family are immediately appealing while Mark Strong, once again, is clearly having the time of his life playing a very sinister and wildly Evil baddie), fun action sequences, genuinely great jokes and an ability to tug on the old heartstrings that is fully satisfying rather than cloying. It's also super, duper cheesy but always in a way that is exactly appropriate for the character.
The film's big (if you pardon the multi-faceted pun) secret weapon, though, is Zachary Levi. The cast, from top to bottom, is fantastic with Asher Angel and Jack Dylan Grazer being particular standouts as young Billy and his foster-brother/ potential-BFF Freddie, respectively. It is Levi, however, who as the adult (not) Captain Marvel that is key to the film working as well as it does.
With a bit of help from padding in his wonderfully garish suit, Levi cuts an intimidatingly huge figure but he brings this child-like, goofy and utterly guileless charm to the character that utterly convinces that this is a 13-year-old boy in an adult body - but, crucially, without the creepiness that could so very easily come with such a conceit.
It's true, young Billy is a much more sullen character than his older self so the two don't quite work as exactly the same character but if you look at "Captain Thunderfingers" as Billy with the entire weight of the world lifted off his hormone-filled teenage shoulders, it actually makes perfect sense that Captain Marvel would be more carefree and happier (and, ironically, more child-like) than his younger self.
It's an especially smart dynamic to play with when it comes to Billy's inevitable hero's journey. Playing like a much more innocent version of Thor's evolution from worthless lout to champion of the people from the first Thor film, Shazam does a beautiful job of playing with the lines between childhood, adolescence and adulthood, even as it tells a story about belonging, family and, of course, Stan Lee's immortal motto about the relationship between power and responsibility.
This is all the more impressive because, by all rights, Captain Marvel/ Shazam should not work as a film. Even in more recent comics, Captain Marvel has a gee-whiz, utterly uncynical earnestness about him that absolutely should not work in modern cinema and certainly not in the DC Extended Universe. It says a lot about both how fantastic a job everyone involved did with the film but also about just how much we regular humans, in our crazy, scary world, crave something as unabashedly warm-hearted, sincere and good as Shazam.
Now, sure, the film isn't perfect. There's a bit too much in the way of light swearing and genuinely quite scary moments for it to be appropriate for kids significantly below the age-limit, which is a pity because it's otherwise ideal for younger children. It's also a wee bit too long and could do with having ten minutes or so shaved off from its slightly repetitive action-heavy finale. And, of course, no one really expected it to do all that well (which, by all accounts it is) so it has a much smaller budget than most superhero films, which means slightly dodgier CGI.
All of these, however, don't add up to much more than nitpicks in the grand scheme of things. Shazam is just an utter, utter delight that doesn't just further redeem the DCEU but contributes a fresh new perspective to the rather well-populated superhero-movie landscape.
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