Shazam!

This review may contain spoilers!

Well DC, at least we'll always have Aquaman. I would give Shazam! a 4.5/10.

Shazam! follows Billy Batson, a young foster child who pushes others away while he remains in pursuit of his birth mother. However, after beginning to form roots with a new foster family he is propelled to the Rock of Eternity where a dying wizard grants him the ability to turn into an adult superhero. At first Billy takes advantage of this as a kid would until his foster family is threatened by the villainous and power-hungry, Dr. Sivana. This is a film that does best when it takes the time to focus on a more grounded story; chiefly Billy and his search for his mother. This sub-plot enables us to really understand Billy's loner personality and emphasise with a lot of the pain he's carrying around at a young age. The soundtrack for the film is also well compiled, blending a mixture of songs that capture the youthful protagonists while also scattering some comedic numbers in there.

Zachary Levi, who played Shazam, does a pretty good job as one of the leading protagonists in the film; Levi manages to bring a sense of humour to the role and you feel like he's having fun throughout. Djimon Hounsou, who played The Wizard Shazam, really gives this strong presence of an ancient mystic master; Hounsou radiates with power and he's almost intimidating to watch in his scenes. John Glover and Ethan Pugiotto, who played Sivana's Father and Thad respectively, have a very chaotic family dynamic that makes for a powerful opening to the film; Glover presents this frustrated and aggressive bully of a father who really defines the backstory of Sivana quite well. Caroline Palmer, who played Billy's Mom, gives one of the most grounded performances in this film; her awkward and mishandled confession to her on-screen scene was exactly the emotionally charged moment the film had been begging for. Faithe Herman, who played Darla Dudley, is one of the funniest and most heartwarming performances amongst the young performers; Herman is just a bundle of energy and always seems to know how to deliver her role for maximum effect. Meagan Good, who played Darla Shazam, is one of the few performers who appear as the foster Shazam family that really seems to get what they're trying to achieve; the magic of this performance comes from the fact that Herman and Good almost feel like mirrored copies of one another.

However, the best performance came from Asher Angel, who played Billy Batson. I thought that Asher had a ton of charm with his sarcastic wit and sense of bravado in the face of police, school bullies and supervillains. This is a character who is seriously hurting and had to live with the pain of being separated from his mother for a long time, and Asher really convinces you of that. I was completely blown away by the scene he shares with Palmer, you feel him holding a tide of emotion back and watching him struggling with what he's hearing makes for one of the best scenes of the film. I loved seeing Billy in this film and I think the joy he finds in his new family is very well portrayed by this highly competent young actor.

This is a film that doesn't really know what it wants to be right out the gate; you're left to wonder if it's trying to get very dark and horror-inspired or if it's aiming for the light and cheerful tone that a boy turned adult superhero would apply. Shazam! never really decides on that point opting to have one scene where a boardroom gets ripped apart by demons followed shortly by the main role singing while shooting lightning from his hands. This is a film that is constantly feeling rife with indecision; the comedy of the film can be very cheesy at times while at others you have a host of literal children characters teleporting into a Gentlemen's Club. The first act has such a heavy focus on the antagonist that it becomes easy to lose the protagonist in it all. You would think that the plus side to this might be that Sivana feels like a really strong and interesting villain; but he's just another generic baddie motivated by a desire to steal the protagonist's power. The film even makes pointed jokes about how generic a villain Sivana is so you reach a point where you have to wonder just how much of the first act was really necessary. The pacing is all over the place and the final fight probably has at least ten minutes of content that could have been left on the cutting room floor. The cinematography for a blockbuster superhero film is actually rather plain, there aren't many creative shots and the dialogue scenes aren't especially dynamic. The special effects for the film initially show a lot of promise but this soon falls flat with the first flying scene; I was especially let down by the design of the Seven Deadly Sins, who all shared the same boring colour palette and didn't really look all that distinguishable from one another. The score for Shazam! is all pumped up and present in action scenes but it certainly isn't especially unique, you've heard this music in a thousand other blockbuster films.

Mark Strong, who played Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, is left with a generic power-hungry baddie and seems content playing to type; Strong is usually quite good at finding the gold in a poorly written role but here he just plays Sivana too straight to meet the mark. Jack Dylan Grazer, who played Freddy Freeman, has to be one of the most annoying on-screen sidekicks I've watched in recent years; Grazer plays conflict in a way that just makes his role hard to like and the dialogue feels like he's whining at Levi or Angel half the time. Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews, who played Rosa Vasquez and Victor Vasquez respectively, are these guardians and parent roles to the younger performers but you never really feel that connection; almost as soon as this pair is introduced they are swiftly shunted to the background. Grace Fulton, who played Mary Bromfield, seems to struggle with playing her role's emotional spectrum; you don't really feel convinced that she is struggling with the idea that she is leaving her family and she never actually assumes much of a leadership role within the family either. Ian Chen, who played Eugene Choi, is honestly one of the most cringeworthy characters in the entire film; listening to this kid claim to know hacking from playing video games may have worked back in the 90s but it isn't really a passable character trait in 2019. Jovan Armand, who played Pedro Pena, is another character who plays to type; Armand being the big, surly kid who doesn't say much is easy to write on paper but hard to connect with in the film. Evan Marsh and Carson MacCormac, who played Burke Breyer and Brett Breyer respectively, are very typical high school bully roles that don't punch above their weight; these are antagonists who are mean because it is easy to write them as being mean without providing them a motivation. Michelle Borth, Adam Brody, Ross Butler and D.J. Cotrona, who played Mary Shazam, Freddy Shazam, Eugene Shazam and Pedro Shazam respectively, all fell prey to the comedy behind their characters; these performers just played to their child personalities in a way that felt like a gimmick and was far removed from what Levi and Good were achieving.