Review: Shazam!

I finally watched it...on a plane. Many of my friends loved this movie. Adored it. It got great reviews.

So, I'm going to apologize for this:

I didn't like it.

There were definite good points to this movie, although I don't get why it wasn't a Christmas release. The initial extended chase scene through the mall was entertaining and I loved Billy's use of his transformation tactically, turning back into a kid to evade the villain or just to make a smaller target. Zachary Levi was not quite my image of the character, but acted very well.

The problem I had really was the direction first and foremost. (And where the heck did Mary get the batarang). There was something about the visuals that left me feeling a little...cold, to be honest. Maybe I just don't like David Sandberg? It was refreshing to see a lighthearted story about found family after how grimdark DC has been lately, but it didn't warm my heart as much as it should have.

And then there was the kids getting Shazam!ed. It was an awesome moment when Billy literally stole the magic artifact the bad guy was going to use to steal his power and instead used it to share the power with his siblings. He couldn't beat the Sins without them. It should have been awesome.

Unfortunately, to me (others have expressed disagreement) it missed the point.

Billy's family are a wonderfully diverse group of kids. There are two girls - the older one is Mary Marvel, the younger one, Darla, is black. The three boys, Freddy, Eugene, and Pedro. Freddy is disabled and Pedro is fat.

Of course, when they get powered up, Freddy stops being disabled and Pedro stops being fat. And the two girls get pretty costumes. Darla's pretty natural hair transforms into a style that looks like it had her in a salon chair for hours.

And herein lies the problem.

No, a bunch of kids can't just defeat the bad guys. And Billy Batson/Captain Marvel has always been a child's power fantasy...having the power to stick up to the grownups without having to BE a grownup. But there was a fine line to tread here. There was a fine line between "Hey kids, you can be the hero of the story" and "You have to be fixed to be the hero" or "Becoming the hero fixes you."

And I'm not sure they hit the right side of it. The worst was the fat kid, who became a muscle-bound hulk. While his weight was never played for laughs...his transformation was. We live in a world where we have to be very careful not to push kids into disordered eating, and that part worried me. On the other hand, a portrayal of a fat kid as a hero is a good thing overall. So...it's a difficult line and where you place it is very hard.

The movie had some very strong good points, but I wasn't able to completely enjoy it.

Oh, and at the very end, they apparently couldn't afford to actually get Superman ;).