Went to see Shazam! finally. My main reason for not wanting to see this movie was because of what I thought was a silly looking muscle suit. I was wrong to let that influence me. Usually, I go to see a movie with an open mind and love it or hate it based strictly on what I see. Here is my hopefully spoiler-free review of this movie.
Shazam! follows young Billy Batson, a foster kid who is trying to find his birth mother. Along the way, he runs afoul of the police and the child welfare system. He ends up in a group home where he meets Freddy Freeman, his soon-to-be partner-in-crime. While protecting Freddy from bullies, Billy gets chased into the subway. The train ends up stopping in what appears to be a cave. Billy finds this strange, but if you know the story of Shazam, then you know what’s coming. Billy meets a strange wizard who tells him that he has been chosen to inherit the wizard’s power and become the chosen champion to protect the world from evil. Upon saying the wizard’s name (come on, you know what that is, don’t you?), he transforms into an adult with superpowers and the previously mentioned muscle suit.
What happens next is the funniest superhero movie since 2016’s Deadpool, but without the swearing or blood. Zachary Levi takes over as Shazam in a role he was born to play. He perfectly captures the wonder and excitement of what a kid would do if he gained powers and was now an adult to boot. There are hilarious moments like when they buy beer and Billy tries to talk the way he thinks an adult talks. The scenes where he and Freddy try to figure out what his powers are, also made me laugh.
So much for some of the things I liked. The badly written villain, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, played by Mark Strong was the only thing that I didn’t like. He did the best he could with what he was given. Unfortunately, his bad guy was nothing that you haven’t already seen.
I did love this movie and highly recommend it.
