Timothy Johnson
Lantern Staff
Shazam is a fun movie and that is about it. It does have a few moments of solid story telling every now and then, but the structure of the story as a whole is very disjointed. That being said, the movie is thoroughly entertaining, with lots of laughs along the road to make up for its lack of structure.
Shazam is about a teenage boy named Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who is given the power of a wizard (Djimon Hounsou), which turns him into a man in his thirties (Zachary Levi), with a red suit and yellow cape. The power is given to him by saying the name of the wizard, which is Shazam. This attained power is meant for someone of pure heart, but Billy is far from such. Billy is the type of kid who is constantly getting himself into trouble and is wholly irresponsible. This gives the moviegoer many entertaining moments in the movie where it legitimately seems like there is a teenage boy trapped inside the body of a 30 year old man.
Another positive of Shazam is the relationship Billy has with his foster family. It is well-handled and develops at an expertly managed pace, giving the moviegoer some of the most meaningful moments in the film. His foster parents are very patient with him and have very likable personalities. His foster brother (Jack Dylan Grazer) becomes Billy’s sidekick, helping cover for him when needed, creating some very humorous moments.
On the subject of the negatives, the film’s villain was unfortunately not very interesting at all. The villain, Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong), had a great introduction and gives hope that this could be a memorable character. However, after the introduction, Dr. Sivana is poorly handled, having only one moment that was halfway memorable. The rest of the scenes with Dr. Sivana did not fit tonally, for the scenes seemed were taken too seriously, while everything else in the movie was not taking anything seriously. At only one point, were these two radically different tones melded in a way that worked, which created a very funny scene. However, for the rest of the time, it just felt off whenever the film transitioned from a hilarious scene with Billy as Shazam to a scene with Dr. Sivana that was taken way too seriously pertaining.
In the end, this film has more positives than negatives. Shazam gives the moviegoer a myriad of laughs along the way and also has some incredibly meaningful moments, revolving around his foster family. However, the story is disjointed as a whole and the villain does not fit the rest of the film. Shazam earns itself six and a half stars.
