Rated: M
Directed by: David F. Sandberg
Screenplay by: Henry Gayden
Story by: Gayden and Darren Lemke
Created by: Bill Parker and C. C. Beck
Produced by: Peter Safran
Starring: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Grace Fulton, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans and Djimon Hounsou.
From the DC Universe, writers Henry Gayden and Darren Lemke adapted Shazam! from the comics, creating a movie about a superhero, yes; but also about the superhero being a kid.
Gayden recalls, “I enjoyed writing it from the perspective of a kid, channelling the logic of a 14-year-old who suddenly has all these powers and who’s not thinking, ‘How can I save the world,’ but, ‘What cool stuff can I do?’”
We get the backstory of Billy Batson (Asher Angel)getting lost and separated from his mother at a Fair (what is it with carnivals, eh?!) and having to grow up in foster care while doing everything he can, whatever it takes, to find his mother.
We also get the backstory of super villain, Dr Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) – never being good enough for his father, always looking to his Magic 8-Ball for answers; where the ‘Outlook, not so good.’
Young Billy meets an ancient wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who’s looking for the pure of heart to relieve him of his burden, to take his power; to become the keeper of the Seven Deadly Sins: soulless depravities held captive in stone.
This is where reality meets fantasy.
One minute Billy’s on the subway; the next, he’s in the Rock of Eternity.
By speaking the name of the wizard, he inherits the power of the wizard, Shazam:
Solomon: wisdom
Hercules: strength
Atlantis: endurance
Zeus: power
Achilles: fighting
Mercury: speed.
And what fun Billy has as the adult-sized superhero, Shazam (Zachary Levi). Until he meets his nemesis, Dr Thaddeus Sivana.
Well known horror director, David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) has shown his humorous and cheeky side with this film. He even included the Annabelle doll lying dormant in a pawn shop at the beginning of the film – that’s cheeky.
Sandberg has kept some of that horror flavour here, with the Seven Deadly Sins coming to life as man-eating demons that not only tempt and turn human against human with their evil glowing red eyes, but physically bite their heads off.
The soundtrack adds to the ominous atmosphere, as does the disintegration of flesh into sparks to embers to ash and smoke.
What makes Shazam! so funny is the juxtaposition of this darkness with the total normality of kids being kids.
Along with the antics of Billy and Billy being Shazam, we get a household full of sidekicks: foster parents, Rosa (Marta Milans) and Victor Vasquez (Cooper Andrews) and foster kids, Darla (Faithe Herman), Mary (Grace Fulton), Eugene (Ian Chen), Pedro (Jovan Armand), and my favourite, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer).
Freddy knows all the superhero moves and becomes Shazam’s manager, teaching him, or rather testing him, to see what super powers he has.
‘His name is, Thunder Crack!’
And added titbits like, ‘Did you know the Roman’s brushed their teeth with their urine? It works, apparently.’
Freddy made the film for me.
As did the writing, the scary-at-times fantasy and those perfectly timed lines that lifted the film, that tickled to bursts of laughter; that kept me grinning until the very end.