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Charging phones and draining my bank account
If you couldn’t tell by my subtitle, I’m a big fan of this movie. And I think you should be too, if for no other reason than we finally got a refreshing break from the Marvel mold thanks to this DC film. This kind of break has truly never been done before, unless in other Shazam! iterations of course.
The details of a film’s star rating in this blog generally go as follows:
1. 3 Stars for beginning, middle, and end of the story
2. Star for casting/acting
3. Star for everything else- cinematography, soundtrack, etc.
4. Bonus Star 1- for marketing, release date, etc.
5. Bonus Star 2- for storyline fitting in with prequels/sequels, end credit scenes, etc.
If you would like to see a more detailed outline of how a film’s rating is created by me, there is a blog post on my dedicated page to just that. Also, I don’t do spoilers. I won’t mention any major plot twists or endings but I will hint at things and mention scenes that don’t give away any of those major points.
Let’s get into it.
Beginning: It set up not only Billy Batson’s origin but our villain’s as well, which was refreshing. Not often do you get to see exactly why a villain turned out the way he/she did. Sometimes you get a speech, sometimes a flashback, sometimes a prequel movie made long after you stopped caring, but with this film you actually get to see the evolvement. You started off feeling bad for Doctor Sivana, then realized at some point your actions are your own and he really shouldn’t have killed so many people.
Middle: For once the fight scenes weren’t crazy and over the top -- super, definitely, but not altogether unrealistic. I loved the scenes where Billy is trying to learn his powers and seeing the friendship that forms between Billy and Freddy, his new foster brother and sidekick. I also can’t get enough how the superhero form was just that -- the adult actor kept himself out of it and was all Billy the whole time. For example, the fight between Billy and Freddy where Billy is focused on his growing fame and how he thinks Freddy is just jealous.That’s childish and it should be -- he’s a child. I never once felt like I was watching an adult pretending to be a kid, even though I knew that’s what was going on. It always felt like watching a kid.
End: It was crafted so nicely. The loose ends were tied up and the bad guy, well, never learned his lesson. Did I see the twist coming, yes (I spent the whole movie counting siblings) but other people I have talked to had absolutely no idea. Either way, it didn’t distract from the story. In a world fastly becoming filled with unsatisfying ends, this is luckily for us all not that kind of film. Very satisfying.
Casting/Acting: I don’t think any other duo would have been as great as Asher Angel + Zachary Levi for the main characters. (P.S. a superhero was the only logical next step for Chuck Bartowski.) I don’t have a ton more to say on that front. Casting found a great way to somehow find actors and actresses that could be adults-playing children- playing superheroes. If you’re wondering who cast it, Rich Delia was the casting director. The whole cast made it such a fun movie to watch. Now, I have heard that Mark Strong was a controversial choice for Doctor Sivana because he looks nothing like the villain in the comics. However, I think that he was a fine choice. For me, unless whitewashing has occurred, as long as the actor convinces me he is a true villain I tend to not be critical if they don’t look exactly like the comics. When it comes to villains for me, I care more about how they make me feel rather than what they look like. Mark Strong made me truly feel scared of his character and that he really would do nothing to achieve his nefarious goals. That’s all I want from a villain.
Everything Else: My favorite category for this star to talk about for this movie is the soundtrack. It was a great combination of classic rock and the stereotypical action sequence sound effects (which I expect by the way, I get angry if I don’t get to mimic them in my head as I watch). One of the first things I said to my roommate, a classic rock junkie, when I got back from my showing was, “They played Don’t Stop Me [by Queen] and my first thought was how proud you’d be of them.” So great job team, great job. Specifically, great job Benjamin Wallfisch, the movie’s composer. David F. Sandberg directed Shazam! and after seeing this movie I’ll be adding him to my directors to watch list. I also very much enjoyed that they paid homage to Big. Without giving too much away because it was my favorite surprise from the film, those of you familiar with Big will recognize a certain well-remembered scene in one of the fight sequences. Also on the subject of Big, do not go into Shazam! thinking you’re seeing the superhero version of Big. That wouldn’t be a bad thing, but I’m glad the creators/actors/etc. made Shazam! its own movie. No one needed a superhero version of Big.
Bonus 1: Shazam! gets ½ of the bonus star for marketing/release date. Everything was great, release date was good timing, but there is a caution for parents that I felt just wasn’t there. Caution For Parents: the monsters are scary and realistic looking (props to special effects on that one) and they eat people, sometimes head first (but not really any blood shown - just shrieking). When I was walking into the theatre, there was a mom with her two young kids, maybe 5-7ish years old, and in all of those monster scenes (yes, when they were eating heads) I couldn’t help but think of that mother and how her kids were handling that. Did she regret her choice of movie? Were her kids totally fine because they weren’t wimps like I was at that age? Who knows, but even with a PG-13 rating, if the trailers look kid-friendly, who would actually look past that? That being said, I do think this movie has a lot of good messages for a younger generation, just maybe tell your kids the tried and true motto: It’s just a movie, the monsters aren’t real. That’ll also start them young with a great appreciation for special effects artists.
Bonus 2: Gets the full star for any sequel/storyline/end credit scenes here.
The story ended wrapped up but with a plot twist that solidified for me a deep need for a sequel, even though once again I saw the little guy coming (go see it, it’ll make sense). There are end credit scenes. You need to stay for them. They definitely add to the film’s note on friendship and propel it forward to the sequel.
Overall: See this movie. For a long time, I’ve been seeing superhero movies and after seeing Shazam! I realized I’ve been claiming that I loved those movies without actually meaning it. They were good, sure, but it’s not hard to make a “good” superhero movie. The only thing that would make it mean even more to me would be if Zachary Levi would talk about how much he loves it and how much it means to him. Oh wait, he does that, too. Nothing warms my heart more than loving a film and finding that the actors love it just as much.
As you can probably tell, I’m a big fan of this movie. I had a lot of great things to say about it. That’s not going to be the case for some of my other reviews. You’ll see.
So let me know:
What did you think of the movie?
Were you not sure you wanted to see it but think you will now?
Have you found any good merch for this film? Let me know, I would like to drain my account some more.
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