(#69) Shazam! (2019) - [8.25/10]

A boy is granted the magical powers of Shazam! by a wizard but an envious millionaire seeks to claim it for himself.

We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson's case, by shouting out one word - SHAZAM. - this streetwise fourteen-year-old foster kid can turn into the grown-up superhero Shazam.

How would I describe this film in one word?

Refreshing.

Note Been waiting for this one for so long. This could finally be it - DC's redemption! The DCEU has provided us with so many forgettable superhero films since its reawakening in 2016 (DCEU's Man of Steel releasing in 2013) with Batman vs. Superman (which I liked btw but that's another topic). Yes, they had the success of Wonder Woman but it seemed they just found themselves falling down the rabbit hole again by releasing their films after that. They've had Suicide Squad, Justice League (Oh brother!) and Aquaman. The two former were horrendous while the latter was an enjoyable watch but still no where near the quality of the MCU and it also wasn't very convincing story-wise either. But but but... It could all change now with the success of Shazam! Because although I love the MCU, I'm more of an admirer of DC Comics from their tv shows and their general comicbook stories which I've always found more fascinating than their rival. And to see them fail in the big screen was sad but it could all change now and boy, am I excited! P.S. Sorry for the long pre-review note but I just had to put my thoughts out there.

Review The movie was great. Very enjoyable. Very fun. From the beginning, it didn't tire like what we could expect from a post-modern DCEU flick. It was lively, colourful, and humorous - all throughout. Our protagonist Billy and his sidekick Freddy proved to be quite a lovable duo while having a lot of heart. Cause eventhough it's easy to see Shazam as a big, strong, confident Zachary Levi, at his heart, Shazam is still a boy and they did a wonderful job of trying to maintain that fact by adding in a lot of quirky child-like moments and scenes which aren't the type of stuff you'd normally expect to see but are still glad because it was refreshing to see a new take/perspective to the superhero genre. They also were very emotional and sensitive and had a family! I mean, if you have a family and loving friends, are you really a superhero? Sure the kid is an orphan which is superhero origin 101 but it was nice to see the kids caring and loving their family in a child-like manner rather than the masculine emotionally-restrictive figures we normally see, it was all REFRESHING. Props for going off the books on this one.

However (that's never a promising way to start a sentence)... Quoting my sister, "It does come with its flaws." And I agree. It's not a perfect film. Eventhough the story was quite refreshing (I'm sorry, I promise that's the last time I use that word), a few elements of the film weren't. Firstly, the antagonist/villain... Ehh. I mean, I see they gave him a backstory to give reasoning for his evil cause but... not a strong one? It isn't. It just seemed very sudden to me. His character seemed to lack the richness of his opposite main lead and was undeveloped as the story progressed as well. Concerning the four "other" foster siblings, their roles were very trivial, a few of them were cute and showed heart but generally they're all just four too many people to form an ensemble in a individual story. And something happens in the end which makes them more important than what it seemed in the beginning and it just didn't name sense cause their characters had zero importantance prior to it, forget development, there was nothing to begin with. Some of their acting was very poor too. I could've sworn at one point, when the evil creatures we intimidating them by screaming at their faces, they didn't seem to budge may have even had a slight smile too - very un-child-like and unconvincing acting. Regarding the CGI, CCEU needs to step up their game on that regard. Ever since Man of Steel even, the DCEU's special effects always seemed very starkly unrealistic and in Justice League, even cartoonish. How sad. My voice isn't loud enough but someone needs to tell them that their CGI sucks. Also, the story, though fun, seemed to find themselves messing around a bit too much more than doing actual superhero stuff - but I guess logically it makes sense cause they are indeed young teenagers and my exactly a super intelligent and informed bunch to learn the tricks of the trade so quickly. I guess I'm just trying to nitpick at this point cause besides these few downfalls, they don't do too much damage to prevent you from watching. You could probably forgive their shortcomings as the overall feel they gave us watching this film was extremely rewarding. Yes my dislike paragraph is bigger than my like paragraph but that's because it's the feel of the story I loved the most and that has surely outweighed all these other drawbacks that the movie has.

So, out of the two Superhero Captain Marvels that has graced us with their debut appearance on the silver, for once I'm siding with DC as the stronger film, and that makes me SO GLAD. I can't wait for the future of DCEU now. Come at me Joker! RATING: 8.25/10

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Director: David F. Sandberg Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 2 hr 12 min Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy Starring: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel