Shazam review

The 1st DCEU movie that isn't really connected to other films at all, Shazam is a bright, fun, funny, rather slight entry into the DC canon.

Long story short, a foster kid named Billy winds up being given superhero powers, which on command turn him into a buffed up Zachary Levi. And of course at the same time a supervillain, played rather unmemorably by Mark Strong, shows up and many clashes ensue.

Shazam is at its best when it stays small. All of the scenes with the foster family are good. Billy's foster brother Freddy kind of acts as the new hero's conscience and that really works. When they are working out the new powers that's a lot of fun. And the payoff in the 3rd act involving the foster family, which could have been SO cheesy, really works.

For the most part the movie stays on the right side of being good cheesy. It feels like even more of a throwback than Captain Marvel was.

I wish the villain was good. Strong has played bad guys a lot, even within a DC film, but this is probably the least interesting one. He kind of just talks mean and has a creepy eye. And he can conjure up these ghostly demon things that are each named after a seven deadly sin, but those are kind of just generic CGI monsters.

The movie loses momentum every time they shift focus away from Billy, Freddy, and the other kids. But then it goes back to them and everything clicks again.

I can see why people are liking this so much. It's way way better than Aquaman for sure. I'd probably say it's my 2nd favorite DCEU movie behind Wonder Woman.

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