I loathe the way we now talk about movies. Like a bunch of dang suits, average film fans—myself included—talk about box office returns and market trends and in-universe implications. Yes, filmmaking is commerce, but what a grim climate when fandom feels justified by box office success. So, instead of cultivating a healthy distrust of the money havers and industry knowers, we’ve adopted their perversity. Perhaps I’m just some tragic cusp Gen-X’er come Old Millennial, but I recall an era when we wanted to pick our teeth with the bones of the rich. Now, we gleefully play along. #BigCinematicUniverse slaps a DC or Marvel logo on literally anything, and fans do the rest, ginning up existential import around meaningless brand turf wars. And if this lowly dingus were pressed, he’d tell you it’s the antithesis of what makes movies magical.
Magic, the root of Shazam’s power, is in some sense why we are here. No, this is not a pitch for you to join the DSA, there is an actual Shazam! review in here somewhere, I swears it. But I think it is important to explore the curious baggage so many of us now carry into these movies. Can DC make a good movie? How will Marvel pivot after Endgame? What minutia do I need to keep in mind as I insert film ‘X’ into the landscape of this cinematic universe? Ew. No. Gross. But, to counter with the least provocative, yet most telling take, I participate in all of the above. And therein lies Shazam!’s unique positioning as it hits screens nationwide.
Shazam!, no foolin’, is actually pretty good. Like really actually pretty good. It’s a passion of mine to trade in cliché, and I laughed! I cried! Thrills! Chills! The whole smorgasbord of movie going fun, and Shazam! was an able buffet table. In some way—and here goes that cynical language again—DC adopted the Marvel model. They took a character with no baggage, with few emotional attachments, and where some complete asshole is gonna try so hard to pass themselves off as a longsuffering Shazam! stan, no one gives a fuck about that character. And it’s liberating! It is free of the strictures and cache of a Batman or Superman! Though, in one of the cleverer wrinkles, the Bat and the Big Blue Boy Scout are omnipresent through the film, almost oppressive. Shazam! knows it can’t escape the long shadow of DC lore, but it also tweaks the machine as the film play-acts its little part in the larger scheme.
Every inch the stock-in-trade origin story, Shazam! embraces the only good kind of a superhero, a fun teenager. Fun teenagers, not to be confused with moody teenagers, are equipped to handle super powers. Super powers are dope! And a little exploitable. And maybe kind of a pain in the ass from an overall responsibility stand point. Like, who wants to be good all the time? This idea frames the question at the core of Shazam; what does a pure heart look like? Maybe sometimes it’s screwing with the cops, other times it can be trying to save the day. In one of the films very good lines this sentiment is given a nice shape, “not everyone feels like a hero inside all of the time.” Superman is just, like, what, good because…why exactly? And Batman is a trust fund weirdo who maybe we should not trust? Our Shazam, at least in this film, is a foster kid who has these powers foisted on him.
In this dynamic, Shazam does its best work. Billy Batson—a kid who has been bounced around the foster system largely due to a determination to find his real mother—is ostensibly our main character, but this film is almost about the disillusion of the hero mythos. I may just be feeling very 36 today, but as Shazam’s powers dictate, and in a flash of light Billy is transformed from 14-year-old boy to hulking adult, it reminds me that the certainty of aging does not always track with the check list of “adulthood.” Fumbling towards adulthood is consistently marked by our heroes being stripped down to something painfully real. Whether those heroes are the ones we believe to be inside of ourselves, or the individuals we set on the pedestal, Shazam! gets that we’re all making it up as we go along. It takes a tapestry of personal growth and trust and family (chosen or otherwise), just to stand. Beyond that, true heroism is a lofty ambition. Though, if a pure heart is the hero’s requirement, perhaps that isn’t a flawless heart, but simply an open one.
Where the above, a great cast, and an overall tight script work to Shazam!’s credit, you already know yer boy is gonna quibble. The third act is a little tedious once we’ve firmly squared our larger thematic elements. The film is also not as cinematic as I’d hoped. There wasn’t a sequence that really stuck to my ribs. But let’s be real, that dude Mark Strong is going to spackle over lots of flaws with a killer performance, and his Dr. Thaddeus Sivana is a delight.
Now, for my final trick, let’s dovetail this conclusion into the intro paragraph! Because *checks notes* magic is the throughline. And in all sincerity, Shazam! stoked in me that old movie magic feeling. The audience freaking cheered at a climactic moment! It’s has a joy and silliness and sweetness that is irrepressible, and in the face of the cinematic universe superstructure, that is a momentous accomplishment. Shazam! cannot avoid paying its dues to the tyranny of franchise, but they skewer as much as they celebrate. Not in the snarky way a Deadpool might tackle this obligation, but in a bit more subtle way, like a scrappy little kid trying to find their light amongst siblings who are titans. And where I did carry so much of the thoroughly documented baggage into the theater—ready to harrumph my way through another comic book film--Shazam! harnesses a kind of magic capable of peeling back all the white noise, and revealing a truly fun film able to stand on its own.
--Monte Monreal
Magic, the root of Shazam’s power, is in some sense why we are here. No, this is not a pitch for you to join the DSA, there is an actual Shazam! review in here somewhere, I swears it. But I think it is important to explore the curious baggage so many of us now carry into these movies. Can DC make a good movie? How will Marvel pivot after Endgame? What minutia do I need to keep in mind as I insert film ‘X’ into the landscape of this cinematic universe? Ew. No. Gross. But, to counter with the least provocative, yet most telling take, I participate in all of the above. And therein lies Shazam!’s unique positioning as it hits screens nationwide.
Shazam!, no foolin’, is actually pretty good. Like really actually pretty good. It’s a passion of mine to trade in cliché, and I laughed! I cried! Thrills! Chills! The whole smorgasbord of movie going fun, and Shazam! was an able buffet table. In some way—and here goes that cynical language again—DC adopted the Marvel model. They took a character with no baggage, with few emotional attachments, and where some complete asshole is gonna try so hard to pass themselves off as a longsuffering Shazam! stan, no one gives a fuck about that character. And it’s liberating! It is free of the strictures and cache of a Batman or Superman! Though, in one of the cleverer wrinkles, the Bat and the Big Blue Boy Scout are omnipresent through the film, almost oppressive. Shazam! knows it can’t escape the long shadow of DC lore, but it also tweaks the machine as the film play-acts its little part in the larger scheme.
Every inch the stock-in-trade origin story, Shazam! embraces the only good kind of a superhero, a fun teenager. Fun teenagers, not to be confused with moody teenagers, are equipped to handle super powers. Super powers are dope! And a little exploitable. And maybe kind of a pain in the ass from an overall responsibility stand point. Like, who wants to be good all the time? This idea frames the question at the core of Shazam; what does a pure heart look like? Maybe sometimes it’s screwing with the cops, other times it can be trying to save the day. In one of the films very good lines this sentiment is given a nice shape, “not everyone feels like a hero inside all of the time.” Superman is just, like, what, good because…why exactly? And Batman is a trust fund weirdo who maybe we should not trust? Our Shazam, at least in this film, is a foster kid who has these powers foisted on him.
In this dynamic, Shazam does its best work. Billy Batson—a kid who has been bounced around the foster system largely due to a determination to find his real mother—is ostensibly our main character, but this film is almost about the disillusion of the hero mythos. I may just be feeling very 36 today, but as Shazam’s powers dictate, and in a flash of light Billy is transformed from 14-year-old boy to hulking adult, it reminds me that the certainty of aging does not always track with the check list of “adulthood.” Fumbling towards adulthood is consistently marked by our heroes being stripped down to something painfully real. Whether those heroes are the ones we believe to be inside of ourselves, or the individuals we set on the pedestal, Shazam! gets that we’re all making it up as we go along. It takes a tapestry of personal growth and trust and family (chosen or otherwise), just to stand. Beyond that, true heroism is a lofty ambition. Though, if a pure heart is the hero’s requirement, perhaps that isn’t a flawless heart, but simply an open one.
Where the above, a great cast, and an overall tight script work to Shazam!’s credit, you already know yer boy is gonna quibble. The third act is a little tedious once we’ve firmly squared our larger thematic elements. The film is also not as cinematic as I’d hoped. There wasn’t a sequence that really stuck to my ribs. But let’s be real, that dude Mark Strong is going to spackle over lots of flaws with a killer performance, and his Dr. Thaddeus Sivana is a delight.
Now, for my final trick, let’s dovetail this conclusion into the intro paragraph! Because *checks notes* magic is the throughline. And in all sincerity, Shazam! stoked in me that old movie magic feeling. The audience freaking cheered at a climactic moment! It’s has a joy and silliness and sweetness that is irrepressible, and in the face of the cinematic universe superstructure, that is a momentous accomplishment. Shazam! cannot avoid paying its dues to the tyranny of franchise, but they skewer as much as they celebrate. Not in the snarky way a Deadpool might tackle this obligation, but in a bit more subtle way, like a scrappy little kid trying to find their light amongst siblings who are titans. And where I did carry so much of the thoroughly documented baggage into the theater—ready to harrumph my way through another comic book film--Shazam! harnesses a kind of magic capable of peeling back all the white noise, and revealing a truly fun film able to stand on its own.
--Monte Monreal
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