179. Shamzam!; movie review

SHAZAM!
Cert 12A
132 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, threat, horror, innuendo, bleeped strong language

There is a scene in Shazam! in which the superhero dances on the keyboard in a toy store, pursued by the movie's villain.
For a second, the action pauses as the former dances up and down on the keys and then the chase resumes.
This is director David F. Sandberg responding to what we were all thinking - Shazam! is a superhero update of the brilliant Tom Hanks movie, Big.
Front the moment 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is transformed into a 30-something crusader (Zachary Levi), my mind was wandering back to Big.
This is reinforced by the relationship with his best friend (Jack Dylan Grazer) who would love to be a superhero and is more than a tad envious.
Anyway, Billy is chosen by a grand wizard (Djimon Hounsou) to be the one who leads the fight of good against evil. Thus, he bestows upon him a whole catalogue of super-powers and leaves him to it.

Meanwhile, Billy quickly becomes aware that he has a dark-side rival (Mark Strong) who sets out to defeat him.
The entire film is very much tongue-in-cheek - indeed, it is on the cusp of lampooning the superhero series.
Its laughs are achieved through Billy's total unpreparedness for the situation he is now in - namely a boy in an adult's body with incredible abilities.
It also has an interesting moral message around the value of foster parents - Billy was abandoned as a small child and has a chequered history of running away until he meets Rosa Vasquez (Marta Milans) and her husband Victor (Cooper Andrews).
The love the couple show for their fostered charges is one of the central planks of the movie.
Clearly, Shazam! is not in the league of Avengers - End Game when it comes to superhero movies but it does add a nice little nuance on the genre.
And it reminded me of one of my favourite films!

Reasons to watch: Big brought up to date
Reasons to avoid: Not enough laughs

Laughs: Three
Jumps: None
Vomit: None
Nudity: None
Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? The superhero, known as Shazam, the alter ego of young Billy Batson, first appeared in 1940s Whiz Comics and was the first comic book superhero to be adapted to film.

The final word. Zachary Levi: "I was a little kid who dreamed about being a superhero — that's happening. I was an actor who dreamed about portraying a bonafide superhero of my own, leading a big franchise and not supporting someone else — that's happening. What you see onscreen is the kid inside of me, or rather just the man-child that I am being very stoked and trying to bring that to life as authentically as I could." Pop Sugar

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