Shazam!
The makers of “Shazam!” make the right choices in making this silly superhero movie work. Chief among them was casting Zachary Levi as the hero version of Billy Batson, a foster kid who finds himself imbued with superpowers unexpectedly. I’m not sure if the tone completely works, at all times, but this is still a highly entertaining new entry in the DC movie landscape.
“Shazam!” begins with a misdirect, as a young boy finds himself drawn into a cavern by a Wizard (Djimon Honsou) trying to find someone worthy of being his successor and taking up the mantle in keeping the demons who represent the Seven Deadly Sins at bay. The boy then finds himself back in his car with his father (John Glover) and brother when they get into a terrible accident. That isn’t Billy Batson’s (Asher Angel) story, though; he’s orphan that’s been running from foster situations and trying to find his mother, whom he was separated from when he was a kid, and he lost a compass she had won him at the carnival that last day. His latest foster family is actually a group home run by a couple of runaways themselves with five other kids, one of whom- Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer)- is crippled, and has an affection for superheroes. That last part will come in handy when the boy at the beginning (now an adult, played by Mark Strong) unleashes the demons, and the Wizard calls upon Billy to be his champion. All he has to do is say the wizard’s name…Shazam!
Making this fundamentally a comedy more than another dramatically-weighted superhero entry, although there is plenty of tension and terror to go around, is a smart choice, precisely because it’s from the perspective of a hero who is actually a 14-year-old boy. That does mean the tone can feel a bit off while you’re jumping between scenes involving a demonic villain and Freddy and Billy figuring out what superhero powers he has, but that’s part of where the emotional throughline comes into play. Billy and Strong’s characters are both without biological parents that care for them; Billy’s foster parents want to love him, but he’s closed off to the idea- all he wants is his mom, thinking that she lost him that day long ago, and that she might be searching for him the way he is her. But the best family isn’t always the one we are born with, but one we find along the way, or which finds us. It’s a great message that “Shazam!” finds the sweet spot in landing when it needs to bring things back to Earth. The rest of that lifting falls on the actors, and Levi, Angel and Grazer make us care about how this all turns out in a way that is fun to watch.
best movie of 2019