Shazam! feels like Fisher-Price version of the Marvel Universe

Movie review: Shazam!

Director David F. Sandberg seeks to blend age-related gags with serious family drama in a failed attempt at sly humour in this overly simplified, but altogether safe take on superhero transformation.

Shazam!

3/5

Starring: Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong,

Directed by: David F. Sandberg

Running time: 2 hrs 12 mins

Rating: PG-13

By Katherine Monk

Remember when you were little, and you had to play with toys that didn’t present a choking hazard? They were big, primary coloured pieces of plastic that lacked sophistication, or any moving parts. They were perfectly good playthings, but even when they were designed for your demographic, you craved your older siblings’ accessorized and detailed distractions.

That said, think of Shazam! as D.C. comics’ DUPLO — a simplified and safe take on what could be seen as the Marvel Comic Universe’s LEGO, a well-designed, scalable and interlocked structure of franchise success.

Looking to match the phenomenal box-office glory of Marvel’s Avengers multiverse, D.C. keeps exploring its own catalogue of caped crusaders searching for precious mettle. It’s been a rocky ride, with a disastrous encounter between Superman and Batman, but a winning debut from Wonder Woman.

Shazam! sits somewhere in between, a middling success that hits all the required marks, but doesn’t offer anything deep, sophisticated or risky. If anything, it makes you crave the big kids’ toys all the more. It whets your appetite for more dimensions, and a dramatic engine with a little more torque than this rubber band story can muster.

Shazam! sits somewhere in between, a middling success that hits all the required marks, but doesn’t offer anything deep, sophisticated or risky. If anything, it makes you crave the big kids’ toys all the more. It whets your appetite for more dimensions, and a dramatic engine with a little more torque than this rubber band story can muster.

Crafting an origin story that can accommodate the myriad manifestations of Shazam! over the years (outside of the character’s original name being Captain Marvel), this new script from Henry Gayden (There’s Someone Inside Your House) begins with a kid named Billy Batson (Asher Angel) trying to find his mother in Philadelphia.

Billy is shutdown and emotionally unavailable. He does not trust anyone. So when he’s placed in a foster home with caring adults and a supportive group of kids looking to be his friend, Billy blows it. He plans on running away to search for his family, but when he watches two jerks beat on his foster brother, he’s compelled to act.

Before you can say Shazam!, he’s riding a subway that seems to take him to an alternate dimension. And that is strange to Billy. Remember, this isn’t New York. It’s Toronto playing Philly. So when he disembarks in a dark cave where the only other person is an old black man carrying a torch, Billy is disoriented and a little confused. The old man keeps talking about a wizard, dark forces, and some empty seats where gods used to sit. Billy just want to catch the next connection, but we know what’s coming because we saw the same cave a few scenes beforehand.

We know a bad guy took something that didn’t belong to him — nearly killing the old man with the torch. Now the old guy with the torch needs to pass on his power to someone new and good and strong. He doesn’t have much time, so he goes for Billy, bestowing the 14-year-old with superhuman abilities before he turns to ashes and charcoal — the way old sorcerers and superheroes tend to do.

Once Billy says Shazam!, he turns into a full-fledged man (Zachary Levi) — complete with bulging muscles and a white and gold cape that would make Elvis jealous. This is where screenwriter Gayden and director David F. Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation) mine the big, simple nuggets at their feet.

Paying homage to the likes of Big, Freaky Friday and Sam Raimi’s first Spider-Man, the two paint out a game of hopscotch, forcing the teenage Billy and the manly superhero Billy to jump back and forth without losing their balance.

Levi plays it all for comedy, channelling the young Tom Hanks in practically every scene — right down to a beer spit-take. Asher Angel, the young Billy, is by far more interesting as a character and an actor. Ironically, he’s also more adult in his delivery — which makes it difficult to see the two actors as the same character. They behave so differently.

Levi plays it all for comedy, channelling the young Tom Hanks in practically every scene — right down to a beer spit-take. Asher Angel, the young Billy, is by far more interesting as a character and an actor. Ironically, he’s also more adult in his delivery — which makes it difficult to see the two actors as the same character. They behave so differently.

Insular and forlorn Billy suddenly turns into an outgoing clown when he utters “Shazam!” It’s fun and cute, but it makes no sense from a dramatic point of view. It’s just a device for gags. It doesn’t work for the drama, leaving us with a few big pieces that are stuck together, but have no form or chemistry.

You can’t fault the blocks. They were there. They did their job. You can only fault the constructor, in this case director Sandberg, for a lack of original vision, and a ready surrender to the confines of the kindergarten sandbox: No sharp edges, and no chance of choking on substance.

@katherinemonk

THE EX-PRESS, April 4, 2019

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Review: Shazam!

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Director David F. Sandberg seeks to blend age-related gags with serious family drama in a failed attempt at sly humour in this overly simplified, but altogether safe take on superhero transformation. -- Katherine Monk

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