‘Shazam!’ is DC’s funniest, wackiest, and most kid-friendly film to date.
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TV Series ‘Chuck’ actor Zachary Levi is the star of ‘Shazam!’. While not unfamiliar with comic book superhero universes - Levi played Fandral in two Thor movies - ‘Shazam!’ is Levi’s first leading superhero role. Fully decked out in a retro red-spandex suit with a cheesy lightning symbol on the chest, Shazam is kind of like Superman (he has abilities of flight, superhuman strength and speed, invulnerability) with an added ability to shoot lightning bolts.
But he’s not really a ‘man’. Shazam is actually just a 14-year-old kid, Billy Batson, to whom a wizard (Djimon Hounsou) endowed his superpowers, enabling him, upon uttering the word ‘Shazam’, to transform into the superhero Shazam. Levi plays Shazam with a totally committed sense of childlike wonder and earnest sincerity, ably channeling the kid inside who has always been enamoured by superheroes.
As with all origin stories, there will be an almost perfunctory section where the hero discovers and learns how to use his powers, but ‘Shazam’ pulls this off with aplomb. The whole thing is done in a series of hilarious visual gags, some of which poke fun at the superhero genre, such as Billy and his sidekick Freddy enlisting a real estate agent to help them find a lair.
The villain is Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who, as a child, was summoned by the wizard, but, unlike Batson, was not chosen for being too power-hungry, leading Sivana to spend the rest of his life obsessed with finding the wizard and acquiring the Rock of Eternity that will grant him superhuman powers. Frequently typecast as the ultimate villain, Strong is able to do something new here: he manages to pull off several comic one-liners and flourishes while trying to defeat our heroes.
Helmed by the unlikely choice of director David F. Sandberg, the director behind horror films such as ‘Lights Out’ and ‘Annabelle: Creation’, ‘Shazam!’ is DC’s funniest, wackiest, and most kids-friendly film till date.
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