Movie Review: Shazam! (2019)

Shazam! … A short movie review for people with short attention spans.

Spoilers are possible!!

Directed by: David F. Sandberg

Starring: Zachary Levi, Djimon Hounsou, Mark Strong, Jack Dylan Grazer, Asher Angel, Cooper Andrews, and Marta Milans

Plot: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson's case, by shouting out one word - SHAZAM! - this streetwise fourteen-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult superhero Shazam!

What I Think: This is the story of a wizard trying to pass his power to a worthy vessel, a boy too blind with anger to realize that he isn't worthy, and a foster kid with too many strikes to think that he is worthy of that kind of power. 

When it comes to superhero movies, this one doesn't follow the same recipe. By all accounts this is an origin story that lets you know how Shazam!, Zachary Levi, became who he is. Our wizard, Djimon Hounsou, is testing a boy to make sure he is of the purest soul. The boy is tempted by the seven deadly sins. After this, our wizard sends out a spell to find the purest of souls to recruit for his task. The timeline will end whenever one is found. 

Fast forward a couple of decades and we find ourselves with Billy, Asher Angel, he is a serial foster child with a dream of finally locating his birth mother. He has runaway from 23 other foster homes and finally is put in a group home. Billy befriends his bunk mate Freddy, Jack Dylan Grazer, who is a superhero fan boy.  

A bitter Dr. Thad Sivana, Mark Strong, is looking for the wizard that decades ago shamed him into believing that he was unworthy of great power. He eventually does find the wizard again but opts for the opposite of the wizards power.
 

Over the course of the movie there are great battles against good and evil and an astonishing amount of violence for a PG-13 movie. There is comedy, mostly of the kid variety, but some tongue-in-cheek bits as well for the adults watching the flick.

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This movie has a lot of heart and some hard truths about foster children and what they go through in the system. This movie had me cheering and in tears all at the same time and I consider it a great value for the cost of a ticket. The overall theme is that blood doesn't make you family, honor and loyalty do. Take your kids or take a date. The movie is fantastic.

As always, if you like superhero movies, the DC universe, or a good old fashioned melee you will enjoy this movie.

I give it ⭐⭐⭐⭐½ out of 5 stars.

Movie Poster, plot, and picture courtesy of IMDB.