Ali Plumb says Zachary Levi is a proper treat in Shazam!

14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a foster kid desperate to find his long lost mum. Chewed up and spat out by the system time and again, he can never settle anywhere he’s placed, always running away in search of his mother. That is until he’s taken in by a very special foster family, and, you know, a wizard gives him the power to magically transform into an uber-buff, electrically-charged superhero known as “Shazam!” (played by Zachary Levi) whenever he says the word “Shazam!”. Yes, you read that correctly. Aided and abetted by his new foster brother Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), he soon uses his powers for both good (taking down Mark Strong’s evil Thaddeus Sivana) and bad (trying to get booze underage… or not, as the case may be). But can Billy survive school, find his mum and take down a most villainous villain? You’ll have to watch the film to find out…

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Pros:

• Now here’s a fun superhero movie. You’ll chuckle along as Tom Hanks’ ‘80s “bodyswapping” classic Big is smashed together with an old-fashioned Superman film, with all the jokes you’d expect from a movie where a teen discovers he is able to fly, shoot lightning from his fingers and punch bad ‘uns into the middle of next week. It’s not thigh-slappingly hilarious, but it’s a cute little kids’ film and you’ll smile as you walk out the cinema, whispering “Shazam” under your breath to see if it works for you too.
• Zachary Levi is a proper treat. He absolutely aces the “grown up”, super-powered Billy role, landing all the gags just right, managing to pull off a pretty tricky feat in reminding you that he’s still a kid when he’s kind of not. Levi has been great in smaller roles for a while now – he voiced Flynn Rider in the 2010 animated film Tangled, he’s excellent in the latest series of Amazon’s Marvellous Mrs. Maisel – but this is his big, bold, brilliant big screen breakout hit and it honestly couldn’t happen to a nicer guy. Here’s to you, Zach!
• It’s a minor point, but there’s a real pleasure in seeing a superhero movie that’s directly aimed at a younger audience. Since The Dark Knight trilogy, DC superhero movies have leant towards the darker, more adult side of things, and with Marvel also heading to the dark side - don’t forget both Deadpool and Infinity War have been serving us up swearing and death (in drastically different measurements) very recently. The wackier Shazam! – bar a couple of misjudged scenes, more on which later – is actively goofy and silly and fun, and if you’ve got a young teenager in your life, go ahead and watch this movie with them, you won’t regret it.

Cons:

• As mentioned above, there are some scenes that seem a little out of place with the rest of the movie. Mark Strong, back in bad guy mode, is trying to take down Shazam with the help of his “seven deadly sins”, a group of frankly disgusting-looking gargoyles that are just a touch too freaky to comfortably enjoy in an otherwise remarkably light and frothy family comedy. This isn’t Indiana Jones eyeballs-in-my-soup levels of ick, it’s something much yuckier. Perhaps it’s to be expected when your director is a horror veteran (David F. Sandberg, who previously gave us Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, by the way).
• Speaking of which, some of the special effects are a little bit rough around the edges. In fact, the whole film seems a little bit “That’ll do”. It’s harsh to say, but when other superhero blockbusters have budgets the size of a small country’s annual tax turnover, the cheaper and (mostly) more cheerful Shazam! suffers in comparison. The storyboarding maybe needed a little more time, the script too, the villain a little more love. It’s not bad, it just doesn’t quite feel right, and could have benefitted from a bit more prep and a bit more money.
• I don’t want to throw a young actor under the bus, but 14-year-old Billy Batson (Asher Angel) can’t hold a candle compared to the effervescent and electric Shazamified Billy (Zachary Levi). Levi seems to get who the character is so much more than Angel, and the difference between the two can really stand out at times. Here’s hoping the two match up a little better come the sequel.

Three-word review: Throwaway superhero fun.