SHAZAM! Is a Fun and Funny Action Comedy Except When It's a Huge Bummer

I begin with a confession: this review is late. My review of Shazam! was supposed to run last Thursday, and then last Friday, and what actually happened is I tried and failed to write it so many times I just stepped away and took the weekend and tried to figure out what to say about this movie that I wanted to like so badly. The problem is, I didn't like it, and I didn't like it because I was baffled by it. And I was baffled by the fact that other people seemed to really love it. After the screening I went to, other members of the press gave comments like, "DC figured it out!" (Which, like, duh, they figured it out with Wonder Woman and Aquaman, both movies that I liked more) and, "The funniest superhero movie ever made!" (Which is definitely either Deadpool or Thor: Ragnarok).

So here is my honest opinion: Shazam! is a fun and funny feel-good action comedy, but I also thought it was a huge bummer. I thought it was tonally all over the place, ranging from heartwarming family dramedy to funny coming of age story to hellish after school special to cartoony magic time to some super dark Man's Inhumanity to Man stuff. Take the opening sequence. In 1974, a young Thad Sivana is riding in a car with his dad and his brother, and they are mean to him about his magic 8 ball for pretty much no reason. Suddenly, he is transported to the lair of an old magician, where we meet Djimon Hounsou as the last surviving member of the Council of Wizards, struggling desperately to contain the Seven Deadly Sins as his power weakens. This section was kinda cartoony, so much so that I honestly thought it was a deliberate choice to keep it from being too scary for the kids. I was for sure wrong about that, because when Thad is transported back to his father's car, some really ugly family dynamics play out, leading to a horrific and fairly graphic car accident. Pitch black, and definitely not cartoony for the kids.

Then we meet Billy Batson, and there is another complete tonal shift to some zany antics. I very much enjoyed the zany antics. Asher Angel as 14-year-old Billy makes an appealing scamp who doesn't trust anyone and just wants to find his mom, and Zachary Levi is fantastic as Shazam. He is very good at boyish, and he is very charming, and he is excellent at slightly douchey, which, let's face it, is any 14-year-old boy who has sudden superpowers. I know Shazam! has been compared to Big to the point that it has grown tedious (the movie itself skewers the comparison in a nod to one of Big's most iconic scenes), but Levi has a Hanks-ian winsomeness that is very appealing and really balances out the parts I found less pleasant.

But here is where we run up against another thing that I find baffling about the film: it’s really weird that Hounsou chooses Asher as his successor. Dr. Thaddeus Sivana’s entire life and villainous mission is shaped by his belief that Hounsou was sadistic in his rejection of dozens of candidates to be his champion. His judgment is swift and unyielding in his quest for someone who is pure of heart. Billy Batson is not pure of heart. And that’s fine, sort of, because the movie is about how he grows into the role. He’s the protagonist; he is going to change. But we don’t really get glimpses of goodness that hint at the great man he could become. He is pretty much an ass until pretty deep in the film.

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana is one-dimensional, an open wound of anger and need, like if Kylo Ren were less nuanced. Mark Strong is always interesting to watch because he is so wildly charismatic, and he does the best he can, but the most interesting thing about Sivana is his bizarre commitment to an unusual collar. He wears a shirt that is a nod to the comic book character's smock, but is basically a mandarin collar button up with an asymmetrical band that buttons on the side, a suit with a slim leather shawl collar, and then tops the whole thing off with a fur-collared leather frock coat. It is a lot of look.

Some of my favorite parts of the film involve Billy Batson struggling to find any sort of peace in the world. His initial immature reaction to his powers make sense not just because he’s a dopey 14-year-old boy, but because he sees his new persona as an escape from the overwhelming drudgery of his life — foster homes! school bullies! a quest to find his mom! (Another grim storyline. When you are hoping the main character just finds out that his mom is dead, you know things are bad.) There is a lot of heart in his relationships with his new foster family and their desperate attempts to break down his emotional walls. I loved that part of the movie. I also loved his friendship with the adorable weirdo he rooms with, played by Jack Dylan Frazer. Also, it’s sort of a spoiler to say how he comes into the film, but it was a delight to watch Adam Brody basically play Seth Cohen one last time. Their hijinks were ridiculous and fun, and exactly what I thought the movie was going to be. Also, it’s sort of a spoiler to say how he comes into the film, but it was a delight to watch Adam Brody basically play Seth Cohen one last time.

I think that is why I was so confused by this movie. Yes, the constant tonal shifts were weird and jarring, but I might have liked it more if I had gone in with different expectations, or just fewer expectations. I thought I knew what this movie was going to be, and when it wasn’t that, I decided it wasn’t for me. So here’s what< if you go into the movie realizing that huge swathes of the movie are going to be charming and fun, but also there is some really awful stuff and the glowing red eyes on the Sins look like cheesy animatronics, you just might like it. Or you could even just go in with an open mind. Your call.