Shazam! (2019)

One summary I've seen of why DC Comics movies haven't done as consistently well as the Marvel Cinematic Universe is that they aren't as good at individually balancing dark and light. Sometimes they try to recapture the magic of the Dark Knight Trilogy; sometimes we get the pure unseriousness of Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. Both methods tend to produce reputedly bland results. Trailers made Shazam! look like an instance of the latter, but positive responses across rating sites led me to check it out.

Billy Batson (Asher Angel), age "basically 15," finds himself magically transported from Philadelphia (what, not a fictional city as usual for DC?) to the lair of wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou again), who half-coerces Billy to take up his name and mantle as champion against the forces of evil. Doing so turns Billy into an adult super (Zachary Levi), and the old Shazam dies before he can provide further guidance. Not immediately knowing how to turn back, and having no real friends in his new neighborhood, Billy confides in his same-age foster brother, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who's quite the fan of Superman and Batman. Together they figure out what Billy can do, including turning back into his kid form by saying (usually shouting, for no good reason) "Shazam," which also produces smoke and an apparent EMP. He'll have to master his gifts quickly to take on a new supervillain in town, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong).

If you expect a pure comedy, you'll be surprised by the opening, which looks more suited to a David Yates fantasy. It establishes that this is almost as much Sivana's story as Billy's, and Sivana is never played for laughs. Having failed Shazam's test for a successor, he obsesses over claiming the power by other means, even voluntarily becoming a vessel for seven demons who represent the Deadly Sins themselves. (Kinda wish it were easy to tell which was which.) I'm not sure what he plans to do after vengeance on his bad dad and brother and subjugation of the opposing champion, but he shows no scruples in how he goes about it.

And what are the powers of Shazam, besides that transformation dealie? According to the acronym, he has the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury -- basically modern Superman with lightning shots from his hands instead of x-ray/heat vision, super breath, or exceptional hearing. Unfortunately, in this movie, even accounting for immaturity and inexperience, Billy's wisdom rarely comes anywhere close to impressive, and his courage is nowhere to be found the first time he faces a foe in his weight division.

You have to wonder why Billy became the champion. Never mind his age; the average teen I've known shows more promise. The first time we see him, he leads some cops into a trap in order to steal from them. When he gains powers, he spends too much time showboating or otherwise looking out for himself, and his few pre-Sivana heroic moments leave something to be desired. Sure, he gets his act together in the end, and there is an ancient precedent for choosing unlikely heroes -- the Old Testament, for instance, as hinted by Solomon -- but either the old Shazam had been looking for no more than adequacy, or the film takes a more cynical view of humanity than I do. My best guess is that time was running out and he got desperate enough to pick whomever his seeker spell picked up next, regardless of comparison with prior candidates. From an external perspective, I fear that DC/Warner Brothers, while aware of the failure of The Green Lantern in 2011, did not learn that one of its biggest problems was such an unworthy character being picked to wield the power.

Now, don't get the impression that the filmmakers don't recognize Billy's flaws. Even Freddy, who can be similarly foolish -- as when he tests Billy for super toughness in potentially lethal ways -- gets appalled by such super irresponsibility. Indeed, that forms a beta conflict. Billy, in turn, accuses Freddy of envy and jealousy. I almost forgot to mention that Freddy needs a crutch and, much as he resents getting sympathy for it, classmates usually react by shunning or bullying him. Of all the characters, he has the best reason to want superpowers.

Things get better in the third act, when Billy adopts a new moral compass. Previously, he was always running from foster homes in search of his biological mother (unlike many superheroes, he's not even half an orphan). Now he discovers how much his present foster siblings mean to him. Sivana, being a typical over-the-top villain, takes caring as a weakness, but it proves to be a strength. A somewhat hackneyed moral, but many viewers don't mind such a reminder.

Oh, you probably want to know what I thought of the humor. Well, the trailers pretty well capture its degree of juvenility, and it doesn't also work on a more grown-up level to the same extent as Big (to which it pays deliberate homage). I think the writers had an audience younger than Billy in mind. This is further evidenced by the gratuitous Christmas trappings in a flick released in April. Still, to my relief, it's no Elf. I didn't feel, y'know, super embarrassed to be there.

Others in my theater were getting more out of it than I was. Not only did they laugh heartily now and then, but they broke into applause at a victorious moment toward the end. At least I wasn't left scratching my head.

Might I say, the switch from calling him "Captain Marvel" is sloppier than I realized. No other hero has to be half so careful about when to say his own cape name; the closest that come to mind are the Planeteers, whose individual powers activate when they mention their element. It explains why Billy tries on many different monikers, few of them all that marketable.

Having read an old-school comic of the Artist Formerly Known as Captain Marvel and seen him on a few TV series, I have concluded that there is no non-cheesy way to portray him. Perhaps it would be difficult to make him a movie much better than this. In that light, I approve Shazam! and forgive the bulk of its limitations.