Westside Steve Posted May 6, 2019 Report Share Posted May 6, 2019 Shazam Warner Brothers PG 13. 132 min Okay this is a little unexpected but pleasantly so. It sure seems there’s another superhero movie out every week and most of them suck. I suppose they are all a little bit of fun and their own way but too much of the SOS gets tiresome. Even with the two heavyweights of the industry in their camp DC Comics has recently fallen behind the imitative Stan Lee at Marvel, may he rest in peace. There was a big kerfuffle decades and decades ago when DC sued a company called Fawcett for a Captain Marvel / Shazam character that look like it copyright infringement on DC’s Superman. When the dust settled Fawcett was SOL, Marvel eventually wound up with Captain Marvel and Shazam stayed as a minor player in the DC Comics stable. Back in 1940 Captain Marvel AKA Shazam showed up in Whiz comics. Actually Shazam is the name of the wizard charged with finding a champion to protect the world from a bunch of imprisoned demons. Originally he found a crippled news boy named Billy Batson who was deemed to be pure of heart and given the ability to change into the mighty Captain Marvel merely by uttering the Wizards name. Then he’ll go out and beat up bad guys, save people from disaster, stuff like that. Well two reasons for this movie coming to light are the facts that A superhero movies always rake in a lot of dough and B nobody really cares about the origin of Billy Batson or Shazam (be honest when you hear Shazam you think of Gomer Pyle right?) anymore so the writers are pretty much free to do whatever they like. Here they’ve decided to take a few surefire hooks off the shelf, add just a touch of political correctness but not enough to stink up the joint, and a nice dash of comedy in order to put together a very enjoyable flick. First of all Billy Batson Asher Angel) no longer a crippled newsboy but an orphan bouncing from foster home to foster home determined to find his birth mother and believing that she must be searching for him too. This determination puts him at odds with his latest foster family but he also will form a bond with one of the kids, who is actually crippled. Modern-day Billy is selected by the wizard Shazam but oddly enough as we will find out he’s not actually pure of heart. Oh he’s certainly not evil but he is prone to the slings and arrows of arrogance and ego that all teenage kids fall prey to. One of the fun subplots is a series of scenes where is Shazam Zachary Levi) out what powers he has. It takes him a while to figure them out, super strength, super visio , flight and invulnerability and the like. Soon enough he starts showing off and accepting cash tips for performing incredible feats much to the displeasure of his new friend Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) who tries to rein him in. Another side story is of the bullies the pick on Freddy who learned their lesson but in a refreshingly non-violent way that includes a very cool cameo. I won’t spill those beans now. Meanwhile Doctor Sivana (Mark Strong) is on a rampage. He’s the bad guy who thinks he should have been given the power of Shazam but now receives his abilities from the group of demons that the old wizard had kept locked up for years. The climax is something of an after-school special as Billy realizes how important teamwork is. Sure it’s a little hokey but it didn’t bother me at all and probably won’t bother anybody except maybe that one in a million SHAZAM purist. It’s a lot of fun, much more than two hours of noise and destruction, and hopefully the grandchildren of the people at Fawcett entertainment feel vindicated. B+ WSS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Cysko Kid Posted May 8, 2019 Report Share Posted May 8, 2019 You called Stan Lee imitative. I think you used the wrong word. Innovative is the right one. DC superheroes, especially in the Golden age, tended to be ethereal and untouchable living gods. Only batman had any relatability and although his parents were dead he had no other flaws. Marvel's heroes were the first that were truly relatable. They were nerds; the targets of bullies. Some were ugly and there was nothing they could do about it. They had anger issues. Outcasts. What marvel did in the 60s completely revolutionized the industry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted May 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2019 Both terms are correct. Stan Lee imitated many of the DC characters and took them further than DC did. There is only so far you can go with a character like Superman who has no weaknesses. It was only later they decided to introduce Kryptonite to make the stories a touch more interesting. Lee took the lead on humanizing his characters where DC lagged behind. Franz Liszt went out into the Hungarian countryside and picked up snippets of folk tunes andI translated them into lasting works of art. WSS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted May 8, 2019 Author Report Share Posted May 8, 2019 Not only that but Shazam picked up on quite a few hooks that Stan Lee was famous for. The entire thing about the bullies and the little crippled kid coming out on top his kind of picked from the pages of Spider-Man. WSS Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickers Posted July 11, 2019 Report Share Posted July 11, 2019 Shazam was harmless and "Cute" 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westside Steve Posted August 12, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 12, 2019 On 7/11/2019 at 11:53 AM, nickers said: Shazam was harmless and "Cute" Nothing offensive about it , just a shity movie. WSS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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