Shazam! (2019) Review

So I have now caught up with the DCEU films and here is my review for the film called Shazam! The premise of the film sees a young boy given the powers of a Wizard which transforms him into an adult where he has to take down an enemy alligned with The 7 Deadly Sins.

Main Character

The main character is split into two parts, the first one is that of Zachary Levi who plays the adult version of Billy Batson and he does a great job, he seems to have finally found a great superhero role for him. He is really funny in the role and he truly does a great job in playing an adult version of a 14 year old, he does a great job with the drama and the humour of the role. Then onto the young version of the character played by Asher Angel who I also thought did a good job. He is the character we see through for the first half of the film and he was really good especially for a child actor, his character goes through plenty in the film and it is in the emotional scenes where he does a great job.

Supporting Characters

Mark Strong plays the villain Dr Sivana and I thought he did a good job in the role, he has an interesting backstory and you kind of understand his motivations despite him being presented as a bit of a generic villain. Jack Dylan Grazer plays Billy's foster brother Freddy and he starts off as quite annoying but their relationship grows and you actually grow to care about it and it is one of the most important parts of the film. The rest of the foster family are fun enough, even though you don't learn that much about them they are fun additions to the film. Also Djimon Hounsou does a good job in his small role as The Wizard.

Story

The story does a good job in showing how important family is for everyone and showing how a person can start off one way and grow to become better by the end. Also as I mentioned the villain's motivation are actually handled pretty well here which is a nice thing to see in a film like this. The crticism for the story is that it is pretty generic, you know exactly how things are going to go and it pretty much ends that way. It doesn't make it less fun or entertaining but it does make it predictable and lacking anything that really stands out to raise it to really top level.

Script

The script is good in this film, as mentioned it really focuses on humour and I actually found this film really funny. It is an easy film to like as it is very funny and focuses on a truly likeable main character. Plus there are actually some really emotional moments in this film that further fleshes out Billy for sure as a character.

Style

The style of the film has some great action sequences, they are fun and it fits the overall tone of the film. There are some really great character designs especially for The 7 Deadly Sins who are pretty terrifying to look at, especially for a young audience. Though, I felt like there was a slight pacing issue here, it's fun seeing the training montages but it literally takes an hour which is half of the film for the hero and villain to meet which just felt too long for me. 

Overall

Overall, this is a great fun film that has plenty too it to like. It is a bit generic but it does it's stuff really well and is a fun watch especially for comic book films.

Rating - 8/10