Film: Shazam!

GENRE: Action Adventure

RATING: PG-13 for violence, language and suggestive material
RUNTIME: 2 hour and 12 minutes

STARRING: Zachary Levi (Chuck, Thor, Tangled, Heroes: Reborn)

Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes, Kingsman), Jack Dylan Grazer (It)

DIRECTOR: David F Sandberg (Annabelle: Creation)

WRITER: Henry Gayden (newcomer)

PLOT: A foster kid becomes a grown-up superhero by shouting ‘Shazam’

FULL DISCLOSURE: The trailer looked good and I loved Chuck.   

STORY STUFF: This was pretty fun. An entertaining cross between Big and Greatest American Hero. The discovery of powers and foster family relationships worked for me. Was okay with the main villain but the supernatural deadly sin beasts pulled me out of the movie. Luckily there is a lot of humour to counteract that. Over the last day or two I think they changed the movie rating from PG to PG-13. There is some excessive violence from the beasts and there are also a few references to a strip club that don’t sound very PG. Glad it’s been upgraded.

ACTING STUFF: Kudos to the casting department. Levi is fantastic as Shazam. He plays it perfectly – he’s such a kid at heart. I also loved the kid actors. Grazer is perfect as the ‘mentor’ for Billy Batson and his new found powers (also perfect adult version casting as well – reminds me of the exceptional casting look-alikes in This Is Us). Faithe Herman (This is Us) is simply adorable as the ‘best sister’ and almost stole the show. Strong plays a good villain and John Glover (Smallville) always shines as the worst father ever. Well done all around.

ARTISTIC STUFF: The action stuff is pretty good, but like I said, not a fan of the CG deadly sin beasts. I think this movie depends more on the actors and story than the bells and whistles and that’s a good thing.

VERDICT: Four stars out of five

SEE IT IF: You like the fun of Big mixed in with your superhero film.

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Avengers: End Game