The Current Cinema: Shazam (2019)
Directed by David Sandberg. Starring Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jacky Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody, Djimon Hounsou, Faithe Herman, Meagan Good. Released April 5, 2019. Running time: 132 minutes.
I reviewed the original movie serial "The Adventures of Captain Marvel" when Kino Lorber released it to blu ray a couple of years ago. It has significance as the very first superhero movie adaption. Much of its charm today is due to its being in black and white, of another era, and with limited special effects due to the primitive technology available back in 1941. Now as I look at "Shazam," the modern day update with his razzle dazzle effects, quick edits, sweeping camera shots, and pop-whiz-bang noises, I find that the limited effects are actually more appealing. Of course I realize that a super hero movie is going to be an example of form over substance. But the special effects in contemporary superhero movies are more of a distraction than an enhancement. Once my mind overrides the distraction and realizes that, unlike a chapterplay, this isn't going to be action every 15 minutes, and is going to plod along with a narrative, some character development, and dollops of humor, I can get into the contemporary cinema groove.
"Shazam' is, on one hand, disarming fun, with foster kid Billy Batson who is afforded magical powers so that when he utters the title word, he becomes an adult superhero. But contrarily, it is also a creepy story featuring Mark Strong as antagonist Dr. Sivana and some pretty gruesome sequences. So, is this a movie for kids? For adults? It isn't consistently for either. But, nevertheless, it raked in nearly $400 million at the box office, quadrupling its production cost and setting up the inevitable sequel.
Much of the humor comes from Zachary Levi as Shazam, trying to adjust as an adult (bumping his head, fumbling with his hands, trying to fly, et al). It has the same vibe as Penny Marshall's "Big" (1988) in which Tom Hanks plays a child who finds himself in an adult body. They even pay some homage when a giant keyboard is shown in a toy store; a throwback to a famous scene in "Big" between Hanks and Robert Loggia. Levi's comic reactions to slowly discovering his powers is amusing enough, and provides a lightweight charm.
And the more serious gruesome scenes with Mark Strong are exciting enough, but they have the effect of watching two different movies at the same time, switching between channels -- the comical antics of Shazam, and then the frightening saga of Dr. Sivana, where demons are conjured that bite off people's heads and throw them through windows from the top floor.
With a running time over two hours, there are a lot of scenes that only serve to lengthen the movie and make it a bit protracted. The scenes where Shazam uses his powers to entertain crowds of people and his friend wants him to himself is a good example. And there are some situations where a clumsy Shazam causes the problems his super powers need to then fix.
When Shazam and Dr. Sivana finally meet up, a little more than halfway through the movie, the two disparate elements try to blend after a long setup. They even extend Sivana into Billy's foster family, while he tries to search for the elusive parents he's been trying to find since he became lost at age 3. That aspect of the story becomes a bit to dramatically tangential to the humor that the film establishes early, further emphasizing the overall unevenness of the production.
There are a few cheeky references such as Batson having a tiger on his backpack (Captain Marvel had a talking tiger friend in the comics), a sign that says Ace Chemicals (Joker's birth place in the Batman comics), Batson's dad's initials are C.C. which are also the initials of original Captain Marvel creator C.C. Beck, etc.
"Shazam" has a lot of fun to it, and can often be exhilarating. But it is also overlong and uneven. Take it or leave it, no harm done either way.