Shazam!

I’ve seen this movie once or twice before, and I enjoyed it before it was in the middle of my DC movie binge. It’s sad how much I look forward to the few tolerable DC films, particularly when I know I have Black Adam and Shazam 2 coming right afterwards. The first time I saw this movie I expected nothing so I was pleasantly surprised, and this time around my expectations worked against the film.

The first thing that stood out was that this is clearly a movie for kids. The protagonist and his friends are all kids, the jokes are aimed for kids, and the characters and plot are simple. That being said, it is still well done. Zachary Levi does an excellent job with this role, and Mark Strong plays a great villain. There is a good subplot about the main character trying to find his mom that adds to the movie, and the final conflict and resolution are enjoyable. Mark Strong’s character deserves a more detailed back story, but DC comics never really seem to care about why their villains do the things that they do.

It’s a good movie, and deserves a 7. This is the rare time that IMDB and I are in total agreement.