Shazam!

There's a new superhero in town and his name is SHAZAM! - 8/10

by Francesco Bakhos - 365 Movies Lebanon

There's a new superhero in town and his name is SHAZAM!

This movie revolves around 14 year old Billy Batson, whom only needs to shout out one word to transform into the adult superhero Shazam. Still a kid at heart, Shazam revels in the new version of himself by doing what any other teen would do - - have fun while testing out his newfound powers. But he'll need to master them quickly before the evil Dr. Thaddeus Sivana can get his hands on Shazam's magical abilities.

I have to admit, I wasn't expecting DCEU's latest entry to be this good. The fact that this movie doesn't take itself seriously while still maintaining a dark vibe throughout its entire runtime just shows how much a great director Peter Sandberg is.

First thing i want to highlight in my review is the effortlessly well written storyline that not even once felt too forced. It had the perfect balance between comedy, action and drama. Nowadays, its really hard to find a good superhero movie with some genuinely well written jokes(no offense Deadpool) that are neither dirty nor corny. But, luckily for us, Shazam is exactly that, a superhero movie that the entire family could enjoy.

In addition, the storyline contained a lot of inspiring life messages and also tackled numerous social/psychological themes such as Bullying, foster families, self acceptance, loneliness, abandonment... And their consequences on oneself. The storyline and these themes combined with a really great backstory provided us with really well developed characters that every spectator can relate/connect to.

I personally found the Antagonist really well impressive. Imagine you are a child that is being bullied and you can't turn to your family for comfort because they ARE the bullies. The place where you once sought comfort is now the source of your unhappiness. This, combined with other aspects as well, creates one really angry antagonist whom his main concern is revenge. I also really enjoyed the idea of merging all of the 7 deadly sins (pride, envy, greed, anger, sloth, gluttony and lust) into one character. This only shows the length a person would go in order to prove he's worthy.

There's also the protagonists whom in a way represented the Virtues of this world. In other words, they were the other side of the same coin(wont say which one). Each one had its own set of difficulties and worries but at the end they were all the same.

These characters were portrayed by some amazing talents like the fabulous Mark Strong and the hilarious Zachary Levi. But i personally really enjoyed Michelle Borth, Jack Dylan Brazer and Asher Angel's performances. They were truly remarkable.

And not to forget about the art and set decorations that truly helped in creating a cozy and relaxing atmosphere. The costumes were also reallyyy amazing, Shazam has one of the best suits ever(sorry superman).

At the end, Shazam is  a heartwarming celebration of family and friends that no one can resist. 

Highly recommended. 

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