A kid had to face the world in his own animated version and conquer life's biggest monster. ANI (The Harvest) It's as if a child's imagination is a safe haven, a place where the world is a playground for all the possibilities the mind could think of. And even the tight and humble space called home, situated on a busy Metro could not hinder the inquisitive headspace of a young Mithi (played by Zyren Dela Cruz), a boy who accomplishes the day by playing with his colorful toy robots that perform a vital role in his imaginary narrative. With a loving father and a mother that sings him a self-assuring lullaby, Mithi is blissfully unaware of the harsh reality. But life decided to toy with his fate, and Mithi's perfect little world is now showing its cracks, putting his vulnerability to the test and slowly depriving him of his happiness he thought would last forever. And through his eyes, the world suddenly transforms itself into a menacing monster. Set in a lush
"Shazam!" Review - Amazing, Satisfying and Truly Marvelous!
A foster teenager met a wizard who granted him the power of the Gods. The choice is now in his hands, whether to use this gift for the greater good or the greater evil. All he need to do is say the word.
With a large number of comic book movies dominating the market, particularly in the world of Marvel's immense popularity in both critical and commercial success, you would think that by now everyone is in the superhero-fatigue zone. DC in comparison to its Marvel archnemesis has been lacking that same vigor in their earlier outings, especially when they lowkey tried to compete with Marvel when it comes to creating a connecting cinematic universe, thus, producing these half-baked films in the past that for the most part were bloated with too much stuff to look visually dark (literally dark) and edgy. Talk about style over substance.
In recent years, however, DC has started to finally turned the ship around, starting from 2017's Wonder Woman and 2018's Aquaman — both establishing itself as a strong solo film and a strong origin story without relying too much, or not at all, at building a larger universe. True enough, the strong late of comeback continues with David F. Sandberg's Shazam!.
Say the Word
What makes a superhero? Being the strong theme of the film, I could say that Sandberg's Shazam! really stripped off the glaring problems of the earlier DC films which were notorious at being too on-the-nose at being dark and cluttering their films with overstuffed mess that really drowns that essence of what makes a superhero. Rather, the focus this time is building the characters first, making them relatable to the audiences by presenting a very believable problem and why do we want to root for them to begin with.
Enter a young Billy Batson (Asher Angel), who grew up in an orphanage after being abandoned by her mother as a child. Being resentful of the idea of family, Billy rejected other people from entering his life and whatever help that they could offer. His only driving force at this point is to desperately find his mother. During a train ride, he was transported into a bizarre realm of the Wizard, who is also desperate in finding a champion that will inherit his powers and protect humanity against the scourge of evil from the physical manifestations of the seven deadly sins.
By shouting the name Shazam, Billy Batson was able to transform into an adult version of himself (Zachary Levi), possessing a greater built inside a tight red costume and a medium-length white cape with a glowing lightning shaped symbol on his chest, hosting the power of the Gods. The struggle however is that, Billy Batson is just a kid. And any normal kid wouldn't be able to know what to do with this powers except be playful with it and just do random cool stuff for the hell of it.
What makes the movie so good (seriously really good) is that it undestands the Shazam character and Billy Batson, just like in every origin stories, was placed into what seems to be a crash course for Superhero-101, with the help of his best friend Freddie Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer). Billy truly has a pure heart, it's just that he was challenged by this larger problems that made him what he was growing up. And in this film, he learned to outgrow from that experiences, and throughout the film, realizes that family comes in many forms, and sometimes not always from your own biological parents but rather from the people around you.
They say that the hero is only as good as his villain. Well that saying is also proven in Mark Strong's Dr. Sivana as the main supervillain of the film. Strong's performance, as his name suggests, is very strong. His motivations come from a deep experience as a child and you understand why he did what he did, regardless of how extremely evil it was.
Billy Batson and Dr. Sivana, having basically the same gift of powers, represents two different sides of the coin. Batson uses his powers to save and protect people. Sivana, on the other hand, use his for revenge. This also makes a very interesting clash of ideologies that makes the film or any other film richer and more compelling.
Zachary Levi is truly the star of this movie. The movie is already good in itself but what makes it more livelier is Levi's interpretation of the cape crusader. He is a natural charmer, and a comedic one too. Levi and Grazer's back to back banter is both hilarious and delightful as well and I truly admire that the film showcased that relationship because it really is a joy to watch how these characters grow as a person and as friends — an actual arc.
Let's Be Reel
Overall, the film is such a warm and entertaining spectacle that doesn't jolt itself with too much fat. It gave so much positive brightness and lightness to it which I always wished The Man of Steel had. This film also has a lot of surprises, particularly that marvelous team up at the end.
Shazam!, is a familial film with compelling motivations, interesting characters and believable fantasy elements to it that was very well directed and well written. If you were not on board with the character before then this film will prove you wrong.
Comments
Post a Comment