Shazam!: A DCEU Retrospective (Part 7)
Rating – 6.5/10
**SPOILERS**
No one has ever claimed that the art of making a cinematic universe is easy. When Marvel did it, it required carefully maintained connective threads, patience, and a clear sense of direction and leadership that could steer each piece of the franchise towards a cohesive, unifying conclusion. In 2019, the Marvel Cinematic Universe was releasing the much hyped conclusion of their 10 year storyline with Avengers: Endgame. At around the same time, the DC Extended Universe had lost all of their direction and leadership, and so they just kinda made Shazam! and hoped for the best.
Since Justice League released in 2017 and decidedly did not get the acclaim or box office Warner Bros was hoping for, the DCEU had been in a bit of an odd place. For one thing, their attempt at an overarching story had not been very well received. And on top of that, they had a rapidly growing number of films in production hell. Several films announced back in 2014 were experiencing development issues (Green Lantern Corps), struggling to secure directors (The Flash), getting shelved so the studio could focus elsewhere (Justice League Part 2), or losing the interest of its stars (Cyborg). This is all of course not to mention the many other films announced by the studio as being “in development”, most of which had their production stagnated, if they were ever mentioned again (there’s a whole list on wikipedia).
In fact, I count 18 films that had been announced by April 2019 that would ultimately never be released. I really need everyone reading this to understand how utterly ridiculous this was to witness. It was like a constant parade of desperate attempts for attention, and even without hindsight you could tell they were just throwing anything at the wall, with no real idea of where they were going with any of it. The point is, it was getting increasingly clear that no one in charge of the DCEU had any idea what they were doing anymore.
Anyway, in April 2019 Shazam! was released, as one of the movies from that original 2014 film lineup to see the light of day. Directed by David F. Sandberg, it stars Asher Angel as Billy Batson, a 14 year old foster kid who meets a wizard, and is given access to his power by saying his name (it’s Shazam), transforming him into an immensely powerful adult played by Zachary Levi, and allowing him to take advantage of being aged up and given godlike abilities, until evil forces come to take his power from him. Like Aquaman before it, Shazam! is a much lighter affair than the likes of Man of Steel or Batman v. Superman, and lets itself have fun with the wacky idea of a kid in an adult superhero’s body, but saves time for strong drama, and themes about found family and learning to open yourself to others.
Asher Angel is absolutely the highlight of this film. His portrayal of Billy Batson is jaded, snarky, and untrusting of others, and spends most of the movie treating others pretty poorly. However, Angel is able to take this pretty unlikable character and make him endearing, through his interactions with his foster brother Freddy (played by Jack Dylan Grazer), the brief glimpses at his unresolved trauma around his missing biological mother, and the flashes of kindness buried beneath his rougher exterior. Angel brings nuances to Billy that make him a surprisingly layered character, even if the script maybe doesn’t go quite as far as exploring them as it could.
Admittedly, I went into this viewing a little wary of Zachary Levi’s performance, as the recent sequel (which I still haven’t seen at the time of writing this. Let me procrastinate on that one dammit) caught criticism for the disconnect between his and Angel’s performances, with the two of them feeling completely out of sync despite playing the same person in different bodies. I was surprised to see that for the most part, Levi’s performance lines up well with Angel’s here. He can easily capture the vibe of a child in an adult’s body, while also maintaining consistency with Angel’s mannerisms and behaviors. The performance does fall apart a little when Levi has to carry out more dramatic moments. He’s having a lot of fun, but either due to the script or the direction doesn’t always turn it off when he should, leading to a bit of a tonal imbalance (there is a perfect scene in the climax between Levi’s Shazam and a scared little girl, which feels expertly lined up with the warmth and kindness Angel was careful to only occasionally show throughout the rest of the film).
The tonal imbalance comes up a few times throughout the film, which is largely down to the script. And the script does have issues. In terms of tone, dramatic moments can sometimes fall back on comedy, deflating them a bit. At other times, overtly comedic scenes can transition into dark, borderline horror movie territory, with at least one innocent woman disintegrating into ash, and a scene where monstrous personifications of the Seven Deadly Sins slaughter a room full of people, which really doesn’t gel with scenes like the mall chase, where Shazam tries to defend himself by throwing a Batman doll at a villain and gets distracted by a walking piano. Frankly, the humor in this movie feels like the closest the DCEU has gotten to Marvel thus far. Just not in a great way. It feels somewhat safe and quippy, but it doesn’t land as much as Marvel humor does (say what you want about MCU humor, but at least it is funny a lot of the time). Of course, Aquaman took a turn towards lighter humor as well, but it worked by fully committing to comic book zanyness. Shazam! plays it a little more safe, and the film ultimately feels lacking in identity a lot of the time, with not a lot to make it stand out from the plethora of superhero content that exists right now. The film could benefit from some bolder swings, which we do get occasional glimpses of (a brief look at a dimension of crocodile gangsters, a sequel tease for an evil catepillar), but don’t get enough to make this film really stand out.
Unfortunately, Shazam! isn’t able to stand out much from a visual perspective either. The film is covered in drab grays and blues (a criticism you often hear about MCU films), which is a huge comedown from the gorgeous color of Aquaman, and even the gritty visuals found in Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s distinct style. It just sort of takes place in Philidelphia, with no fantastical elements or feelings presented. The effects in Shazam! are also very rough. In fact, I’d go so far as to say the cartoony looking Sins monsters are just as bad as the effects in Suicide Squad. For a film that has a decent reputation, these effects rank among the worst in the franchise so far.
I do not get the sense that David F. Sandberg is experienced in directing action, as the action scenes in Shazam! really don’t have many memorable moments. Shots and choreography just don’t stick out in my memory that well. It feels like action set pieces are only in the film out of obligation, as Sandberg has much more focus on Billy’s antics as a kid who can turn into an adult and mess around with super powers. And that’s fine. It’s fun, it works with the story. But when Sandberg does try to commit to action, it doesn’t feel like anyone’s heart is in it. It’s a superhero movie, so it needs to have action, so just throw some on there and get back to what we actually want to make. A lot of the action is also brought down by a weird speed effect that Sandberg keeps employing, where characters suddenly move faster and weightlessly, and it’s very janky and fake looking.
To be clear, I do not hate this movie. It has very strong central performances (I also want to mention Jack Dylan Grazer, who gets all of the funniest lines and delivers them beautifully), and it is fun to have a snarky kid getting to be an adult and mess around. It just needed some bigger choices, some bolder swings that could give it just that extra bit of identity (aside from random scenes of characters experiencing gruesome deaths). It’s a fine film, just maybe a little too middle of the road.
What puts this film a couple notches up however is the sheer heart it possesses. Shazam! is a story about family and being a foster kid, in which Billy has to learn to let his guard down and accept that just because a family isn’t biological, doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to treat you like the real thing. It can be genuinely moving and heartbreaking at times, and the family unit that embraces Billy brings a ton of heartfelt energy into the story, even if some members are a little underserved. The themes also provide pretty strong ties to the main villain, Mark Strong’s Dr. Sivana, who is driven to rage by the neglect and abuse he received from his family (it should be noted that despite this solid foundation, Strong is wasted in a pretty standard villain role). The emotional core found here, combined with the performance of Asher Angel (and Zachary Levi a bit) is strong enough that it elevates the middle of the road nature of Shazam! to a genuinely affecting and heartfelt story.
Shazam! was critically well received upon release, actually getting some of the strongest reviews in the DCEU thus far. It also represents the full dive into what I consider the second phase of the DCEU. After Aquaman was a more standalone affair from the rest of the franchise, Shazam! has virtually no connective tissue to the other film. This is due to the new direction the DCEU was going in. After the failure of Justice League and its interconnected story, leadership was shaken up once again, and the franchise was placed under the stewardship of Walter Hamada, a Warner Bros exec promoted to president of DC Films in January 2018. Hamada prompted a shift towards more standalone features not bogged down by interconnected storylines, apparently embracing the lack of direction plaguing the DCEU (this would also result in films entirely separate from the DCEU, such as 2019’s Joker, which I will not be covering). I presume the idea was to serve as an alternative to the MCU’s expensive lore (well known for virtually giving audiences homework assignments to know what's going on every time a movie comes out), and films like Shazam! were able to benefit from this. The problem was that eventually this style would deplete the DCEU’s audience engagement. The MCU ultimately thrives on interconnected stories, as each of its films generate high box office numbers from audiences not wanting to miss the next piece of the overarching story (maybe not as much as it does now, admittedly). While standalone films were able to feel less tied up in excessive continuity, audiences could more clearly see the lack of direction for the DCEU. Despite Aquaman making a billion dollars a few months earlier, this is one of a few factors why audiences seemed to lose interest in the DCEU. No DC movie would make as much money as any of the 6 films that came before Shazam! (other factors include the fact that Shazam! got its profits cut short by Avengers: Endgame coming out a matter of weeks later, and the unholy amount of bad luck that would start hitting about a year later).
6 years later, Shazam! is an inconspicuous piece of DCEU history. It feels incredibly separate from the rest of the series, a little side note in the overall picture. It doesn’t bring much new to the table, but it does a decent job overall. I can see how it isn’t a standout of the superhero genre, but it’s nice, it’s fun, and that’s alright. I’m not sure it’ll have much of a legacy in the future, or even if it has much of one now, but it doesn’t hurt to give it a little attention, just so it doesn’t fade into total obscurity.
Not like the next DCEU film has at least.
