Shazam! (2019)
Every Hero Has A Secret
Two comic movies in a row? Just as little know-how of both! Although I enjoyed the last entry, not as many seemed to agree with that conclusion. This time around, we go after something that looked like a nice humorous superhero romp with plenty of potential towards color and fun that didn’t get nearly as bad reviews! Yeah, don’t get to used to it - this hasn’t become the year of the superhero, it’s just your luck of the roulette draw while I’m too distracted with hunting big old monsters and turning their skin into coats - tonight we check out Shazam!
The thing about the trailer for this movie is that it did something that a lot of cape movies don’t necessarily always do - make it look like it was just going to be fun. Not like “that’s a good movie” kind of fun, but just that it’s going to have some good laughs and bright colors, and feel much more akin to what the common person probably thinks of when they hear the word comic : silly. Some might be unhappy about that, but to I enjoy some laughs and grow weary of all the serious-styled cape movies, so I actually was somewhat excited for this one - not that the others are bad in any way, but sometimes I want something silly that isn’t modern day Adam Sandler levels of “that was humor, I guess.” So thusly, my expectations were tempered in that fun-going near kids movie sort of way for when I went into this movie, because the one trailer I saw had essentially pitched it as thus. To my surprise, there was a darker edge in this movie that I perhaps might have forseen if I had any knowledge of the source - but we’ve already established many times that rarely do I even have a knowledge of “the source.”
Our start does a quick job of whisking us into the world it’s setting up - one of magic and demons and champions - with some easy foreshadowing and a brunt-force trauma sort of sign off on the fact that the movie isn’t going to all be bright colors and cracking smiles. When we get introduced to our main character, even he has some tragic sides to him. If you’ve seen a bunch of the old orphan-character stories, perhaps the foster home side of things won’t particularly bring anything new about in plot developments for you - it might feel pretty routine. What will be a little more standout for those types is the superhero elements, which plays with the idea of an origin story by making the hero essentially a kid in a grown-persons body. Sure, the things a kid does while in an adult body aren’t particularly new, but largely feels pretty reasonable and relatable even if it is par for course. This angle does provide for a good amount of the comedy though.
To be honest, the comedy worked pretty well for me. Is it all hitting out the park? Nah, I managed to stay in my chair the entire time - but it still had a good number of comedic moments that got me smiling or chuckling regardless. Comedy, as always, is subjective so perhaps my penchant for low brow humor helps me out here. Even so, I do recognize some jokes not quite hitting their mark for me - such as the first time the wedgie joke comes by, feeling perhaps a bit drawn out. I will also admit, however, that when it comes up a second time as a call back I grinned a little - so the jokes do have that Archer style usage at times, coming back or getting reused whether you like it or not. Beyond that, there is some slapstick style humor in there, as well as plenty of puns, but the largest pool is probably the kid-based humor, which makes sense given the nature of the character.
A new family begins.
Actors are a decent mix between kid and adult. There’s also, of course, the main character who is often times an adult acting like a kid, or an adult acting like a kid acting like an adult. All considering, they do pretty good jobs, with occasionally one or two of the kids being perhaps a little over or under played. The funny part of it, is despite all the ways the level of acting may swing, it always ends up feeling like it deserves to be in the movie given how much the movie swings between humor and serious. Yes, sometimes a serious moment might be a little hurt by the humor or the acting as a result, but for the most part comes off very watchable. Sure, if someone doesn’t like kids in general, they may not perhaps like a good portion of the movie, since so much of it is played out in a kid-level sort of feeling - even down to the morals and such. It’s a family fantasy movie at it’s core, and much like all of it’s lineage before it, it wants you to learn a lesson about family and whats good and right - and that annoys some people, especially when it gets stated pretty bluntly at times with dialogue.
Effects are pretty good here. Sure, at times things might look a little gamey or computer-heavy, but between the various flights and fights, random acts of power testing and secretive settings, it does offer a decent amount. The suit is constantly being shown, and it looks pretty standard hero tights - except with some real nice illumination bits. Most the other elements end up being more of a modern day sort of thing, outside of the Wizard lair and the enemies that at once were contained inside it. The baddies at times will look as though they may actually be a practical suit - whether or not they are I haven’t the foggiest, but it’s pretty good quality either way. Yeah, it’s not always that way, but in my book it’s certainly acceptable enough to be enjoyable, before you even get to the misting, electrifying, and super speeding elements also existing inside it.
Audio is good. It’s balanced well, you can hear the lines it wants you to hear, and the music does a good job of supporting what’s going on without overpowering it. Its got enough care that you hear what you feel you should be hearing when you should be hearing it without getting too whimsical and feeling like a more animated cartoon. Nothing really sticks around with me afterwards as far as soundtrack goes, but it all works well enough for what it is. Of course, there is the morals that I’ve mentioned before. We know it’s standard fare for me to skip over this bit, because rare is the day that I want to apply deep, sociological thought to something I’m watching for entertainment - but it’s a family movie, and it spits all the family movie sort of tropes at you. Home is where your heart is, family is who you make it, with power comes responsibility - it’s all floating about in there, complete with the whole “friends/family butting heads and falling apart only to have to come together again later” part.
Just your friendly neighborhood superhero.
I enjoyed this guy. It was fun and lighthearted, but still had a serious edge to it to function as a sort of backbone for direction. Characters largely behaved as you would think given their motivations, some even have growth. It’ll hit you with the obvious stick on pretty much every moral thought it wants you to think, but more than make up for it with some fine comedy moments standing out in an ocean of good intent ones. There are certainly worse movies you could rent to have fun with, and I’d wager this is widely worth a rent for a lot of people entertainment wise.