Movie Review - Shazam! - Great for Tweens, Less So for Adults
I'll start by setting the context: I love action/superhero movies, but never read any comics. So, I'm basing this review strictly on how I see the movie, not how it compares to any other body of work.
The Good:
While I definitely didn't like the movie, I'm sure young boys under 12 years old or so will eat it up.
- There were plenty of good laughs throughout the movie.
- I would have given the movie a D+ if it hadn't been for a LOT of improvement during the last 15 minutes of the film.
- The villain was done well enough. At least his motivations, and reasons why he had those motivations, were clear enough.
- There was a nice homage to the movie Big, with Tom Hanks. Did you catch that? :-)
The Bad:
I didn't like the movie on a number of levels. The pacing was poor. There was way too much time spent on scenes that just didn't do anything for the plot or characters.
- While the young actor who played Billy Batson (Asher Angel) did a fine job, I didn't think he had the right look. Namely, he doesn't look anything like a young Zachary Levi, who plays Shazam. One way or another, they should have cast two actors who could realistically look like the same person at different ages.
- I get it that Shazam's suit is supposed to be ridiculous, but the cape was so bad as to be distracting, and the muscle suit Zachary Levi wears looks like a high end Halloween suit -- not realistic at all.
- Then there's the cartoonish action: like holding a bus up by the windshield.
- Lastly, there's a 1990s TV show quality to the production. I'm not talking about the CGI, which was adequate, but the filming and pacing. It just felt like a TV episode. Not a cinematic experience.
In short, it's just another adequate DC production that labors to impress, then falls short.
Grade: C
Rated (PG-13) for intense sequences of action, language, and suggestive material
Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Superhero, Tweens
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