Yes.
5 stars.
David Sandberg has created the perfect superhero movie.
We see 14 year old Billy Batson, played by the wonderful Asher Angel, trying to locate his mother. Billy has been to many foster care homes and has left every single one of them in order to find his mother. When Billy gets to Philadelphia, everything changes as he meets his new foster family. He is apart of a wonderfully diverse group of kids who are all genuine, feisty and innocent.
David Sandberg gave us a film that was based on love and magic. There was such a uniqueness to his direction and I can’t even explain how he executed this to perfection. The humour was witty and refreshing, it was integrated properly and didn’t take away from serious, heartfelt moments. This film was so well paced that I did not want it to end. From beginning to end, the story was so simple that it flowed effortlessly from scene to scene. The Shazam! score felt like the character… similar to wonder woman’s, aquaman’s and superman’s, it added so much more to the fight scenes. The combat choreography was imaginative and the special effects were incredible! Literal perfection.
The casting was genius. Asher Angel as young Billy Batson was comic book accurate and then having the ball of energy that is Zachary Levi as his older counterpart was perfect. Asher and Zachary both created their own version of Billy Batson and for the amount of times they came in and out of character, it was seamless. Both of them should get endless praise for this characterization because it is the best I’ve seen. I want to mention Jack Dylan Grazer who did a wonderful job creating Freddie, his chemistry with Asher and Zachary was so pure and natural! All of the kids were wonderful together and they have a bright future! Mark Strong was also a fantastic first villain for Shazam!
I won’t spoil anything but the ending made me so very excited for the future of Shazam! I haven’t left a movie this happy in a while and I know I’ll be watching this 50 times over. This is possibly my favourite cbm of all time and I know that’s saying a lot.
Candid Cinema 