Shazam! Fury of the Gods

It's Always 🗲Shazammy🗲 in Philadelphia

or

"It's Fam-i-ly Feud!"

"All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

Leo Tolstoy, "Anna Karenina" 1878

 

When last we left Billy Batson (Asher Angel), he'd just turned his foster-brothers and sisters into a collection of super-heroes to defeat an evil threat. By invoking the name of the wizard "Shazam"(Djimon Hounsou), they turn into the "Marvel Family" (but nobody calls them that because...lawyers), with, collectively, the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, the speed of Mercury...and the neuroses of foster teens. Strange brew.

 

Particularly shouldering these burdens is Billy, who, in his superhero guise as an adult-looking "Captain Marvel" (shhh..."lawyers"...but played by Zachary Levi), he is responsible for the safety of the city of Philadelphia and the management of his family, super-powered and not. It can weigh on a guy. But, then, he has the stamina of Atlas, so, "no big deal," right?

"Say my name!" ("'Destiny's Child' did it better")

Well, it depends on your point of view. He does have the stamina of Atlas, but as Atlas is dead and all, he's probably not using it anymore. Right? So, why not have it? Right? Possession is 9/10 of the law, right? Even if you're "possessed" by a super-hero.

Except for one thing. Three things, really. Atlas had children, a few from different sources, but like all family fights, it usually comes down to the most outspoken ones to stir the pot, so the ones that matter are his daughters Hespera (Helen Mirren), Calypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler)* Notice the family resemblance? No? Well, like I said "different sources"; call them the step-daughters of Atlas.

  

Being heirs, they're not too thrilled with "family assets" being seized and given to "strangers..."—why, it's not even someone in the family, for god's sake (literally). Besides, not having Atlas' power is making living in whatever god-realm they inhabit in their pearly-gated community less than optimal. I mean, so what if you're a god, even an unfashionable god—a god that's not exactly making people hit their knees anymore—they still have a right to what's theirs!

And so, they deem to get their sandals sullied on real Earth and take back the Wizard's staff that contained all of the power of the gods that were transferred to "The Marvel Family" rather than "The Atlas Family" during the kerfluffle with Dr. Sivana in the last movie. Just putting their mitts on it is enough to generate some power out of it and they use it to smash up a museum and turn all of its patrons into stone. And before you can say "who in their right mind would put something that powerful into a museum?" the Marvels go into action.

Well, not immediately. First, Billy has to visit a doctor about his issue with "imposter syndrome"—he is a 17 year old who becomes an adult super-hero, after all!—the burdens of great power/great responsibility, that he might be a redundant in a world full of super-hero movies (he doesn't mention that, I just added it), and...that at 17, he's going to "age-out" of the foster-care system, and his parents won't be getting support for him. That's a big issue, one that occupies his thoughts even while the "Marv's" try to stop a bridge from collapsing during rush-hour.

But, the Wizard tells them of the impending threat, and the kids try to figure out how to fight mad adults who are gods, or "children of god." The humor of the film comes from the awkwardness of 'tweens trying to be adults, as well as the odd arcana of their Rock of Eternity headquarters that is as idiosyncratic as Hogwarts (heat is provided by an eternally burning violin—Nero's?—and there's an enchanted auto-pen named "Steve"). 

Meanwhile the Atlas kids are using the Wizard's staff to suck the shazam! out of the Marvel kids individually, while also trying to acquire a "golden apple" to rebuild Earth into their kingdom. Oh, and there's a dome—a big impenetrable energy dome surrounding Philadelphia that traps everybody, including our heroes inside. And creatures that look like they came out of Harryhausenland. And unicorns. And a dragon. At one point, Cap just comes out and says "I never thought I'd be saying this, but the dragon is the least of our problems now."

Sounds like it would be a mess, but, it surprisingly isn't. The humor isn't strained, as much as is going on. Levi maintains the "gee-whiz-I'm a dork" persona that makes the adult Captain Marvel such a fun character, and there's "just enough" individualism in the Marvel kids to make you give a rip about 'em when they're getting slammed around. And there are joys, little unexpected "bits" where you shake your head at the cleverness—like Helen Mirren reading a negotiating note from the Marvels—who have no filters—dictated by an enchanted pen—that has no editing skills. And the youngish cast, who are riffing, and moving things along at warp-speed.

The characters' powers have settled in, so there's none of that training awkwardness about their abilities as in the first movie, and maybe all the opportunities of kids acting like adults with super-powers isn't explored nearly enough. But, there's enough mocking earnestness that there were times when the matinee kid in me had their blood pressure up and wanted to see the bad guys get their comeuppance, just because they're very mean people...or demi-gods...or whatever. That hasn't happened to me for awhile in movies. Maybe it's because we've become used to evil that is so blatant and is constantly excused away with sanctimonious self-righteousness.

And ultimately (as Billy evokes "The Fast and the Furious" series in one scene—to Mirren, no less!) The Fury of the Gods really is about family—families that function and families that don't—compare and contrast—and the squabbling and scorched Earth that ensues—and, of course, it all takes place in Philadelphia and the villains are trashing the City of Brotherly Love (ironically). One can't help but see this as another episode of Family Feud...but without Steve Harvey to break the fourth wall to let you know he thinks it's all a little dumb, too.

 

There's a lot of entertainment value in it, a bit lighter in tone, but not lighter in content that the kids can see it and not be zombiefied. And as jokey as it is, as juvenile as it can be, a lot of it will go over kids' heads.

 

* Shazam! Fury of the Gods makes a mystery of the third one for a time, and her identity is revealed as a surprise that doesn't really "land." I mean, why did she suddenly turn up in the first place if she didn't have something crucial to do with the plot?

Black Adam

Deja-Zam!

or

"You Want to Split the World in Two"
 

It seems an odd choice—outside of Dwayne Johnson's wish to make it so—to make a movie centered around a relatively lower-tier character as Black Adam—known primarily as a villain in DC's "Shazam!" comics (so-named due to copyright restrictions imposed by DC's main funny-book competitor Marvel comics, despite their "Captain Marvel"-named character appearing later). It's rather like the pivot the MCU made when they started a series based on "Guardians of the Galaxy" (Why them? Why at that time?"). But, then, the Warner Brothers Studio has made a lot of odd choices in their perpetual game of "catch-up" with Marvel Studios—the sudden rush to make a "Justice League" movie despite one being in development for a decade, an "Aquaman" movie before making a movie of "The Flash" or a decent "Green Lantern" movie or even making another, less than morose "Superman" film (but then, Marvel can't seem to make a good "Fantastic Four" film and is only getting around to making a "Namor, the Submariner" feature—created in the 1940's—by introducing him in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, apparently).

 

Maybe it has something to do with toy sales. I don't know. It's as good a reason as any. Certainly, it has nothing to do with "art."

But, as these things go, the resulting movie isn't bad (but, it's not good, either). In fact, for much of its 2 hours+ length, it's a murderously efficient action film that purposely (rather than accidentally) questions the moral ambiguity of vigilantism in the guise of "doing good." It just matters who thinks what is good. That keeps shifting and changing throughout the course of the movie, where heroes do bad things and villains might be useful to a greater good. It's a long way from "white hats" and "black hats." But, don't confuse that with any sort of sophistication of thought.

The movie starts...with some verrry long exposition...in ancient times. Of a king named Ahk-Ton who ruled the middle-Eastern kingdom of Khandaq with impunity and, seeking the powers of a god, enslaved his people to look for a powerful mineral called Eternium, with which he would form "the crown of Sabbac". With this, he would be able to summon the power of the gods from the Rock of Eternity, granting him the stamina of Shu, speed of Horus, strength of Amon, wisdom of Zehuti, power of Aten, and the courage of Mehen* just by saying the magic word "Shazam!" (The Breath of Sekhmet is only needed if you having to do a lot of heavy expositioning.)

Anyway, the slave-boy Hurut, who finds the Eternium, learns a valuable lesson that life in Khandaq is cheap and grown-ups are not to be trusted. Ahk-Ton learns a valuable lesson when the ancient Egyptian gods double-cross him for his hubris and give the power of Shazam to wised-up Hurut.

Then, "something bad" happens powerful enough to send us into 21st Century Khandaq, where government has broken down and the place is run by the International Crime syndicate, Intergang. A resistance movement/archaeological team (they have those?) led by Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) is searching for the crown of Sabbac, because, you know, power and all. They get ambushed by Intergang shock-troops and only when Adrianna finds a way to resurrect Teth-Adam (or Black Adam)(Johnson) from his imprisonment in the Khandaqian version of The Rock of Eternity do they manage to escape with their lives. Intergang, however, gets cooked, poached, crushed, and blown apart by Adam's powers.

Enough damage is done that it gets on the radar of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis via zoom-call) who calls on The Justice Society of America to intervene.

Wait. Wait. Wait. 

Excuse me, your Honor. Side-bar?

Nobody may "get" this or even think it's important if they don't read a lot of DC comic-books. I have. So, what in the multi-verse is Amanda Waller doing being in charge of The Justice Society (they're the old heroes from the 1940's "Golden Age" of comics as well as...to keep things simple...younger heroes who have accepted "the mantle"). Amanda Waller (it has been established) is in charge of Task Force X—ya know, "The Suicide Squad" (whether it has the "The" or not)—the criminal sacrificial lambs who go on missions nobody else wants to do or are so illegal they have to be hush-hush. What's she doing in charge of anybody possessing or professing any sort of moral compass?

Well, that's troubling. Not just because the "good guys" are being run by "bad guys" but because the mission they're being sent on is to corral the "new threat" while absolutely ignoring the "old threat" that has been plaguing the populace—out in the open—for years. Huh, some heroes—those being Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom-Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). Trust me, you don't want to dig too deep into these heroes and their origins, because a couple of them are either confused (Hawkman) or ridiculous (Cyclone).** 

It is nice to see Dr. Fate and Hawkman put in the movies, though—Brosnan does a fine, fine job in the role and it's good that they gave Hawkman a look that isn't completely stupid (he's appeared in the CW Arrowverse shows and in "Smallville"). It is not nice that they're basically little tin soldiers heroically doing things that aren't heroic. In fact, for much of the movie, the JSA can be seen as being "the bad guys" as they hector among themselves before considering what it is they are actually doing (rather than the requisite property damage while single-mindedly doing "the job" they were ordered to do).

In fact, Johnson's performance here is so "johnny-one-glower" that the movie naturally gravitates towards these new heroes (that the average movie-goer knows nothing about) for any sort of sense of what it is going on. They banter and bicker until Teth-Adam miraculously learns English from his ancient Khandaqian and joins in the snark. Well-paced and edited snark, but snark—and relentless snark—nonetheless. Everybody learns to play nice while kicking the crap out of everybody so they can defeat their common enemy—a villain that nobody and, indeed, Amanda Waller, have ever heard of. There is one super-hero death (which actually affected me—"Awww, they were pretty good!"), a switch-out on the principal origin story, and one scene of conflicted conscience that is dismissed with a quip and then forgotten about like one more tossed-to-the-horizon bad guy.

I'd like to say I enjoyed it, but all I can do is give it some tight-lipped respect for its pace for most of its length, and wonder at how the dark tone of this one—they had to go through four edits before it was dropped from an "R" to a "PG-13" rating—is going to merge with the inevitable mash-up between the larky "Shazam!" movies and this franchise off-shoot. It'll be like mixing ice cream with jalapeños.***

Or like mixing super-heroes with real-life problems. That trick never works. Since the time that cars started to be thrown around city-streets, nobody has ever paused to discuss the insurance implications. No super-hero has ever tried to stop poverty, homelessness, or severe drought or mass-starvation (Hell, it doesn't even happen in the real world, where Super-Democrats throws several tons of cash at it and Super-Republicans use their "Ignore-it-it doesn't exist" vision). It doesn't even work in super-hero satire. Superheroes are fantasy-land, a panacea to distract us from real world problems in a constant loop of goofy star-fish shaped alien threats and killer clowns that we see again and again.

Black Adam is no different. It is the same sort of feint that implores us to "look up in the sky" so we don't see the problems on the ground.

 

And not even a "last minute" cavalry appearance by Superman can save the day.

* Confused? Yeah, sure, if you've read Captain Marvel Comics. All this Khandaq stuff happened way, way before the Greco-Roman gods that Captain Marvel/Billy Batson siphons off every time he yells "Shazam!": that would be the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. What I want to know is: where did the Khandaq gods go when the Greco-Roman gods showed up and were looking for accommodations in Mount Olympus or Valhalla or wherever. Evidently,all these gods didn't die—despite what Wonder Woman says—because their batteries are still fully charged to torch the pilot lights of Captain Marvel, the Marvel Family, and Black Adam! They must have gone somewhere...and we're not even mentioning Rock n' Roll Heaven (where you know they have a helluva band!) 

 

** When I saw the Justice Society line-up before seeing the movie, I thought "Huh! That's interesting! They're putting in two super-heroes (Fate and Hawkman) who have origins in Egyptian lore! Maybe they'll do something interesting with that!" No such luck. They might have at some point, but nothing is made of it in the movie. At all.  As for the confusion surrounding Hawkman's origin (or origins), you couldn't figure it out even if you put on an Absorbascon.

 

*** What the hell! Someone's actually done this! Okay, bring on The Apocalypse, the world has finally gone absolutely mad!!

The King's Man

Mannered Maketh Malarkey (Dulce et decorum est cogitare hanc pelliculam sugit)

or

The Prequel To End All Prequels

 

I wasn't a fan of Kingsman: The Secret Service, although I enjoyed most of the performances, particularly Taron Egerton's, I felt that it was pretty sloppy without much holding it together, although the satire was there and recognizable as such. It was meant to be a breezy jocular look at spy thrillers,  located somewhere in between the Bond Series and Austin Powers, hewing closer to the latter in terms of cleverness (or lack of it) and amping up the violence to the point that—despite containing the adage that "manners maketh man"—it became decidedly unmannerly.

 

One couldn't take it seriously and so any connection to a thriller goes right down the chute as the stakes are as high as they are in a "Looney Toons" cartoon. Samuel L. Jackson had it right in the first one by playing the arch-villain with a silly lisp, which has become his signature tic for showing he has no respect for the material he's playing—he certainly doesn't use it when hawking Capital One.

So outlandish actions and jolly good manners was the joke of the first two films, but director Matthew Vaughn's latest, The King's Man—boasting original material from Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek (good villain name, that)—goes back in time to show the origins of the secretive Kingsman organization that bypasses political discussion and goes right for the jugular. Why this was thought necessary is anyone's guess, but I suspect—with another movie featuring Egerton in the works at the same time—they may be offering material that will relate to the next sequel. There are a couple of prominent names in cameo's and perhaps they'll be part of the next one.

The film concerns the exploits of Orlando Oxford (Ralph Fiennes and bloody good, if seeming like he's in the wrong movie), the Duke of Oxford, who, at the time of the film's opening is a former war officer now working for the Red Cross and inspecting a concentration camp in South Africa in 1902. He is there to see General Herbert Kitchener (Charles Dance) about the deplorable conditions and talk strategy. In the course of the visit, the party comes under attack and Oxford's wife Emily (who encouraged Oxford's humanitarian duties) is killed before the eyes of Oxford—who has been wounded in the attack—and their young son Conrad. With her dying breath, Emily swears Oxford to "protect our son, protect him from this world, and never let him see war again."

When Conrad grows to the age of 17 (and embodied by Harris Dickinson) is looking for a life of adventure, which his father vehemently opposes. He wants to join the Army when of age, but Oxford keeps him at home under the watchful eyes of associates Shola (Djimon Hounsou) and Polly (Gemma Arterton), who are crack spies and soldiers of fortune, but hide in plain sight as part of the Duke's staff. Presumably, it was so hard to hire good marksmen in that day. Oxford has good reason to be worried. Somewhere on an improbably high, flat and unscalable escarpment a group of terrible people are plotting to destroy the world and make money doing it. Headed by a Scottish separatist code-named The Shepherd, the group contains as members from around the globe including Grigori Rasputin (Rhys Ifans), Mata Hari (Valerie Pachner), Vladimir Lenin (August Diehl) and Gavrilo Princip (Joel Basman). 

Oh, and Erik Jan Hanussen (Daniel Brühl).

Who? Well, I'll bet most audience-members don't know who Rasputin is, so don't feel bad. And I'm sure that a lot of them don't know the significance of Arch-Duke Ferdinand (played in the film—briefly, which is historically accurate, by Ron Cook).

Hell, ask the common man about World War I and you'll get a response like "World War II had a prequel?" or "Yeah, Wonder Woman was in it" Be that as it may, the group is trying to exacerbate the already bad relationship between three head-strong cousins, King George V (of England), Kaiser Wilhelm II (of Germany), and Tsar Nicholas II (of Russia), all played amusingly by Tom Hollander (bravo, sir!),* starting with the assassination of Arch-Duke Ferdinand, and the poisoning of Nicholas' son Alexei.

In his attempts to protect his son Oxford nearly gets him killed protecting the Arch-Duke and taking out Rasputin. But, then, this film has a habit of having people saying things and doing something that is contrary to their words. Oxford makes grand speeches about colonialism and imperialism and the exploitation of the indigenous people, but his comfort in his class and power has him being a very good example of all that. The only folks who seem to actually mean what they say are the villains, who are all so single-mindedly evil that they barely register as real characters—these were all very powerful and influential people and they're treated like puppets in this film's Grand Scheme.

But, at least they're consistent. The movie, on the other hand, careers between goofiness and sanctimony. Words are meant to be taken seriously, but the action sequences not so—deft (and unbelievable) as they are. Rasputin, Oxford, Conrad and Shola have a three-to-one duel set to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, there's a weirdly impractical assault on that villain lair, and there's a World War I trench assault that, as completely unbelievable as it is, is still meant to be taken seriously if we're to have any feelings for the character.

It's a film of duplicity and two-facedness, delighting in "hilt-cams" and elaborate torpedo shots and a flash-zip of two years of World War I to see the the reduction of a hamlet town into a No Man's Land. Jeez, there's even an mustache to mustache edit in the thing. One starts to think that the film-makers are just so pleased with themselves and their own cleverness that they can do such little miracles that they don't see that the movie is clumsy and ham-fisted. So ham-fisted that the "surprise reveal" of "The Shepherd" is easily guessed just by the way shots are held unnecessarily before cutting away from them. Clever.
  

So clever it's stupid.

 

* Yes, it's true. Those heads of state were all related to each other (and you thought the Daniel Craig Bond movies were too in-bred!) No wonder the 20th century was so fucked up. And no wonder people wanted to do away with the Right of King's.

Shazam!

(Let's Just Say It) Captain Marvel II
or
The Big Red Cheese-Fest

One is tempted to quote Gomer Pyle and say "Sha-zayam!" at this, but for the fear of being struck by lightning, let's just say "Holy Moley," this movie is a lot of fun.

It's the second flick within a period of weeks to feature a super-hero named "Captain Marvel" (although he's never actually called that in the movie and the various "noms suprême" given to him during the movie is one of the funny running gags zipping through the movie). Why the double-vision is a complicated story involving lawyers and trademarks, and far better explained by writer (including comics) Mark Evanier from his blog "Notes From ME" than I could ever manage, so go to this link:
https://www.newsfromme.com/2019/03/13/ask-me-59/ 
and you'll find out about THOSE Captains Marvel (and a couple more).

Shazam! follows the latest imagining of the Captain (who's been around since 1939), where, instead of being a radio personality on WHIZ radio, the Captain's alter ego Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel) is your random orphan-kid, living in a foster home run by the Vasquez's (Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans) with a mix of kids, which fits in with the older iteration of the Captain that emphasized family and shared strengths.

And this one is so much fun, especially given the sturm and drang of so many super-hero movies (especially in the DC Movie Universe, but also in Marvel's movies, even the ones designed to be lighter), that one wishes everybody would be a bit more "larky" in their approach.

Now, having said that, be aware that the first twenty minutes of the movie are a bit tough to sit through, if you're expecting a good time. The beginning is very exposition-heavy, telling the story of young Thaddeus Sivana—smart, but mixed-up kid—growing up in a dysfunctional family (headed by John Glover, so you know there are problems) where he is the runt of the litter in a family of privileged jerks. After a traumatic event, he is tested by being offered powers by the aging wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) and is found wanting—and left wanting the power he is denied. As Shazam stands guard over the powers of Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury as well as the Seven Deadly Sins, he's feeling a bit tired, but even if he's in a hurry to be let go of his burden, he can still see that Sivana is not good hero-material. Best to look somewhere else.

Cut to young Billy Batson—troubled, unruly kid—who has run away from the latest in a series of orphanages and foster homes to try and find his mother, who abandoned him after he became lost in an amusement park. Young Billy uses subterfuge to hijack a police car, so he can travel to the next Batson residence on his list to see if his Mom is there. She isn't, and in a way that recalls how Buster Keaton would make an obvious visual gag out of mistaken identity.

Billy goes back to the orphanage where his record of truancy is brought up again—as if he didn't already know—and told that his last chance—his only chance—is waiting out in the other room. It is the Vasquez's, Rosa and Victor, who run a blended and extraordinarily diverse foster home for kids. Billy is skeptical, but it's his only chance and he's run out of addresses on his "Batson" list. 

He meets his other foster siblings: Mary (Grace Fulton), Darla (Faithe Herman), Eugene (Ian Chen), and Pedro (Jovan Armand), and finally his room-mate Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), who is crippled, walks with a brace and is a Class-A nerd, collecting all sorts of superhero memorabilia (his proudest possession being a bullet that bounced off Superman). Billy is stand-offish to Freddy, as he is with everyone in the Vasquez household, and they view him as a potentially good addition if he was only accepting of the situation.

He attends Fawcett Middle School with the rest of the kids and is probably thinking about his first opportunity to ditch when fate steps in—or stomps—in the form of some stuck-up bullies who proceed to beat up Freddy for...well, just being Freddy. Billy sees this as he is walking away and he turns around, picks up Freddy's brace and proceeds to wallop the creeps with it. It is this act that changes Billy's life, and fortunately for us, the movie.

Billy takes the subway and it makes an unscheduled stop—the same Rock of Eternity, where Shazam makes Billy the same offer made to Sivana—"speak my name"—and Billy, in a flash of lightning, becomes Capta—well, much older and in a flashy red spandex outfit and cape (and portrayed by Zachary Levi). It is Shazam's last act, and Billy, panic-stricken, runs out of the cave...and into the real world.

But, not the real world he knows. He's taller, stronger, and there are lightning bolts coming out of his fingers...and he's in this weird suit! His first stop already shows the change in his attitude—he seeks out Freddy. Freddy will know what to do (he doesn't), but he's more than willing to experiment on his friend Billy to find out what his powers are—he can punch through concrete and he can throw lightning from his finger-tips...and...most importantly...he can buy beer!

The whole sequence inside a convenience store is just too much fun to spoil, but it sets up the way the film will go, with two kids with a sudden knowledge of what it's like to be 1) a grown-up and 2) a super-powered grown-up. Here, it takes a page from the late Penny Marshall's Big (there's even a momentary acknowledgment to it) and then flies with it. For Freddy, this is a dream come true, a wish-fulfillment for a smart kid with bad legs to have a super-pal; for Billy, it's a mixed blessing. 

Although he's supposed to have the wisdom of Solomon, he's still a kid and he has no idea how to do this "superhero" thing, but he's going to learn the advantages (he looks like an adult, and more importantly, treated like one, he's big, strong, and can fly) and the disadvantages—people want what he has or put him down in a big way. And he's going to have to grow up pretty fast.

Sometimes being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be—it's not all rescuing kittens out of trees and getting keys to the city from the Mayor—and it attracts bad people who want to build themselves up by beating him and taking away some of his glory. But, Billy doesn't "get" that, at the beginning. He's content to just wandering around being a "superhero," doing super-tricks and getting himself in a lot of selfies. That should keep him out of trouble. although Freddy is disappointed that he won't be more...yaknow...super-heroic.

But, Billy can't run away from Sivana (grown up to be Mark Strong, who can now do villain roles in his sleep), who now possesses the avatars of the Seven Deadly Sin's—big deal: what do you do with the power of "Sloth?"—and wants Billy's god-like powers, too. It is only when the villain takes his foster-siblings hostage that Capt...uh, Billy must make a stand and become the hero Shazam intended and the world needs.

Forget about what the world needs, what about the movie-going public? The Marvel and DC movies have been so heavy—despite throwing in a humorous line or two—that they're more like watching Shakespeare tragedies than being any fun. It seems like the first movies are okay and then it's inevitable with the second movie that the hero is disenchanted with being a superhero and wants to quit. Quit? What kind of hero is THAT? Having abilities should be a joy, not a burden, and being able to do good for people should be aspirational, not treated like it's a dumb thing to do because you'll only get betrayed in the end.

Thank the Greek gods, Shazam! isn't so melodramatic. It can't be. It's from a kid's perspective and to a kid, having super-powers is totally cool, and the players are wonderfully geeky about expressing the delight and wonder of being able to be fast, and leap buildings in almost a single bound, and doing all those things that superheroes do...like having a "secret lair," or showing up bad guys. 
That puts a big burden on the actors to walk a fine line between "gee-whiz" and irritatingly cloying. And Angel, Grazer and particularly Levi manage to be genuinely energetic but also have a crack comic timing that makes every surprise pay off to its maximum. You enjoy the experience, rather than spending your time looking for "Easter Eggs"

It's a blast. So, go ahead, let Marvel take out half the Universe. Just means there's more room for guys like this. And for movies that actually remember when it was fun reading comics than merely collecting them, bagging them and locking them away for their value to go up (fat chance). This one makes you smile, rather than want to beat somebody up.

Shazam! actually soars.