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(Welcome to The soap box, the space where we are noisy, energetic, political and who have an opinion about everything and anything. In this edition: Shazam! is a lovely movie about finding your ideal self – but it fails in a key way.
Shazam! continues DC Universe's pivot on the screen towards brighter, more joyful entertainment and does so with a silly grin. Honestly, I do not remember the last time I saw a film that felt genetically altered to become the new favorite movie of every 12 years of the public. It's funny, exciting, inspiring and just quite scary, reminiscent of the studio films of the time when filmmakers realized that kids like to be tested, their courage is proven, to the movies. I am not the target audience of Shazam!, a film is made with children first, and it's perfect. The fact that I take advantage of it is only a warm and fuzzy side effect.
But beyond being an exciting movie of superheroes, Shazam! is endowed with a giant heart, the one that he wears on his sleeve. Like any movie with a big heart, he has a message that he wants to share. Sadly, Shazam!"The message is limited by one choice, the one that will matter the most to the audience, but that resists in a way that I have not been able to move since I saw it. In the middle of one of the most optimistic, inspiring and positive comic films I have ever seen, there is one detail that reads not only fake, but is truly disheartening.
Naturally, this post contains main spoilers for Shazam! We have to go through the third act deeply to talk about it.
The idealized hero
If you read until then, you know the exercise. Billy Batson (Asher Angel), aged 15, receives magical powers from a former wizard. When he says "Shazam", he turns into an adult superhero (hilarious Zachary Levi totally in play) with powers of flight, strength, and more. After an hour of Large-What maniacs and fun power abuse, Billy learns the lesson of Spider-Man: with great power comes a great responsibility and so on, and he must use his new abilities to defeat Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), a dangerous man heavy token on his shoulder reinforced by the demonic "Seven Deadly Sins".
This leads to the climax: Billy and his adoptive siblings confront Sivana and his monstrous allies at a fairground in Philadelphia. Realizing that his greatest power is not his power but the power to share the power that the magician gives him, Billy gives his new family his magical powers. Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), Mary (Grace Fulton), Darla (Faithe Herman), Eugene (Ian Chen) and Pedro (Jovan Armand) turn into superheroes, with brightly colored costumes, capes and bright flashes On the chest. Organize a final clash between the new Shazam family and Sivana's army, with adorable jeers and adult actors capturing the joy of their child counterparts to perfection.
This sequence is undeniably fun. It's beautiful, even. That completes Billy's bow: he kissed his family and found his team and he understood that choosing to be alone when others want to love you is an act of self-destruction. This affirmation is shared with his adoptive siblings and they also have the opportunity to become their best, to transform themselves into superheroes who reflect their idealized form, to find the cross-haired, the man-in-law. steel, the aquaman, Aquaman, who resides in the heart of every good person. Cousin thematic of the beautiful woman of Rian Johnson Star Wars: The Last Jedi: no matter who can be a hero, even a group of adoptive children from the streets of Philadelphia.
Have I already been positive enough? I think so. Because now I want to talk about what's left in my craw. And it's Pedro.
We are introduced to Billy's foster family with short introductions. Darla is the person who speaks the soonest. Mary is the hard worker. Eugene is the player. Freddy is the fan of superheroes. And Pedro is the big boy, the heavy guy with antisocial tendencies who does not look into his eyes, who avoids conversation when possible. Even with these simple installations, it is possible for everyone in the audience to see themselves in at least one member of that household.
Well, I saw myself in Pedro. As a big boy too big, too shy, too anxious and too involved in my own dislike for the shape of my body to make me many friends, I immediately told this kid. J & # 39; have kill to have the powers of Billy, to be able to say a magic word and to turn into a muscular superhero with a square jaw. I dreamed about it. At the climax, when Pedro won the physique of a clbadic superhero straight out of a comic book, I recognized the fulfillment of this dream come true. I knew it in my bones.
But now, years later and maybe a little wiser, I realize how dangerous and misguided this dream was. By posing as a big boy idealized man as an athletic clbadic man, Shazam! teaches the wrong lesson.
Erase the big child
I am not here to shoot with my weapon in the war of cultures on "great acceptance". I am not here to say that people's bodies can not change because of hard work and perseverance. I would say that people should be treated with respect and dignity, regardless of their appearance, because it is the fundamental and humane thing to do. I would also say that, no matter how heavy, everyone should at least strive to lead a healthier life.
But here's the thing: I'm a heavy guy (that's to say fat). I have always been. I was low in carbs and I was dieting in sixth grade. When I was a young child, I visited specialists to understand why I was growing so fast, why I was so much bigger and heavier than other kids. It was ultimately due to genetics – it's literally impossible for me to be "skinny" in the traditional sense of the word. Regardless of the diet, no matter the regiment of exercises, I have always been a great guy. The general shape of my body is not the one you usually see wrapped in colorful spandex.
Realize that, in adulthood, was a key part of the puzzle is my mental health mess. Agree to diet and exercise the rest of my life without turning into Henry Cavill Steel man was a sobering but vital realization. My body is just not built that way. It's written in my DNA. In my metabolism. I can only strive to lead a healthy and happy life and accept that I will always be, well, round in areas that will keep me from the coverage of Men's health magazine.
I know I'm not alone. The stigma towards overweight people is ubiquitous (especially on the hellish landscape of the internet), but many heavier people have no choice. They are great because they are great. For me, it's a genetic entanglement that even the specialists I visited could not clearly define for me. For others, I know, it's PCOS or other disorders that make weight loss difficult under any circumstances. It's hard to live in a world that tells us what our body should look like in every film, every ad, while being cursed to know that even if you work very hard, you will not look like that.
So, while I admire the heart of Shazam! and his message of discovering your potential, turning Pedro chubby into a lean superhero with pectoral muscles protruding, seems dishonest, an extension of the culture that gives heavy kids a shitty feel every day. Watching an overweight child become his superhero ideal and that this superhero ideal is the kind of construction that we see in all other movies and TV shows is discouraging, painful reminder that we can only do that. be this in our greatest fantasies. The only way to deal with the big child is to clear the fat child – we can only be happy if we look like a model.
Is it the fault of Shazam! and director David F. Sandberg for not writing a message that speaks explicitly to me and others like me? Of course not. The movie works and it works well. It's funny. It's funny. This left my heart in a puddle of melted water on the floor of the theater. However, Pedro's transformation is a missed opportunity, a chance to present the idealized superhero of a heavy character, as a different body type, more realistic and more badertive than what we had seen before.
(I imagine that there will also be discussions about the fact that Freddy is no longer handicapped when he turns into a superhero, literally taking off and leaving his crutch on the ground under him after his magical miracle treatment.However, it's above and beyond my salary and someone else's qualified will certainly take care of that soon.)
All kinds of bodies
Here's the thing: there have been a lot of big characters in the superhero stories before and the truth be told, most of them just add to the stigma. Think of The Blob from X Men, a character whose obese body is treated as his own super-power. The larger cartoon characters are usually defined by their weight and their weight usually defines their power. The coolest heroes, those who have the upper hand on the cover, are the skinny guys or those who have protruding muscles. The issues outlined above have been commonplace in comics of superheroes for decades, but what else can you expect from a media that is, at its core, a power fantasy for the readers?
So when I saw Pedro chubby become a superhero Shazam!I thought Valiant 'Comics' Faith, a superhero who is not defined by his weight. In fact, its weight does not define its powers. Revived by a new creative team in recent years, Faith has the power to fly, she is agile and light, while being presented as a plus size woman. Recent stories featuring the character have been critical and commercial hits for a good reason: they are great stories of superheroes, told with heart, but they are also brave enough and bold enough to portray a woman of positive stature, healthy and happy, who achieves his best self without having to transform unrealistically into a dummy.
Just look at the image of the modern Shazam family below, the current incarnation of the comics from which the new movie borrows many of its basic ideas. Look at Pedro, standing in the green suit. Look how clearly he is powerful and fit … but look like he's still a big guy, more power-lifter-shaped than sporty. Hell, just watch all the competitions of the "strongest men in the world" and you will see a variety of body types, including men with wide belly, who perform amazing strength feats.
It may still be a body of idealized superheroes, but it is a realizable, realistic body, and most importantly, telling readers: "People have different shapes and not everyone will look like Superman . it's good". At the beginning of the film, it is briefly mentioned that Pedro left one of his weights on the kitchen table, suggesting that he was working and keeping fit despite his heaviness. The film could rely on it, especially with the cast of his superhero character. It's not. And that's a shame.
When the credits rolled Shazam! and the theater emptied in the lobby, I noticed half a dozen young children running around the hall, arms outstretched, recreating action scenes from the movie. They liked the movie. Of course they did it. It's a joy. But I was also tinged with a familiar melancholy. Here is a superhero movie that had the opportunity to tell the kids in the audience that they could also be heroes, even if they would never look like Jason Momoa or Zachary Levi. Here is a superhero movie that was lucky for a heavy character to realize his ideal form and find it, well, himself and not a total fantasy built around typical expectations.
Shazam! It's a very good film, a film that I imagine will immerse myself in the depths of youth with its messages of hope, family and self-confidence. And yet, the big kid in me remains sad to know that I will never be a superhero unless I look like this.
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