Forget Captain Marvel, Shazam! is the true superhero movie of the year

We live in a golden age of superhero movies and the public is now expecting some things like that. Usually, some end-of-world apocalypse, spread in a shared universe and prevented at the last minute by a group of both powerful and jokey individuals. Sounds familiar? The formula of a successful superhero movie relies heavily on the astronomical success of the MCU (though Fox's R-rated mutants and DC Extended Universe's grimdark heroes have their role to play), but all the superhero movies can be heard on the fact that the genre is no longer reserved for kids.

Enter Shazam! The first superhero movie to adopt the stick that critics and viewers use to beat the genre with: it's actually and uninhibited a children's movie. Shazam! strikes all the beats of the clbadic genre of family adventure (even in a direct Big Reference), bursting with chills and serious humor, has a villain who nibbles landscapes with no quality, who redeems nothing and , above all, a huge dose of wish We are amazed that the superheroes do everything to please.

Note: There are stories for Shazam! from that moment, make sure you have seen the movie before continuing.

Superheroes can come from a background of primary colors and good battles against the evil opposing children, but, let's be honest, superhero movies are aimed at adults since Batman's Tim Burton, and they've been very particular way since the irreverent and brazen Iron Man styles of Jon Favreau. This film sets the tone for Tony Stark, but has since been used by the vast majority of MCU films, as well as by many others. In their desire to reinvent superheroes as acceptable adult products, the movies threw the baby with the bathwater. They are extraordinarily good at the show, but where is the wonder?

Maybe at the adult time, your favorite superhero movie is The Dark Knight, an almost perfect Oscar, but this movie is definitely not the reason for which you love Batman. There was a moment in your childhood when you first met the bat, in comics, perhaps, or in animation. You saw him swinging roofs with his cape swirling around him and you said to yourself: I want to be him. I could be him.

That's what Shazam! capture every moment of his time: this wish which is inherent – though often forgotten – to the superhero genre. He turned away from the dark tone of DC movies and embraced the purity of the superhero concept in ways we have not seen since Richard Donner's Superman. He wears his heart on his sleeve. It is not embarrbading to tell a story about learning to accept the love and support needed to reach one's potential. In this era of superhero movies, this kind of candid sincerity makes it a game changer.

The film rejects the notion of "black superheroes" in a scene where Billy Batson, AKA Shazam, pretends to be seduced by the attraction of dark power, before laughing at it as "strange". This moment sums up the film's whole approach: being a superhero is not a chore, it's fun. The humor of superhero movies is usually characterized by an armed eyebrow of reference to the excesses of the genre, but with Shazam! you just have fun with the characters. You feel Billy's dizzying enthusiasm as he incites the gunmen to shoot him again when he realizes he's armored. The theme of fulfilling vows is taken to a whole new level in a triumphal finale that we do not like to spoil, but that tells the fundamental message of being a superhero – it's not a problem. 39 not be anguish, violence or fuel your own ego. it is to defend what is right and everyone can do it.

It is not surprising that the current trend in superhero movies wants darkness, or at least cynicism. Hope and sincerity are just not cool yet. MCU films have their moments of sincerity, but cut them with a gag of knowledge just before the audience starts to be agitated. For example, the kind of death of Groot in the first Guardians of the Galaxy is a truly emotional moment, but less than five minutes later, we find ourselves in a dance. But Shazam! stay with his characters through the rough times – we see Billy struggling with his first cowardly reaction to the evil Sivana, we see Freddy navigate his own frustrations with Billy, who wastes all that the disabled Freddy knows he can not not have. And Billy's future meeting with his long-lost mother is painful, honest and more developed than anything the MCU has tackled. This makes the conflict of the civil war between Tony and Steve seemingly frankly immature. Shazam! is not afraid to be moved because children do not fear emotion – that's what we learn as adults.