Review: "Shazam!" From DC discovers the fun side of an original story of superheroes

Maybe Warner Bros. Pictures, holder of the DC Comics film heritage, finally realize that comics are supposed to be fun and that the film "Shazam!", Deliciously fiery and joyfully exuberant, is the beneficiary.

The story takes the story of wish fulfillment requested by an adolescent comic reader: Would not it be cool to be a superhero? – and leads him to his most absurd conclusion. After all, how complicated would life be for a 14-year-old who has suddenly become a superhero?

Life is already complicated for Billy Batson (played by Asher Angel, co-star of "Andi Mack"), a talented street orphan in Philadelphia. Billy lives by his intelligence, reinforcing the police cars to find addresses and find the mother with whom he lost contact at the age of 3 years. When Billy gets caught, he is assigned to a group home run by Rosa (Maria Milans) and Victor (Cooper Andrews).

The other kids have very different ages and temperaments, and Billy is immediately associated with Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer, "It"), a crisp superhero expert who uses a crutch to walk. Freddy is the constant target of the tyrants of Fawcett Central High School (this name is a sneaky reference to Fawcett Comics, the first comic book publisher) and, when Billy defends Freddy, he must flee into the subway to avoid getting hurt. .

In the subway, Billy is driven into an underground den, where an elderly wizard (Djimon Hounsou) has waited for centuries to impart magical powers to a pure-hearted person. But the wizard is out of time, because the forces of evil – the seven deadly sins – that the wizard is responsible for containing have been released, in the body of Dr. Thaddeus Savina (played by the wicked Mark Strong).

The wizard tells Billy to pronounce his name: Shazam. (Fun fact: the word is actually an acronym for the great ones of mythology: Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury.) When Billy says the magic word, he turns into a grown-up man with a strength superhuman, played by Zachary Levi. Billy needs Freddy to solve this superhero problem, like his panoply of powers, which consists of launching lightning, running very fast and being bullet proof.

The only thing this superhero does not have is a name. Freddy tries to give this hero a proper name in the white cap but fails on every attempt. (In the comics, he originally called Captain Marvel, but he lost his name in trademark disputes with Marvel Comics.You may have already noticed a different movie than "Captain Marvel "in the movie theaters.)

Screenwriter Henry Gayden ("Earth to Echo"), who shares the story credit with Darren Lemke, mixes elements of "Big" and "The Greatest American Hero" in this super original story. hero, while Billy has to deal with both adulthood and sudden superpowers. The story has an amazing emotional weight, as Billy also faces the responsibilities of being a superhero and a foster brother.

Director David F. Sandberg, whose career is rooted in horror ("Lights Out", "Annabelle: Creation"), gives Strong's Sivana a scary look to make the ultimate super-fight exciting. He plays mostly the absurdity of superheroes, who plays well in the flair of Levi's comedy. This superhero has great power and great responsibilities, but "Shazam!" The door with lightness and humor.

The other "Captain Marvel" (not that no one calls it more than ever) gets a film hilarious and turbulent.