Shazam! finally let the DC superheroes have fun

Shazam! takes place in the same universe as other DC Comics adapted films, but the writer Henry Gayden (Earth echo) and director David F. Sandberg (Curfew) seem determined to overthrow this universe. Or at least, they want to explode a raspberry in the sordid world created by Zack Snyder's trilogy Steel man, Batman V. Superman, and Justice League, as well as their sporty companion for neck tattooing Suicide team. The first big-screen star vehicle of one of the oldest existing superheroes, a child who can turn into an overkill adult with the help of a magic word, Shazam! would be difficult to turn into a dismal history of DC.

And that's because he's too deeply rooted in the fantasy of childhood. One moment, Billy Batson (played as a teenager by Asher Angel, and as a superhero by Mandrel star Zachary Levi) is an ordinary child with a difficult story. The next day, he is a sturdy hero, wearing a cloak, able to fly in the air and draw lightning of electricity from his finger. He is barely able to convey the joy he feels with his new abilities. It's almost as if superhero stories were at the heart of fulfilling wishes. It's almost like they're allowed to be fun.

It is certainly easier for some superhero stories to tap than others in this kind of power trip. Created by artist C.C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, Batson appeared for the first time in the second issue of Whiz Comics, which appeared in newsstands at the end of 1939 as part of the comic deluge inspired by Superman's success. In the original comic, a wizard gives Batson the opportunity to turn into a hero, Captain Marvel, by pronouncing the word "Shazam", acronym for "Samson, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus and Mercury", whose powers contribute to his power. Over time, Captain Marvel has assembled a support team including other heroes and a talking tiger, as well as characters such as the evil Dr. Sivana and Mister Mind, an alien worm at the head of the Monster Society of Evil.

Fawcett Comics directed Captain Marvel's adventures on even younger readers than those devouring rival superhero stories, and he became a hit, even surpassing Superman for much of the 1940s. But the interest in superhero fainted at the end of the decade and a copyright lawsuit launched by the company, now known as DC Comics, proved to be an enemy that even Captain Marvel could not defeat. His adventures are temporarily over. But in the early 1970s, Captain Marvel and his extended family were absorbed into the world of DC Comics. He has been there ever since, although he has been transformed into Shazam to avoid confusion with this other captain, Marvel, who has also just made his big screen debut.

Photo: Warner Bros. pics

In Gayden and Sandberg's movie, however, Billy's super-hero alter ego remains nameless even at the end of the story. Billy and his friend Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) continue to browse through the nickname possibilities, which are mostly horrible ("Thundercrack", is quickly dismissed), which constitutes a thematically appropriate race gag. Shazam! This is the story of a boy trying to figure out what kind of hero he wants to be – and, by extension, what kind of man he should become. He messes up a lot in the process.

With or without name, the spirit of Captain Marvel's ancient adventures is truly at the heart of Shazam!even in the midst of a lot of violence just PG-13 and a few gags on a strip club. That's what makes it such a joyful alternative to both the sadness of previous DC films – a tone that society seems eager to lose – and the stakes of the cosmos in the balance of the Marvel film universe. Whether it's played by Angel or Levi, Billy is only a kid. It's fun to watch him revel in his new powers and a little scary to realize how little control he has over them. And where Batson's early comic book adventures gave him a big city to treat like a playground, Shazam! do the same thing with Philadelphia. His pleasure of bouncing around the city proves contagious, even though he always seems on the verge of accidentally leveling a block away.

Her joy is all the more exciting to see that it does not come naturally from Billy, who has more to fear against him than most teens. He spent a good part of his childhood fleeing from a foster parent looking for the mother he had not seen since moving away from her during a carnival at age three. Shortly after the beginning of the film, he finds himself in another temporary living situation: a group home in Philadelphia supervised by a married couple (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews), who were themselves children with their family. 39; home.

They also take care of Freddy (who developed a gift for taunting as a defense mechanism against those who reprimand him for using a crutch), Mary (Grace Fulton), an out-of-town student, Darla (Faithe Herman) , passionate about the grip of other children. It's a chaotic but full of love environment that instantly embraces Billy – literally, in the case of Darla. Billy can not wait to run away. He has been searching for a house for so long that he does not recognize it when he sees it, with or without superpowers.

This feeling begins to change after his fateful meeting with a wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou, who has a lot of hair on his face). Confused by Shazam's new superhero abilities, Billy recruits Freddy to help him explore his own possibilities. After a poky start, Shazam! The two men are trying to figure out what he can or can not do with his new powers, whether it's stealing or buying beer without an ID card.

Photo: Steve Wilkie / Warner Bros. pics

Gayden and Sandberg try a difficult balance with Shazam! They must fulfill many of the superhero movie bonds, from the introduction of a diabolical arch-nemesis to the conception of a decisive clash. Mark Strong – a heavy screen that often returns to superhero movies for the first time since its stint at Sinestro in 2011 The Green lantern – makes Dr. Sivana troubling, a man endowed with powers by the seven deadly sins. He's never as clown as the comic Sivana, but his relentless malice makes him a great hangout for Batson's big-screen version, whose awkwardness plays pretty scowl. But even when filmmakers have left their project a little scary, they also need to find a way to stay true to the playful and fun spirit of the original comics.

It would not be out of the question for filmmakers to give a dark twist to this material. Alan Moore's Man miracle found a definitive way to make Billy Batson's idea nightmarish and haunting. If Gayden and Sandberg really wanted a film more in line with Snyderverse's plans, they could have done it. But Shazam! super speeds in the opposite direction while nodding for the other films in his franchise. Billy's world is full of Batman and Superman products, but their adventures seem to be far from the world he lives in. Gotham and Metropolis have icons of superheroes who rarely smile. Philly gets off, and it's a lot more fun.

Sandberg draws on the horror techniques he has developed through films like Annabelle: Creation. Sivana's allies include manifestations of the seven deadly sins that would not fail to appear in a much more graphic film. And while Sandberg retains the dark images of DCEU's previous films, he uses this dark palette to bring out even more the shiny red suit and bursting chest insignia of Billy's chest. If Batman marks criminals in Batman V. Superman It's an opposite moment, it's the unidentified identity of Batson's hero, smiling and dancing in front of "Eye of the Tiger" at the top of the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while shooting lightning, for the biggest pleasure of tourists. This is the rare film of superheroes that becomes more and more capricious, until the final fight included, a royal battle that takes place mainly at a Christmas Carnival in Philadelphia.

But capricious is not the same as frivolous. Angel and Levi interpret Billy as a boy who has never had the support he needed, and the film suggests there was no miracle solution to his trauma, even though he was immersed in a supportive environment and could suddenly jump tall buildings. (Or in the case of Billy, almost jump a tall building in one bound.)

This is the subtext that is under Shazam!Wide humor, fun spirit and scary monsters. The film suggests that fulfilling wishes will only lead people so far, and that power alone can not change what is damaged inside. Captain Marvel (or Shazam, or Thundercrack, or whatever you call it) might be one of the simplest superheroes ever created, but Shazam! Both understand what makes this simplicity so appealing and understand the complications of a common desire to grow too fast and assume powers you can not control.