Note: This review was originally published in The Cape Cod Chronicle in April 2019.
Have you ever wondered what Big might have been like if it had been a superhero flick?
Well, that’s more or less the premise of Shazam!
Foster kid Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is recruited by a wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) to become his “champion” for righteousness. Transformed into a powerful older version of himself (Zachary Levi) every time he says the wizard’s name, Billy turns to his foster brother, Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), a self-confessed superhero fan, for help in controlling his newfound abilities. While they’re busy with that, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), a man who was rejected by Shazam years ago for being too easily tempted, teams up with demons that are the physical forms of the Seven Deadly Sins to attain Billy’s power.
And so we have ourselves a superhero movie.
