Shazam is a like a superhero movie crossed with Home Alone, The Goonies and Superbad — but without any raunch and no blood.
The first truly family-friendly teen superhero flick (it skews younger than Spider-Man: Homecoming and Kick-Ass), it’s charming, high-spirited and embraces its youthful, goofy side.
In order words, it’s the anti-Justice League. Yes, thank you, DC gods, you are listening
Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is a 14-year-old runaway in Philadelphia. Since he was accidentally separated from his mother at a fair as toddler, he’s been bounced from one foster home to another, usually because Billy takes off.
With a strong independent streak, he reluctantly agrees to move to a new home, with the Vasquezes (Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans) and five other kids — Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), Darla (Faithe Herman), Mary (Grace Fulton), Eugene (Ian Chen) and Pedro (Jovan Armand).
Billy is asked to share a room with Freddy, a superhero enthusiast with a whip-fast mouth and crutches.
When Freddy is bullied by some kids at school, Billy intervenes and then, dashing onto a train, he notices the people in his subway has disappeared and the windows have frosted over.
He’s been transported to another realm where a dying wizard named Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) tells him he must take his powers and protect the world from an evil force.
The threat is a manifestation of the Seven Deadly Sins, which has taken over Dr. Thaddeus Silva (Mark Strong) — when the Sins come out, they look like the love child of Ghostbusters’ Slimer and a Rodin statue.
As Shazam, Billy takes the form of a grown-up man (Zachary Levi), tall, muscly and chiselled-jawed. Which means he can buy beer! And he does.
Billy and Freddy go to town with Billy’s new powers in exactly the way immature teens would do — making YouTube videos of them testing fire invincibility, flying, super strength, invisibility and more.
The videos go viral and Billy (Thundercrack/Sir Zaps A Lot/Red Cyclone — they have trouble picking a name) becomes famous, which attracts the attention of Dr. Silva. A couple of 14-year-olds don’t tend to think medium term, like, don’t showboat your powers and potentially draw out a supervillain.