DC Catches Lightning In A Bottle With Shazam!
A Review by Dani Romero
The DCEU is coming off a hit with Aquaman – can they keep up the momentum? Our own Dani Romero caught an advance screening of Shazam! Read on for her review.
-Carmelo
The Pagemaster meets Ant-Man in the DCEU’s latest superhero flick, SHAZAM! Full of genuinely good laughs and some stellar, heartfelt performances across the cast, SHAZAM! suffers so few of its predecessor’s issues that the movie feels like a true breath of fresh air and serves as a beacon of hope for future DC film installments.
Zachary Levi and Mark Strong are standouts in their roles, and even with a small touch of uninspired motivations on the latter side, both actors make a great show of their powers and effortlessly guide us through the movie, which could have suffered from one-too-many plot points going on. Their superhero vs villain dynamic, along with the innocent and adorable nature of the film’s focus on ‘family’ and ‘home’ combine well, if not for maybe a few scenes that very slightly drag on.
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That might be my only complaint: the film felt a bit long, even only being just above two hours in run time – SHAZAM! feels, at its heart, like a young adult’s film, akin to Spider-Man: Homecoming in its jokes and language, but still sugar-sweet with its messages for the audience. For whatever reasons the film felt so lengthy, still, altogether, SHAZAM! was truly FUN and engaging in some surprising ways. Keep an eye out for those easter eggs and comedically-timed product placements because they’re actually hilarious and timely.
And for those wondering, yes, there is a mid-credits AND post-credits scene. So stick around!
