DCEU Retrospective: Shazam!
Upon rewatch, I think that Shazam! is my favorite of the DCEU movies so far. This was another one of the movies that I didn’t expect much of anything from going into, yet I walked out of the theater feeling incredibly impressed with what I had just watched. This was also probably the one movie that I was most looking forward to re-watching going into this.
As mentioned in the Aquaman write-up, visuals had never been the DCEU’s strong-suit. This movie continues to break that mold and provides some actually really great cinematography and visuals throughout. The one exception to that would probably be the Seven Deadly Sins themselves which didn’t look as bad as I initially remembered them, but still definitely left something to be desired.
The casting in this movie was also excellent. Asher Angel and Zachary Levi played both versions of Billy Batson so well and were perfect choices for the role. The writing for the character also felt believable. It actually felt like this is what a fourteen year-old that suddenly got superpowers would actually do with them.
Which brings me to the final point in that this movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. From the jabs at superhero cliches like the person immediately understanding how their powers work to the massive amount of humor and levity throughout, this movie is exactly what the DCEU had been missing. I’m not saying that all movies for DC moving forward need to follow this example to this extreme of lengths, in fact I think a Batman movie that was this campy would be rather unsettling, but future movies should definitely take note and attempt to bring a little levity to themselves so that they’re not all doom and gloom all the time.
Shazam! is a lot of fun and a genuine surprise hit. I’m really looking forward to where they take the character in the coming sequels and the inevitable interplay between Shazam and Black Adam.
Once again, I wrote the initial review for the site when this came out so if you're interested in checking out my initial thoughts you can find them here.