Captain Marvel review

The more DC stretches out from the origins of its ill-fated (in part because making $700 million from one movie is somehow a failure in the eyes of Warner Bros., in part because then-director and -movierrunner Zach “not Scott” Snyder kept thinking he was remaking Watchmen over and over) cinematic universe, the better it gets.

While hasty re-edits of Suicide Squad and Justice League weren’t enough to save the movies, it did show that the studio had finally figured out how to read the room, and that they did have an idea of how they could deliver. Allowing Wonder Woman, Aquaman and now, Shazam! to be their own movies with their own tones, themes and genres led not only to the level of box office success Warner was looking for, but also a big thumbs up in reviews.

In a sign of the unyielding times, you won’t find the Boy Scout version of Captain Marvel here as seen in the Silver, Bronze and Modern ages of comics, which would have been a perfect contrast with how things got started with Man of Steel. Instad, we got New 52 Billy Batteson, a troubled troublemaker with potential. But perhaps leaving room for a character arc isn’t all that bad an idea instead of having a character who starts perfect and has nowhere to go…

The real cheap shot, of course, is that in doing so, Shazam! shows up Man of Steel at its own game. Superman didn’t have to go all neck-snapping grimdark to have room to develop. Billy has an arc of starting as an outsider, of being gifted with great power at an early age and of struggling with controlling that power and understanding what he wanted to do with it. Though I am a bit irritated that the Wisdom of Solomon never manifested because the plot demanded Captain Marvel be Captain Idiot Ball.

Perhaps I’m a little focused on setting Captain Marvel against Superman because that was a favorite pastime of the source material. But there’s more to Shazam than this, of course.

When I first saw the trailer for Shazam, I immediately (and correctly) guessed its elevator pitch was “Big with superpowers.” And while it and the gags that came with it were predictable, that didn’t mean it wasn’t funny.

In what has has been a wonderful trend of late, we have a bevy of well-directed child actors who do a great job embodying their roles. Faithe Herman in particular damn near steals the show in every bit she’s in, somehow also managing to be the best part of the final action set piece (you’ll know it when you see it).

Plot-wise, you get a lot of callbacks to classic Captain Marvel mythos while otherwise playing straight the New 52-era plot. It also shoves in your face that it’s part of the larger DC universe in exactly the way Aquaman didn’t. We get to see how actual average folks view the existing superheroes, as opposed to the previously established religious idolatry and political bullshit. Nope, it’s all about T-shirts and reselling bullets that bounced off Superman on the collectors market. That’s the kind of down-to-Earth perspective sorely needed to provide real contrast to the fact there’s a magic-fueled demigod wandering around town. Besides, you never know when Batman merchandise will come in handy…

The villain isn’t nearly so interesting. The don’t take much inspiration on Dr. Sivana from the comics; it really could have been anybody. But I get that the writers wanted to save Black Adam for when they didn’t need to spend the movie building up Captain Marvel, wanted to have a recognisable name from the comics, and establish the magical order of the 7 virtues vs. the 7 deadly enemies of man. But it’s still unfortunate that Captain Marvel’s original arch-nemesis had nothing whatsoever of his own to distinguish himself when he’s supposed to be one of the DC Universe’s most skilled science villains.

Verdict: Go for it (4/5). Shazam! is colorful, fun, not entirely family-friendly, but really stands out in an oversaturated superhero movie market.