Shazam! Another big win for DC

Looks like the horror movie directors are doing it for the worlds of DC, James Wan did a great job with Aquaman now we have 'Lights out' movie director David Sandberg with another great movie for DC. Shazam is all about a kid Billy Batson who gets superpowers transferred from a wizard.

Billy Batson is kind of an orphan who keeps running away from foster homes because he's in search of his real parents. After a while, he gets to a foster home with some really cool foster kids Freddy, Mary, Darla, Eugene, and Pedro. Among these kids, Freddy and Darla try to get close to Billy who's usually a closed book and keeps to himself. Ultimately, this is a movie about family and they totally nailed that part. The foster parents and the kids were easily the best parts of the movie. The casting for this movie was amazing, the kids do a fantastic job with it. Zachary Levi was easily the best of them all because he had to impersonate a fifteen-year-old and he absolutely nailed it.

  

This movie was basically every kid's dream, a fifteen-year-old with the powers of an overpowered god who can fly, run extremely fast with super-strength and bullet immunity. Billy, however, needs the help of Freddy who's a huge fanboy of Batman and Superman who's also an expert at all this superhero stuff so because of that Billy starts getting close to Freddy. The way their friendship evolves is really great.

Dr. Sivanna is the villain here and it would be unfair to call him a bad villain. His motivations were well defined and he was kind of the opposite of what Shazam stood for. Speaking of what Shazam actually stands for, these people have really done the comic books some justice, they've stuck to their roots and a lot of this had elements of 'Superman Shazam return of Black Adam' here. There were plenty of teases for Black Adam and I'm definitely excited to see Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam. Also, the last twenty minutes of the movie totally blew me away, just going on to prove that comic accuracy is the key, totally loved that stuff.

Almost every five minutes we're teased with Batman or Superman reminding us that this is very much a part of the worlds of DC and that Warner Brothers will continue giving importance to the two greatest pillars of DC, Batman, and Superman. Clearly, DC didn't start off the way they had to but I'm pleased with the way things are going for them right now. Back to back hits with Aquaman and Shazam would definitely help them and both these movies were critically acclaimed. Solo movies are clearly their thing and they've got a hit out of every single solo movie they've made so far. Maybe they should continue making these until they're confident enough to make a justice league movie.

Wonder Woman 2 is in the works, Batman will be coming out next and I feel like it would be a bad call to make Henry Cavill step down as Superman because if this hit streak for DC continues, they definitely need Cavill. I think Warner Brothers have finally found the perfect directors for their movies and that they should give them a chance to do a man of steel sequel before saying goodbye to Cavill because things are really starting to turn around in a really good way. 

The post-credits scene teased a sequel and I think it would make perfect sense if they decide to use Superman in it. Maybe they can go with the Superman Shazam storyline before the Man of Steel sequel. I think it would be really awesome to see Zachary, Cavill and the Rock fighting it out on the big screen. Shazam was exactly what Warner Brothers wanted, a really fun humourous superhero movie with tons of Easter eggs and a message to the world that DC is far from finished. I really hope this streak continues for years to come, I know they can never be as good as Marvel but they can definitely try to be by sticking to solo movies for now until they're confident enough with the right director.

Verdict
Fan in me: 9.5/10
Critic in me: 8.0/10

Avengers Endgame is going to hit the theatres in a couple of weeks and people should definitely consider watching this fun lighthearted emotional superhero movie before getting their hearts broken because Shazam was the true Captain Marvel movie we needed not that crappy one we got to see a month back from Marvel, if that can make a billion dollars at the box office so should Shazam but we all know how unlikely that is because Endgame is coming. But still, WB was brave enough to get it out on the same month as the most expensive Marvel movie ever made. I hope this movie gets the recognition and box office collection it deserves.