MARVELOUS. 

Two Captain Marvel films simultaneously! When I was ten I’d have been blissed out of my mind. The big red cheese himself was the peak achiever of the strip cartoon world that loomed so large in my awareness. I liked the uncluttered line and the fallibility and sense of humor of the world’s mightiest mortal. Superman was kind of boring by comparison.

Well we’ve all passed a lot of water since then. Our screens are full of caped crusaders and masked marvels - and CGI explosions. Do we need any more?

Shazam! initially irritated me much the same way that Republic’s Tom Tyler in his baggy tights had - or Warren Beatty as Dick Tracy. The world they inhabited was so much less intriguing than the one on the printed page. I did however give a pass mark to screen Batmans. 

However director David F. Sandberg’s lot  are all over this. Shazam is not all that far away from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and its toons, further down the Ready Player One road.  They are looting the D.C. universe for the often indistinct memories of four generations, answering questions that we weren’t even aware we were still asking. Why is the sinister world of Nimbo Kid crippled news boy Freddy Freeman so much different from the one boy newscaster Billy Batson inhabits? How come they are the same age when one is the other’s junior? Where did the Marvel Family come from? How did a Swedish animator know that after lifetimes of exposure to world events and the master pieces of our culture we were still interested?

Shazam! cites Batman, Superman, Rocky, Yoda, Harry Potter, the heroes of Greek Mythology, the Seven Deadly Sins, Tom Hanks in Big and a bad Santa. Their Jack Dylan Grazer does go to school at Fawcett Central and Zachary Levi in the red suit gets to exclaim “Holy Moley” though he never blows bubble gum. It would have been so nice if the recollections they retrieved got as far as Little Nemo and Speed Gordon.

Once we get past all the name dropping however there is a story line that can absorb all these associations. They sucker us in with an exposition which is not the the Marvel story but that of Sivana the world’s most wicked scientist and suddenly it’s present day Philadelphia and young Asher Angel is pranking the car cops as part of his quest to find the mother who lost him at a fun fair all those years back. The film runs to serious accounts of single parenthood and school bullying. They plant Angel in the nice home where Marta Milans’ car has one of those “I’m a foster mother. What’s your super power?” stickers, just to keep the citations coming.

Our juvenile delinquent lead gets the subway to (least satisfactory section) the Wizard’s Cave where Levi is anointed by Djimon Hounsou - impressive actor but isn’t it pushing the “Oscar so white” thing to have him as the one palling with Zeus and his lot? Then we get to the heart of the film where the Scarlet Flash (or whatever they call him not being able to use the brand name because they’re marketing some female version down the road) has to work out what his powers are all about - charging for selfies with him?

This is funny and rather winning with the contemporary touches like super hero enthusiast advisor Grazer posting You Tube videos of their try outs. They manage the effective shift of tone when Mark Strong at his most menacing shows up. Even in the big finale, the piece remains anchored in it’s cross referencing, having the kid with his Superman and Batman action figures look up to see Levi and Strong going at it in the sky outside his window. There’s the disturbing spectacle of my childhood idol bending the knee to Sivana. Multiple yellow lightning flashes will appear in the mist. The film really does tap into what used to be called the sense of wonder.

The performances are so good, and spot on with the tone, and the effects work, notably the scene with the city bus, is state of the art and then some. This is not just a good night out, it’s one of the best cultural sign posts that the movies have come up with. Though it has met with wide approval, it’s battling in an already crowded market. Its take is well under Captain Marvel and a fraction of what they are making with some Endgame film.

Barrie Patison 2019