So, as mentioned, the name of this film is Shazam, and DC has changed the name of the character to Shazam in the comics and no longer attempts to use the name Captain Marvel. This actually worked well in the film, as Freddie and Billy come up with a slew of ever changing ridiculous names for Billy's new found superhero identity.
First, this film Shazam was a greatly enjoyable film. It hit most of the bases of the original story, from the comics, with a few changes going in a different direction, and having a lot of fun with the concept of a kid becoming a superhero.
Strangely, Captain Marvel only utters his catch phrase once with "Holly Moley", which was a nice touch, but I guess if he had done it repeatedly, it would have seemed a bit too much.
The costume for Captain America is great, with non of that ridiculous plastic, showing off way too much definition abs and such. Zachary Levi fill out the costume impressively, showing us just how strong Captain Marvel is, just standing still.
Many of the DC films have protracted battles, which are completely pointless, but fortunately, this film avoided such fights.
The film plays out like a combination of Captain Marvel and the Greatest American Hero. Captain Marvel has to figure out what his power are,just like Ralph, as he was given no instruction. This leads to many hilarious scene, and he tries out his new abilities, and lack their off. I find the poster reminiscent of the publicity shots of the Greatest American Hero.
I have always hoped that we would get a Greatest American Hero movie, with great special effects (which were sorely missing form the TV show), but I think Shazam maybe as close as we ever get to that, with the passing of GAH creator Stephen J. Cannell, and Robert Culp.
One problem with the film, much like many of the episodes of Smallville, is that Captain Marvel abuses his powers, which is something he never did in the comics, TV series, or animated series. In fact, in some versions, such as his appearance in Justice League, he berates Superman for compromising his morals. So, while it was entertaining (and catering to millennials) to have him steal, use his powers for revenge and soliciting money, those are things that are completely untrue to the character.
This film is very odd in it's choice of taking Dr Sivana and basically making him into Black Adam. Dr Sivana, much like Lex Luthor never had any superpowers and battled Captain Marvel by using brain to come up with inventions to thwart Captain Marvel. Black Adam, who was referenced briefly, but not by name, in the film, did have the same powers as Captain Marvel, so they could engage in physical conflict.
Also, there have been several characters that never explored an orphan's absent parents. The other who comes to mind is Peter Parker (thought they began go into that in the aborted story of the films The Amazing Spiderman 1 &2) As this movie goes into Billy's search for his mother, this whole story arch was depressing and unnecessary. I believe it was done to give Billy a new concept of what family is, but I believe the original creators designed the character without parents to avoid clashes that would result with a child constantly disappearing to take on his super heroic duties.
As far as the Marvel family of superheros goes, I was only aware of Mary Marvel and Freddy, so I was expecting them to eventually get superpowers, but I was wondering while watching the film what about the other three members of Billy Batson's foster family. Little did I know, at some point DC revised the marvel family to include all of the members of the foster family. I am wondering if they will introduce Uncle Dudley or Mr Tawney at some point. I am being a bit factious by suggesting that, as both of those characters are too corny to be added. While a foster home is a good opportunity to add some ethnic diversity, which seems to be mandatory these days, I take question with making the wizard Shazam black. He was white in all previous depictions, and historically I find it hard to believe that a black wizard existed thousand of years ago. Also, having him be black adds nothing to the story.
This film did cover a lot of ground, and while didn't didn't feel over-packed, there were some things that could have been saved for other films, like introducing the Marvel Family.
I was glad to see John Glover portray Dr (I guess he wasn't a doctor in this film) Sivana's father. He was one of three actors who made Smallville a great series (until they all left, the other two being Michael Rosenbaum and John Schneider.
I would have LOVED to have seem a cameo by Jackson Bostwick, but unfortunately, there were no cameos at all in this film. It would have been amazing to see Henry Cavill show his face, during Superman's appearance.
One other thing, the "animated" scenes during the closing credits were not to be missed!
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