(DC COMIC PHOTO)
Shazam! is an interesting movie about a 14-year-old boy whose life turns around when he receives magical powers from a wizard whom he meets in a mysterious fashion. The movie was quiet enjoyable with ample laughter except for few disturbing visuals and action.
The movie starts with a wizard trying to find a successor to pass down his magical powers and will do so only if the individual proves his purity by not submitting to the 7 deadly sins. 14-year-old Billy Batson becomes the champion and receives the powers from the wizard. When Billy pronounces the word Shazam (the name of the wizard) the turns into an adult super hero who posses powers like flying, super speed, bullet proof body and etc. Though he transforms into an adult his mind and heart is still a 14-year-old. He seems to play around with the powers and having fun around the city with his foster home brother Fred. Finally he gets to meet the Villan - Thaddeus Sivana, who also once stood before the wizard but failed to become a champion. But later our of selfish ambition and unable to bear his defeat gets to find a way to get to the wizard and gains possession of the seven deadly sins in his body. The story ends when Billy making all his foster home brothers and sisters into superheros and defeats Sivana. Click here for detailed plot of the movie.
Here are some observations from the movie. Firstly the lives of hero and the villain can be compared. Billy lived without parental presence. He seeks to find his lost mother and his whole life’s purpose and meaning lay in the moment where he will meet his mother again. As he meets his mother he finds out that she lost him on purpose and living with a different man and didn’t want to take him in. Sivana has a dad and brother who seems to taunt him all the time when he was a kid. There seems to be a lot of negativity growing in him. This sense of not being valued grows into anger and asks for revenge. He ends up killing his dad and brother having no sense of emotional connection with his family. Bottom line is both of them received rejection from their families at different points in life but both of them drew different conclusions which directed their life to what they ended up to be.
No matter how bad our circumstances are, the power to turn it into good or bad lays within us. Two good examples from the bible are Joseph and Jesus. Though the ones whom they were close to were hostile to them and they faced rejection, the chose to forgive and move on. This did make a great impact in themselves as well as in history.
Secondly, it is interesting that this movie adopted the popular Christian concept of 7 deadly sins in its script. 7 deadly sins were shown as 7 scary creatures on the screen. It was quiet disturbing to see the creatures on the screen. It was quiet disgusting to see how the creatures entered and exiting the body of the villain. He believed that he was in control of them but those creatures were controlling him and were fulfilling their desires in him. Finally Billy (Shazam) wisely brings them out the body and destroys them.
Thirdly, the movie emphasizes the importance of parental support and guidance of kids. The plot shows the family of Sivana, who were very mean to him and hence making him a Villian. The plot shows the mother of Billy who is a single mom and loses him on purpose as she is not able to take care of him as she was very young. This shows the danger of having kids when people are young especially when the parents are not married. The plot then moves on to show an example of good family model of Victor and Rosa Vasaquez who were orphans themselves and were running a family with 6 fosters including Billy. They raise the kids with love which was very evident in their eyes and actions as well. They also had dinner together as a family beginning with a short prayer and shares opinions on current events led by the father. Indeed great way to promote family values.
The final scene kinda stimulated a sense of heroic spirit as all the foster brothers and sisters became super heros and fought the battle together. The movie shows a good relationship between all the brothers and sister and definitely a good example of love and teamwork.
The movie also had some disturbing images of 7 creatures depicted as the 7 deadly sins, had some swearing and some inappropriate content for the kids.
On the whole, I loved the movie.
Did you watch Shazam! and have something to talk about it? Do post below. Would love to read.
The Trailer
Few good reviews I found online -