The latest installment of the DC Extended Universe is here in Shazam! Young Billy Batson becomes an unwilling superhero after coming into contact with a wizard from another dimension and now must face off against a group of demons’ Champion to protect Earth.

Shazam! is a 2019 superhero film, it is produced by DC Films & New Line Cinema, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is currently in theaters now. 

Editor’s Note: Near complete to complete spoilers for Shazam! may be present within this review. Check out our sponsor Otaku Picks for all for your anime and manga based apparel at this link here.

Following the footsteps of Wonder Woman & Aquaman, WB’s Shazam! adaptation takes on a much lighter and colorful toned direction from the previous installments of the DC Extended Universe. With focus aimed on comedy, character building, and a little bit of charm Shazam! is easily tied with Wonder Woman as the current best film in DC’s live-action efforts.

THE GOOD: The film starts back in 1974 with a young man (Thaddeus Sivana), his older brother, and father driving in the middle of snow storm. Sivana and his brother continue to fight and argue as his father struggles to keep his concentration on the road, suddenly time stops and Sivana is transported to an alternate dimension where a wizard presents him with the option to obtain his magical powers, only for Sivana to be successfully tempted by the demons housed in stone at the Wizard’s domain. The Wizard stops Sivana and transports him back to our world before he is completely possessed. Attempting to explain what happened to his father and brother, Sivana and the latter continue their earlier fighting leading to a near fatal car crash that paralyzes his father. Back in the present day, Sivana has become obssessed with finding the alternate dimension having spent his entire life searching for it.

Sivana finds an entryway into the dimension in the form o a magical wooden door and enters it. After berating the Wizard for denying him his powers Sivana chooses to willingly become possessed by the demons. He invades his father’s company and kills his brother before allowing the demons to kill his father and his employees. Meanwhile, Billy Batson; a young man whose had a troubled youth, going through foster home after foster home is on a quest to find his birth mother after she lost him at a fair as a child. Billy’s new foster family meet him and aren’t sure of what to think. As the days go by Billy slowly bond with his foster brother Freddy & older sister Mary. Billy is eventually chosen by wizard Shazam who bestows his powers upon him. Informing Freddy of his new abilities the duo go through several tests to see what Billy is truly capable of. After Billy’s superhero persona begins to cause a rift between his & Freddy’s relationship, Sivana attacks him revealing that the two are destined to battle as the Champions of man & the Seven Deadly Sins respectively. After learning the harsh truth about his mother, Sivana soon takes Billy’s family hostage forcing him to hand over Shazam’s staff. Billy and his siblings (after revealing his alter ego) help to get the staff back from Sivana leading to a fight at a fair where Billy learns of Sivana’s weakness and recovers the staff which he uses to grant his siblings super powers like him. They take on the demons & Sivana and win becoming local celebrities and choosing to use Shazam’s dimension as their lair.

Just as Wonder Woman & Aquaman changed in tonal & colorful shift, Shazam! does as well taking it a bit further with primary colors in DC’s new Zack Snyder distancing trend. There’s almost never a moment too dull or joyless. And the core leads’ performances including Angel’s keep the film flowing together for the most part. Action sequences are fun and the script is pretty well put together.

THE BAD: There are times when Shazam! could drag on. This was due in part to it’s longer than necessary run time & it effects some of the earlier storylines in the film by the time the final act rolls around. 

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Shazam! continues the wave of entertaining & bright DCEU films with strong acting performances, a tight direction, and some well thought out fanservice, Otaku Dome gives Shazam! a 90 out of 100.