I’ll be honest, DC has been a very easy punching bag in recent years, and I include myself among the people that have taken some cheap shots at their movies. However, when comparing DC’s movies to Marvel’s cinematic universe, they always just fell short, with a few of them just being outright bad. The best that DC has had so far was Wonder Woman, but even that movie doesn’t hold a candle to the best that Marvel has offered us. Still, even though I didn’t enjoy the DC movies, I still went to see them, because I love the superhero genre and I don’t ever want it to fail. I might be a Marvel fanboy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to enjoy DC movies too. Shazam! is the perfect example of this. This is a movie where I feel like DC has finally NAILED it. I absolutely loved it, and I definitely want to see more DC movies like this.

If you’re not familiar with the Shazam character (originally called Captain Marvel back in the day, before Marvel claimed that title for one of their superheroes), then you’re in for a treat. While I’m not too familiar with the comic book history of the character, I’ve always loved the concept behind it and have enjoyed any appearance I’ve seen him in. Basically, our protagonist is a teenage boy named Billy Batson. Billy is chosen by the wizard Shazam (yeah, I know this naming thing is kind of confusing) to be a hero, and so he’s granted the power of the gods. Now, whenever Billy yells “SHAZAM!” he turns into a fully-grown adult male, with a bunch of superpowers that rival even Superman. This Shazam! movie gives an origin story for the hero, as Billy learns to adjust to these new powers and fight against his first super villain.

I think that the movie’s biggest strength, by far, is that it perfectly encapsulates why people love the superhero genre. At the end of the day, superheroes provide wish fulfillment, giving its fans an escape into what it would be like to have powers and be larger than life. Shazam! doesn’t ever forget that, and so it’s constantly focused on showing how fun it would be to have these powers. It’s easy for us to see ourselves in Billy Batson, because he handles being a superhero in the same way we would. I know that if I was given super powers as a teenage boy, I definitely would have shown off with them and just had fun for a while. The movie is pure fun, and I think it was the right choice for the movie to take the direction that it did, because Shazam! delivers exactly what fans love about superheroes in the first place.

I think if the movie has one weakness, it’s just that it can fall into the usual trappings that DC movies tend to. They can get a bit carried away with the lore, and so there were times where I felt like we were given too much information that makes the movie a bit inaccessible. This isn’t nearly as big of a problem as it was in something like Batman v Superman, but it happens at times. I felt like the biggest example of this is with the villain’s story. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed Mark Strong’s performance and everything, but all of the lore and exposition surrounding his character isn’t all that interesting. I feel like the movie should have been cut down a bit, as some of these scenes can go on kind of long. At the end of the day, though, the big difference with problems like these when you compare Shazam! to Batman v Superman is that Shazam! is still an otherwise enjoyable movie, so its flaws don’t bother me as much. With something like Batman v Superman, the movie wasn’t good as a whole, and so its little flaws just accentuated that. Shazam! gets enough right that the rest of its flaws didn’t bother me.

Before wrapping up, I just want to share a few other thoughts on why I liked the movie so much. As I said, Billy Batson is an easy character to relate to. I really took a liking to his character, and became invested in his journey. There’s a storyline throughout the movie of Billy trying to find his mother, and this kind of storyline really helped the movie score some emotional beats among its comedy. Speaking of which, the comedy is top-notch here. I was laughing hard at the movie most of the way through, and so I think this really worked in the movie’s favor. Part of the reason for this is the great actors and characters involved. I have to give huge props to Zachary Levi, who plays the Shazam character super well. He has so much charisma in the role, nails the jokes perfectly, and also convincingly plays the part of a teenager in a grown man’s body. There are also a cast of kids that are in Billy’s foster family, and these characters are so much fun. Freddy and Darla are the obvious stand-outs, but they all have their moments. While I was mainly invested in the movie for Billy, these other characters are also great.

It’s really easy to dismiss DC movies at this point since their cinematic universe really hasn’t had a great track record. I’ll be the first to admit that I almost gave up on seeing the movies because they just weren’t that good. However, I’ve given each movie a fair chance, and Shazam! is the first one that really blew me away. If you’ve found yourself in a similar place and just don’t think that DC movies are as good as Marvel’s, I think you should give this one a chance. It’s by far the best one DC has put out yet, and so if they continue in this direction I think we’ll have some great movies on our hands. Give Shazam! a shot, it’s a lot of fun.

4.5/5