“SHAZAM!” was one of the biggest question mark movies going into 2019. Many people felt that the movie was going to be childish or that the movie may have had the wrong actors filling in important roles. After the release on April 5th however, all of the questions were put to rest after the movie’s brilliant premiere.

The movie is about a fourteen year old foster kid named Billy Batson. He continues to run away looking for his real mother, who he feels lost him on accident. One day, while running from his foster brother’s bullies, he runs into a subway and has a strange encounter with a wizard. The wizard gives him superpowers such as super strength, speed and flight. The movie deals with him fighting Dr. Sivina, who wants Billy’s power, as well as about Billy learning and controlling the powers he has.

The successes of this movie begins with Zachary Levi. Levi captures the essence of a 14 year old given multiple superpowers and thrown into a grown man’s body unlike many people would be able to. Not only that, but Asher Angel’s performance as kid Billy Batson was very impressive as well. He seemed to get all of his emotions just right like being a foster home kid trying desperately to reunite with his mother after ten years without seeing her.

Another performance that can’t go unnoticed is Jacker Grazer as Freddie Freeman, who acts as a good partner and friend to Billy throughout the whole movie. The only performance in the film that truly didn’t stand out as great was Marta Milans as Rosa Vasquez. She did not have a consistent accent throughout the film and just did not seem up to par with the rest of the cast.

Another good part of the film was Billy struggling with his powers for a good portion of the movie. In many comic book movies, the heroes are instantly capable of using their powers without much experience. An example of this is Captain America: The First Avenger, where Steve Rogers acclimated to his powers almost immediately, which would not probably happen.

That being said, it leads to one of the worst parts of the movie. When Billy grants his siblings powers, they are instantly able to use them, where it took Billy nearly the whole film. The movie would have been better if they had shown the siblings struggling to use their powers in battle at first. The movie made them equal to Billy right away, which should not have been the case.

The movie had a lot more positive than negatives however, like the light-hearted humor throughout the movie. Almost all of the movies coming out nowadays feature forced or unnecessary jokes. This movie did not take the normal route and took the jokes as they came, not forcing them into dialogue to get a cheap laugh out of the audience.

One of the biggest pluses of the movie was Dr. Sivana. The way the director set him up was perfect, showing the scene where he got rejected by the wizard and ruined his father’s life together was a very smart move. He was also given a very good motivation, trying to get the power Sivana felt he was robbed of by the wizard. while also proving his worth to his father.

Now, the downside of this movie are few and far between, but they are still there. One was the amount of DC references throughout the movie. It is a DCEU movie, but they don’t need to have a mention of one of those characters in every single scene. There maybe a need for easter eggs while trying to set up a movie universe, but there way to many in this film.

The other negative of the movie is the glazing over the introduction of Billy’s family other than Darla and Freddie. He had five siblings, but the movie introduced Mary, Eugene, Darla and Pedro all in the same scene. They should have placed a little more emphasis into the introduction of Eugene, Mary and Pedro, especially due to their large role at the end of the film.

All in all, this movie is right up there with the top Superhero origin stories. It is a good movie to go see with friends or family as it has a little something for everyone to enjoy