Shazam! (Film Review)

2019 New Line Cinema/DC Films/Warner Bros. Pictures 
Directed by: David F. Sandberg; Written by: Henry Gayden
Starring: Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Djimon Hounsou
MPAA Rating: PG-13; Running Time: 132 Minutes
The Nicsperiment Score: 8/10

Superman. The original flagship superhero. For more than a decade, he was the only superhero to have a decent film to his name. Years before that, he had a black-and-white TV show I remember going nuts for. He's still featured in the biggest comic event of my lifetime (when, of course, he died).  Truth, Justice, and the American Way. That's Superman. Yet, for some reason, a 21st Century movie studio just can't do right by the guy. 2006's superbore, Superman Returns, barely feels like it happened. Zach Snyder's 2013 grey-toned slog, Man of Steel, took the great American symbol of...truth and justice, casted a charisma-free Brit in the part, and answered this question no one was asking:
"What if Superman was a joyless, fascist murderer?"
Well, we're now 19 years into the 21st century, and someone's finally gotten a Superman movie right...except it's called Shazam!, and only features Superman for three seconds of its runtime.
If you think Superman's had a rough century, take a look at young Billy Batson. His single-mother ditched him at a fair when he was just a little tyke, and he's bounced around foster homes ever since, often running away to try to track her down. As Billy enters hormonal teenagedom, he's now placed in yet another foster home--this one housing a seemingly tight knit group of foster kids with two loving, caring foster parents. Worse yet, Billy's stuck sharing a bedroom with Freddy, a superhero-obsessed kid who wants to be Billy's best buddy.
Freddy is disabled, and has to walk with a crutch. When a couple of bullies decide to push Freddy around at school one day, Billy acts against his usual running away nature, and defends his new brother. Before you know it, Billy's suddenly zapped off to a magical cave, where wizened old man calling himself Shazam is insisting someone pure of heart must succeed his role of Champion and World Protector. Billy must take on this old Shazam's magical powers, and become the new Shazam. After getting over the shock of the situation, Billy insists he's the farthest from "pure at heart," but the old man insists. It seems, there's a force of evil that needs to be stopped, and this aged Shazam is too old to fight it. Billy's got to grab his staff and take his powers. After the requisite jokes about how perverse it sounds to "Grab an old man's staff," Billy relents...and suddenly he's back in the real world, now a muscular 30-year old man in a red suit and white cape.
Sounds weird? Shazam! thinks so, too. This is where a lesser film would approach such events with cynicism. Shazam! approaches them with both humor and earnestness. My previous paragraph highlights the balance...yeah, there's a pedophilia joke...and yet there's also a moment where the main character admits his weakness in an act of humility. There's a reason this movie has an exclamation point in its title.
A shell-shocked Billy goes to the only person he thinks can help him understand what's happened. Under cover of night, Freddy and Billy test out Billy's new powers. Seems he has super strength, invincibility, can shoot lightning bolts out of his hands, and maybe...just maybe, can fly. Also, if he shouts "Shazam!" he becomes an ordinary kid again...and back to a superhero with another utterance.
Superheroes as an idea are ridiculous. Guys who can fly around, shoot lasers out of their eyes--it's all goofy. Yet enough people have already explored the idea of why we need them that I'm not going to do so here. The important thing is that Shazam! is able to string together a "Golly gee, wow!" fun factor from the kid's relationships and amazement at what is happening, balanced with an understanding of the difficulty of adolescence, especially lonely adolescence, to ground the whole thing in reality. 
The film is also absolutely hilarious, but the humor comes from the characters--it doesn't become funny until a half-hour in, when their personalities are established, and the laughs can come organically. Likewise, Billy's lessons in not only the importance of family and not going it alone, as well as in what it truly means to be a hero are achieved organically and through character work, as well. They're not just boxes to be joylessly checked.
While the balance of drama and comedy is perfect, Shazam! also thankfully never reaches for any type grimdark aesthetic or vibe. When Billy comes across the film's super-villain, the threat is most definitely real, and the stakes are most definitely high, yet the film never once loses the sense of joy it's worked so hard to establish---and dammit, that's the tone that's needed in a Superman film. Shazam! makes these balances look easy.
It also wears its absolutely gigantic heart on its sleeve without bleeding everywhere. Shazam! contains three separate moments where Billy's new family says grace around the table, and not only do these not feel sentimental, but all feel like vital moments to the film's success. Of course, it helps that the films is cast perfectly, with Asher Angel's Billy and Jack Dylan Grazer's Freddy having great comedic and brotherly chemistry. Zachary Levi, as the Shazam-Billy is perfect, believably a super-powered being and a scared kid in a super-powered being's body at the same time. The actors playing Billy's other foster-siblings are all pitch perfect, as well, with all becoming clear characters even as they are, until the finale, often in the margins.
Now, with the success of Shazam!, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman, it looks like Superman and Batman, who have held the standard for so long, are in the margins. There is such an incredibly long and detailed history of what works for The Man of Steel and The Dark Knight, and what doesn't. Why can't DC get them right? I know this is a Shazam! review, but I can't get over it. Give it five years, and then cast Asher Angel as Superman. He's already demonstrated in this movie that, even as a teenager, he can play this type of role pitch-perfectly. Also, he's from Phoenix. Apologies to our colonizers, but how much more American can you get?