‘Shazam!’ Review Round Up

Shazam! is just a few weeks away and the review embargo for the David F. Sandberg-directed film has finally lifted, allowing film critics to reveal their full thoughts on the superhero flick. As it stands now, reviews look generally positive across the board, with many critics praising the movie’s comedic tone and Zachary Levi’s performance of the titular character.

ComicBook.com’s Brandon Davis loved the film, calling it the “best movie based on a DC Comics character since The Dark Knight changed the comic book movie game in 2008.” Keep scrolling to see the reactions from other critics around the industry!

Shazam! hits theaters April 5th. Are you seeing Shazam! opening weekend? What have you thought about the teasers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

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Brandon Davis – ComicBook.com

“All things considered, Shazam! shapes up to be the best movie based on a DC Comics character since The Dark Knight changed the comic book movie game in 2008. Christopher Nolan’s film probably still holds the torch for best film in the genre given its ability to transcend the comic book movie world and become a psychological thriller, above all else, but Shazam! certainly gives the film a run for its money. It’s the sheer levels of fun, heart, and terror Shazam! masterfully balances which make it a lightning bolt of joy.”

Read the full review here.

Owen Gleiberman – Variety

“”Shazam!” is hardly the first comic-book film to adopt a tone of breezy postmodern irreverence. The “Deadpool” movies, with their Mad-magazine snake-tongued nihilism, got there a while back, and before them there was Robert Downey Jr.’s ironic-quip-spewing Tony Stark, and if you go back to the 1978 “Superman,” part of that film’s timeless charm is that it was already too late in the 20th century to play Clark Kent’s Adonis-in-glasses stumblebum gawkiness entirely straight (and Christopher Reeve’s performance was pure screwball). “Flash Gordon,” in 1980, presented its space-jock hero as a delicious beefcake joke (the fact that you could scarcely tell whether Sam J. Jones was an actor or a high-school gym teacher was part of it). And then, of course, there was “Batman,” the ’60s TV series that started it all — a show that had its tongue planted so firmly in its face mask that it practically invented the mainstreaming of camp.”

Read the full review here.

Jim Vejvoda – IGN

“Shazam! is a DC’s most joyful and sweet movie since the days of Christopher Reeve’s Superman, a funny yet earnest coming-of-age story about a boy who learns that, well, with great power comes great responsibility. So obviously, Shazam! doesn’t reinvent the superhero movie, but it’s an undeniably fun time that left me wanting more big-screen adventures with these charming characters.”

Read the full review here.

Chris Nashawaty – Entertainment Weekly

“This may prompt angry emails, but here it goes anyway: Shazam has always been a third-tier superhero, in my opinion. Then again, a year ago I would have said the same thing about Aquaman, and look what happened to him. These days, even the bottom of the barrel can be strip-mined for gold, it seems. Which brings us to DC’s new and mostly improved Shazam 2.0. Written by Henry Gayden and directed by Annabelle: Creation’s David F. Sandberg, Shazam! is a lot jokier and zippier than the spandex tentpoles we’ve come to expect from DC’s often-lugubrious stable of cinematic superheroes. The credit for that almost entirely goes to Zachary Levi (Chuck), who plays the title character with an infectiously naïve, gee-whiz charisma that calls to mind Tom Hanks in Big more than anything.”

Read the full review here.

Keith Phipps – The Verge

“With or without the name, the spirit of the old Captain Marvel adventures is very much at the heart of Shazam!, even amid a lot of just-barely PG-13 violence and a couple of gags about a strip club. That’s part of what makes it such a gleeful alternative both to the grimness of past DC films — a tone the company seems eager to shed — and the cosmos-in-the-balance stakes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Whether played by Angel or Levi, Billy is just a kid. It’s fun to watch him take delight in his new powers, and a little frightening to realize how little control he has over them. And where Batson’s earliest comics adventures gave him a big city to treat as a playground, Shazam! does the same with Philadelphia. His pleasure at bouncing around the city proves infectious, even though he always seems to be on the verge of accidentally leveling a city block.”

Read the full email here.

Germain Lussier – io9

“These days, superhero movies need a little something extra to make them stand out from the pack. They can’t just be a typical, big-budget, flashy action movie. There needs to be a certain level of humor, pathos, or some poignant commentary that takes the film to the next level. In the case of David F. Sandberg’s new DC movie Shazam, that’s exactly what happens, by hiding a movie about the power and importance of foster families inside a sometimes-silly superhero origin story.”

Read the full review here.

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky – The AV Club

“Admittedly, Billy is not the original Shazam’s ideal candidate. But the evil Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong) has recently unleashed the Seven Deadly Sins—monstrous gargoyles that hearken back to the special effects of films like Ghosterbusters II—and is poised to take over the world. Like Billy, Sivana was once taken away to Shazam’s lair as a child, but failed the wizard’s test, as have hundreds since. With no time to keep looking for a more fitting replacement, the bearded sorcerer imbues Billy with his magic before crumbling to dust. Now, all he has to do is say his name, “Shazam,” and he’ll be transformed into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) in an old-fashioned puff of lighting and smoke. The movie knows that this is all eye-rollingly silly; at first, Billy can’t even say the word with a straight face.”

Read the full review here.