[wpdevart_youtube]UeOJgWXqyAM[/wpdevart_youtube]
SHAZAM ****
Dir: David F Sandberg (12A, 120 mins)
Aiming to put more fun back into the DC Extended Universe after the high camp of Aquaman comes Shazam, which is essentially Big but with a kid put into a superhero’s body instead of an adult male’s body. Fourteen-year-old streetwise foster kid Billy Batson, played by an assured Asher Angel, is gifted the powers of six gods – Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury – put them together and what have you got? Shazam! Yes, all Billy has to say is a literal magic word – Shazam- and he gets turned into the flying, superstrong, lightning-throwing Zachary Levi playing his ‘adult’ superhero alter-ego. Young Billy has been chosen to have these powers after a wizard, in need of someone to inherit his powers, witnesses him standing up to bullies. Another had already been offered these powers, Mark Strong’s Dr Thadeus Sivana, but he proved himself morally unworthy and is now after the powers for himself. The stage is therefore set for a comic superhero origin story as Billy discovers his abilities, whilst also wrestling with being a teenager. After the upbeat heroics of both Wonder Woman and Aquaman, this looks set to continue DC’s upward trajectory after the messy gloom of the recent po-faced Batman vs. Superman and Justice League films. Opens April 5