{"id":1559,"date":"2019-07-09T15:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T21:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/?p=1559"},"modified":"2019-06-06T17:29:10","modified_gmt":"2019-06-06T23:29:10","slug":"movie-shazam-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/09\/movie-shazam-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"MOVIE: Shazam! (2019)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/6\/60\/Shazam%21_theatrical_poster.jpg\" alt=\"Shazam!\" width=\"259\" height=\"384\">Shazam!<\/u><\/strong><br \/>\nYear: 2019<br \/>\nRating: PG-13<br \/>\nLength: 132 minutes \/ 2.20 hours<\/p>\n<p>As far as self-aware movies go, I think <em>Shazam!<\/em> (2019) is the best example from the genre of comic book heroes. <em>Deadpool<\/em> (2016) might have been more \u201cmeta,\u201d but <em>Shazam!<\/em> hits all the bits that make comic books popular to kids, especially young boys. As a fan of self-aware films, I would have seen this movie anyway. However, with Zachary Levi in the lead role, I absolutely had to see it. I\u2019ve generally been a fan of his work from <em>Chuck<\/em> and <em>Tangled<\/em> (2010), so seeing that he still has his comedic timing in shows like <em>The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel<\/em> and movies like <em>Shazam!<\/em> is encouraging.<\/p>\n<p>In terms of plot, the premise is somewhat weak, but the pitch is something akin to \u201c<em>Big<\/em> (1988), but as a superhero film like <a href=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/2018\/01\/02\/movie-spider-man-homecoming-2017\/\"><em>Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/em><\/a> (2017).\u201d In fact, there\u2019s at least one scene in a mall that winks so hard at this reference, I was afraid it would strain its face. Additionally, I did find the incorporation of a foster family into the narrative was something I have rarely seen in movies, let alone superhero films. I mean, considering how many orphans end up becoming superheroes, it only makes sense that some of them would end up in the foster care system.<\/p>\n<p>Even with being a stunningly warm advocate for foster families, <em>Shazam!<\/em> is basically unadulterated fun &nbsp;(har har). I did appreciate the references to other parts of the DC Cinematic Universe, and it\u2019s a little funny to think that this comedy is one of its better entries. Sure, it employs plenty of tropes along the way, most of which have to do with a teen finding himself in the body of a man. If you don\u2019t take it too seriously, you\u2019ll probably end up being entertained at the very least.<\/p>\n<p><em>Big<\/em> meets <em>Spider-Man: Homecoming<\/em>, I give&nbsp;<em>Shazam!<\/em> 4.0 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\">&nbsp;<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-647\" src=\"http:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/255px-Five-pointed_star_svg-150x150.png\" alt=\"255px-Five-pointed_star_svg\" width=\"50\" height=\"50\"><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shazam! Year: 2019 Rating: PG-13 Length: 132 minutes \/ 2.20 hours As far as self-aware movies go, I think Shazam! (2019) is the best example from the genre of comic book heroes. Deadpool (2016) might have been more \u201cmeta,\u201d but Shazam! hits all the bits that make comic books popular to kids, especially young boys. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[1576,1889,1888,908,1887,13,8,1885,985,39,1886],"class_list":["post-1559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4-0-stars","category-movie","tag-1576","tag-big","tag-comic-book","tag-dc","tag-dc-cinematic-universe","tag-movie","tag-review","tag-shazam","tag-spider-man-homecoming","tag-superhero","tag-zachary-levi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1559"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1568,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1559\/revisions\/1568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benjamin-m-weilert.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}