Shazam! (2019)
Director: David Sandberg
Watched: 6/25/19 (Dollar Theater)
Rating: 3/5
“Shazam!”
Look, a Superhero foster family!
Refreshingly unique for genre,
but sketchy writing, forced humor,
weak villain, and CGI
make it forgettable.
Too childish and long,
but cute young actors.
Say “Shazam!”
Having
fun?
Title Meaning: Captain Marvel is often mistakenly called Shazam. In actuality, Shazam is the 9,000 year old wizard who gives young Billy Batson the power to transform into Captain Marvel. He must shout the word “Shazam!” in order to transform- instantly- into Captain Marvel. By shouting the name of the wizard, he calls on the heroes and gods of various mythologies to grant him: the wisdom of Solomon, the strength of Hercules, the stamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courage of Achilles, and the speed of Mercury. The first letters of the names of these Gods spell out the word “Shazam.” The confusion comes from legal issues surrounding Captain Marvel’s trademark history. Captain Marvel was first created by Fawcett Comics in 1940 and ran for thirteen years. During much of this time, however, Fawcett was involved in a long court battle with DC Comics- who felt Captain Marvel was a copyright infringement of their character, Superman. In 1953, after twelve years of litigation, Fawcett finally agreed to retire the Captain Marvel property. In 1972, the DC Comics began leasing the name until purchasing all rights to the Captain Marvel character in 1991. Unfortunately, in 1967, competitor Marvel Comics had created their own “Captain Marvel” character and had the foresight to trademark the name. Thus, in order to avoid legal issues with Marvel, DC chose to publish Captain Marvel stories in comic books titled “Shazam!”. To confuse things further, in 2011 DC eliminated the Captain Marvel name completely, and Shazam officially became the character’s name.