First Take: Shazam- so we’re talking about the *other* Captain Marvel now.

SYNOPSIS: We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson’s case, by shouting out one word - SHAZAM! - this streetwise fourteen-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult superhero Shazam.

Let’s be honest. DC have a lot riding on this one. Following a very mixed few years, with the release of Aquaman in December it felt like they’d managed to figure out the main underlying problems with their films. And at last, they have worked out how to make a refreshingly different, and still enjoyable film.

David F. Sandberg is the man with the plan on this one, and having experience directing horror films (including Annabelle: Creation), this is a radical change in tone for him, and one that really suits the film- even though it has some pacing issues, and a few clichéd setpieces, the 2 hour 9 minutes we have here are rather good, especially with that script by Henry Gayden, packed with some good humour to balance the darker elements we know and love from the distinguished competition. It’s shot really well by Maxime Alexandre, and the score from Benjamin Wallfisch does the job.

But then you have the cast. Zachary Levi simply kills it. Not much more I can say apart from that. Supporting him are newcomers Asher Angel (who is awesome), Jack Dylan Grazer as the kids who bestow and witness these powers respectively, alongside Djimon Hounsou and many others. Rounding out the cast is the resident phones off guy for a certain cinema chain in the form of Mark Strong- who makes a very menacing villain indeed. This is the combobreaker DC have needed for a very long time, and I am so glad they were able to make this film work- as it sold out for my screening yesterday.

THE VERDICT

Shazam does what it needs to do- you may call it a kids film, you may call it awful, but in terms of the audience response, DC have got their mojo back at last. Warner just had their biggest box office opening of the year, and I imagine that form will continue until Avengers hits cinema screens in a few weeks.

RATING: 4/5