Warner Brothers decided to brighten up their DC range of superhero movies after accusations of dreariness.

Shazam! who started life as Captain Marvel once upon a time tries to have some irrelevance of a Deadpool movie but remaining kid friendly although its tone is uneven. Those school bullies should had been toned down and made more comic.

As a toddler in Philadelphia, Billy Batson got separated from his mum and has been looking for her since. Although it never crosses his mind that she has not been looking too hard for him

A teenage Billy Batson (Asher Angel) goes through one foster home after another. He runs away from them all to search for his real mother. In his latest foster home he has joined a diverse range of foster kids including disabled foster brother Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) who is into Batman and Superman. Freddy gets bullied a lot and Billy helps him out. His selfless actions brings him to the attention of a wizard losing his powers.

Billy gets new magical powers from the wizard but is not told the extent of his powers. Together Freddy and Billy learn what this could amount to but Billy uses Shazam to make a quick buck first until Thaddeus (Mark Strong) shows up. He is powered by the seven deadly sins and wants Shazam's magical powers.

For a film released during Easter, the Christmas setting signifies some kind of last minute reshoots or re-editing. It certainly takes too long to get going and some of the Thaddeus as a kid scenes looks oddly inserted. Like many other superhero films that origins part affects the pace of the movie.

The film improves when it gains momentum, that is when Shazam tries to realise the extent of his powers and confronts Thaddeus. It might have helped if the wizard told Billy what his powers were.