As of late, the DCEU is doing a good job of establishing their universe after how their ensemble film basically ruined everything due to the producers poor decisions. From "Aquaman" to this film, I'm glad that I got to see another superhero done well on screen; although, I do have some gripes about the film that didn't make me like as others have.

It's a big risk and rather difficult task to make a film of a child becoming an adult and I thought that this film did it quite well; it's basically "Big" with superheroes, as people have mentioned. I liked how they introduced the main character and we got to know him on why he does what he does. You understand Billy Batson well enough so when he turns to the superhero Shazam, Zachary Levi does a good job of capturing the mannerisms and the same personality that we saw from Asher Angel. I personally thought it worked fine and that we were able to see his growth and although he was a troublemaker, he still was likable to a point. He does something in the film that is clearly his fault, but he never goes to the point of feeling responsible for it. Instead, we are treated with an action scene and given no time for him to reflect back.

Out of all of the characters, Billy Batson was possibly the one with the most depth and is the most interesting. Everyone else, on the other hand, was not, especially Freddy, played by Jack Dylan Grazer. He is possibly the most annoying and the least likable out of everyone due to the fact that everything that he gets himself involved with is his fault. Sure he is the comic relief, but he never made me laugh and because of how unlikable he is, I wished that the director and scriptwriter would have changed him a bit more to be more involved with the plot and to be more responsible. The other characters just have one note to them and are basically there to be there until something arises and they are given something to do. The villain was menacing and we understand him, but I just felt more pity that that was his main reason for being the villain.

One of my biggest gripes here was that the film deviated away from the subplots of the film. I'm talking about the ones that will be able to add more depth to the characters and to add more impact to a certain situation that Billy Batson wants to do, in order to add comic relief. I did like the comedy and laughed a bit while watching Billy get used to his powers. But the fact that the movie wanted to focus more on the comedy rather than blending all of these elements together kind of hurt the film for me. Since director David F. Sandberg has made more horror films, I liked that he added a bit of a horror element at one scene. Also, when you do see that side story of Billy's take place, it does bring in the impact that I want and it shows how serious this situation was; it's sad that the film had us forget about it until the climax.

All of the superhero stuff is fun and I have to give major praise for that. They were able to blend the action and comedy well, so when you see Shazam fighting, there will be a joke in between the fight and it never felt like the film stopped to tell this one joke. I did have fun and the film did surprise me a bit with how they executed the fight scenes and how things played out during the climax.

I'm glad that this film is not as panned as the other films in the DCEU, but at the same time, this doesn't deserve all of the praise that has been given. There are major flaws here and I couldn't turn the other way and act like it wasn't there. I saw it and it bothered and despite that, it was still a fun movie. I'm glad the DCEU is going on the right track after they crashed and burned.