"Wonder Woman" is the only DC Comics film I view positively since Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy. I was hoping for that to change with "Shazam!," which looked like a light-hearted but self-aware and highly entertaining romp that offered enough freshness to make itself distinct from darker superhero films. The trailers made the film look funny while also seeming to almost parody the superhero genre, almost like a kid-friendly version of "Deadpool." However, the film unfortunately didn't really do anything for me. I was expecting a fun time at the movies, but what I got was (despite some fun moments) a tonal misfire that can't figure out what it really wants to do over the course of its narrative.

The film follows a bullied foster kid in Philadelphia, who ends up in the lair of a wizard one day while on the subway. When he says the magic word, "Shazam," he turns into an adult superhero, and must stop a power-hungry villain (Mark Strong) and his minions, who are basically evil gargoyle-like creatures modeled after the Seven Deadly Sins. The biggest problem with "Shazam!" is its tone, as the film bounces between breezy and light comedy and darker moments in an erratic and knee-jerk way. The film's funny scenes are light--in some moments, they can almost be too light to the point that they degrade the dramatic stakes--whereas its darker moments are (surprisingly) rather intense at times. These two tones don't really mesh well given the juxtaposition of scenes in each type of tone, which creates for an uneven viewing experience. There is also no reason why this movie needed to be 2 hours and 12 minutes, given the relatively minimal plot. DC movies have always (generally) been lengthy, but the substantial plot imperative to the film's narrative is incredibly skimpy given the runtime. In fact, one probably could have edited this movie down to 90 minutes and not really missed anything. The film's humor is surprisingly not very funny, and just feels too juvenile and kid-focused. While this movie was always supposed to be more family-targeted than most comic book movies, this type of stuff pales to the humor in the lighter MCU movies because that humor makes audiences across many age groups laugh, whereas the jokes here are laser-focused on targeting the middle-school crowd while leaving anyone older than that in the dust.

I wanted to like this movie since it looked like an entertaining time at the movies, but unfortunately this was a disappointment. I will say, however, that many in the packed audience this afternoon did seem to eat it up. 4/10

Note: I saw this film in RealD 3D, which added absolutely nothing to the viewing experience.