Now that Justice League is long behind us, Warner Brothers’ shared DC Comics film universe can move on. Walter Hamada, who greenlit a number of big box-office hits for New Line Cinema, is now in charge of the DC slate, and soon we’ll get a taste of what these films will be like in a post-Zack Snyder world. WB dropped trailers for Aquaman and Shazam! at their panel at the San Diego Comic Con, and in this article we’ll talk about Shazam!, directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) and starring Zachary Levi, Mark Strong, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, and Djimon Hounsou.
Shazam! has been talked up by all involved as being a more kid-friendly superhero film, more along the lines of something like Big than anything else that’s come from the DC Cinematic Universe, and the footage does more than enough to back it up. Levi as Shazam is absolutely wonderful to watch, perfectly embodying what a 14-year old boy would do if given a bunch of superpowers and also an adult body. The footage focuses more on that than any plot stuff and that is a smart move in my eyes – save that for closer to the film’s release, sell everyone on the basic idea for now.
It helps that Sandberg and DP Maxime Alexandre (Annabelle: Creation, The Nun) have crafted a bright, colorful color palette that is perfectly offset by the Christmas-time setting. I adore the look of the movie so far and am definitely looking forward to seeing more.
Shazam! releases on 12 April, 2019, and I for one cannot wait. What did y’all think?
