Shazam (film)

The seventh entry in the DC Extended Universe after Aquaman, based on the DC/Fawcett comic book, Shazam is centered around Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a young kid born to a single mother who desperately seeks to reunite with said mother after she abandoned him in a carnival. After an ill-conceived attempt to fool the police, he is put in a foster home, with a large foster family consisting of the foster parents, Víctor and Rosa Vásquez (Cooper Andrews and Martha Millan) [themselves foster children back in their childhood] and several foster siblings, all homeless children like Billy.

One day, when running away from bullies, Billy is transported to the Rock of Eternity, where the Wizard Shazam (Djimon Honsou) gives Billy the Intelligence of Solomon, the Strength of Hercules, the Lightning of Zeus, the Durability of Atlas, the Fighting Skills of Achilles, and the Speed of Mercury. Now, whenever Billy speaks the word "SHAZAM", he is magically transformed into an older version of himself (Zachary Levi) who is also super-strong, super-fast, super-smart, invulnerable superhero who can control lightning.

Little does Billy knows that the nefarious Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) has found power of his own, and he is ready to use that power to wreck havoc on the city...

Four years later, it received a sequel, Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

Tropes used in Shazam include:

• Aborted Arc: Nothing ever comes from Mary's hesitance over going to college far away from her family.
• Adaptational Badass: Thaddeus Sivana has the power of the Seven Deadly Sins, with allows him to match Billy blow-by-blow. In the comics, he's a Non-Action Guy Mad Scientist.
• Big Little Brother: Mary is the tallest of her siblings, but Mary Marvel is the shortest of the Shazam family.
• By the Power of Grayskull: "Shazam". Notably, it triggers the transformation even when spoken in casual conversation.
• The Chosen One: Maybe Billy is not 100% pure of heart, but he's pure enough.
• Comic Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Downplayed. Billy's heroes names are tossed around but he finds them too ridiculous to use. "The Red Cyclone" seems to stick however.
• Demoted to Extra: Usually the most prominent of Billy's foster siblings, and the only one that many know about, much of Mary's usual role is given to Freddy.
• Extremely Short Timespan: Billy defeats Sivana a few hours after meeting him.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: The wizard Shazam failed to grasp that Humans Are Flawed and he never found someone "pure of heart" because no such person exists.
• Happily Adopted: While Freddy and Mary recognize this trope, Billy doesn't and still longs for his birth mother. Eventually, he learns proper respect and appreciation for his foster family.
• Humans Are Flawed: Why the Wizard never found someone pure of heart. He chose Billy because he had no other option.
• Instant Expert: Maybe not "Expert" but the Shazam family gets a workable grasp on their powers much faster than Billy did.
• Jack of All Stats: Shazam and Mary Marvel contrasting the more specialized powers of the rest of the Shazam family.
• Lighter and Softer: By far the lightest movie in the DC Extended Universe.
• Mr. Fanservice: While the film is not shy in showing off Shazam's muscles, Pedro and Eugene's superhero form shows off their very impressive physiques in skintight outfits.
• Ms. Fanservice: Mary Marvel's outfit has notably more sex appeal than her peers. It has a Mini-Dress of Power, isn't shy about emphasizing her bust and shows off her legs.
• Mundane Utility: Billy uses the Lightning of Zeus to charge other people's cellphones.
• N-Word Privileges: At the ending family dinner, Eugene notes that he's allowed to discuss the shattering of glass ceilings in some context and it's not racist if he says it.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: How did Billy get Superman to agree to have lunch at an elementary school? It's never said but it was no doubt awesome.
• Parents as People: Poor Marilyn Batson. As much as she tried, she was very clearly not ready to be a parent, let alone a single parent, and abandoned her son to the foster system because she hoped they would provide him with a better life than she could.
• The Power of Family: A central theme of this movie. Billy's character arc is letting go of his bitterness and accept the love and care that his foster family provides.
• Reality Ensues: As the wizard demonstrates, if one keeps looking for a person made of Incorruptible Pure Pureness... they'll never find one. Even the best people in the world have failings and flaws.
  • When Sivana first meets Billy, it's a massive Curb Stomp Battle. Having no fighting experience, Billy can't do anything against the man. Even the Shazam family has to fall back on Unskilled but Strong to fight the sins.
  • Sivana gives an evil speech... a mile away. Billy vaguely thinks he can see the man's lips moving but he can't hear anything.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Billy and Freddy respectively. Their suits invert the colours.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Sivana manages to reverse engineer the Wizard Shazam's door.
• Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Justified. The climax takes place over one evening. There was no time for the Justice League to respond.
• Superpower Lottery: Billy has:
  • Shock and Awe: The Lightning of Zeus.
  • Super Speed: The Speed of Mercury.
  • Super Strength: The Strength of Hercules.
  • Super Toughness: The Durability of Atlas.
  • The Smart Guy: The Intelligence of Solomon. Though like most incarnations of Shazam, this largely amounts to an Informed Attribute.
• Take That: Subverted. It looks like the Stinger is setting up a jab at Aquaman's Memetic Loser status, through Billy mocking talking to fish as a superpower, but Freddy, notably wearing a t-shirt sporting the logo of the 2018 Aquaman film, points out that there are billions of fish in the sea and an army can be whipped up in no time. Billy concedes the point.
• Takes One to Kill One: The magic that the Champions and the Sins use can only be harmed by its own power.
• Writing Around Trademarks: To avoid a lawsuit from Disney, Billy's superhero persona never gets an official name, instead being known by several Atrocious Aliases. Officially, said persona is known as Shazam.
• Unrelated in the Adaptation: Mary Marvel was Billy's natural sister in the comics, but here she's his foster sister. Likewise, Freddy was Billy's cousin in the comics, but here he's his foster brother.