shazam

Thanks to amateur set photos and videos, we’ve basically known for months what Zachary Levi looks like in his ‘Shazam!’ movie costume.  But recently, Levi posted a photo of himself standing next to a blown-up image at the annual Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, which gave fans a much more detailed look than the earlier photos.

But haters have been hating on Levi and the suit since the first images leaked.  It seems some people think that it looks too old-fashioned and cartoon-y.  “That’s kind of the point,” replied director Davis F. Sandberg.

Sandberg is one of the most active filmmakers on social media and he used Twitter to respond to those who seem to have issues with the look of the movie ‘Shazam!’  In one tweet, Sandberg wrote “I wanted him to feel a bit like an old-fashioned superhero from the Golden Age of comics.” (Which he is!)  “Figured it would also make him stand out from the rest.”

 

Some fans felt that the lightning bolt on Levi’s chest was too small.  It turns out there’s a simple and logical reason for that.

 

In more modern comics, Shazam is often shown crackling with electricity.  A fan asked about this, but Sandberg couldn’t reply– not because he was keeping it a secret, but because that hadn’t been decided yet.

 


Indeed, the ‘Shazam!’ comics have always been anachronistic– hearkening back to the whimsical tales from the 1930s-40s.  He had three sidekicks, the Lieutenant Marvels– Fat Marvel, Tall Marvel, and Hillbilly Marvel.  The hero’s villains include a sinister talking worm, cartoonish crocodile men and… Mr. Banjo.  A guy in a straw hat.  That played the banjo.  Not a magic banjo.  Just a bluegrass-playing, ‘Deliverance’ type banjo.  Even in modern publications, ‘Shazam!’ comics are almost always all-ages and more akin to fairy tales than their gritty contemporaries.

Considering that one of the chief complaints about ‘Batman V Superman’ was that it was too dark, you’d think people would be happy to see something more whimsical.  And while it’s understandable that in live action, super costumes are more detailed, a lot of times, you can tell just looking at them, that they’d be hard to sit and stand up in, much less leap around in battle.

How do you feel about the ‘Shazam!’ costume?  Is it too old-fashioned?  Would you prefer something more armored?

Directed by David F. Sandberg, ‘Shazam!’ stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Mark Strong, Cooper Andrews, Jovan Armand, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Ian Chen, DJ Cotrona, Grace Fulton, Meagan Good, Jack Dylan Grazer, Faithe Herman, Ron Cephas Jones and Marta Milans.  The film opens on April 5, 2019.