And they come and go from within Sivana’s body, suggesting something like possession, even though they never take over his personality or mind in the way that we normally think about that idea.Īt dinner, Victor habitually leads a combination prayer/huddle: Everyone puts their hands together at the center of the table while Victor offers thanks: “Thank you for this family,” one prayer goes, “thank you for this day, thank you for this food, even if it’s not steak filet.” And we hear other rhyming variants of that prayer several more times throughout the film. We also hear a legend of how these sins were first unleashed on the world, and it has more in common with the pagan story of Pandora’s Box than the Judeo-Christian understanding of the Garden of Eden. They’re all inclined to whisper temptations into a subject/victim’s ear like a community of Mephistopheles, and they’re all down for killing whenever they can. But while they look, in some cases, like the sins they represent (gluttony having a huge mouth and big tummy, for instance), they don’t necessarily attack or influence as you’d expect, through their namesake transgressions. Those sins-wrath, lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, envy and pride-are pulled directly from Christian antiquity and come across as fearsome demons here. It’s fitting that the Seven Deadly Sins also seem to be a mishmash of Christian and pagan influences here. The other letters stand for a litany of Greek and Roman gods and heroes: Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles and Mercury. The “S” stands for the biblical figure Solomon and, of course, his vaunted wisdom (though that wisdom seems to take a while to take root in Billy). It’s an acronym (only briefly namechecked) representing six legendary figures and their most legendary powers. We’ve got a lot to get through here, so we might as well start with the word Shazam. And when those choices are rooted in love and kindness and bravery and, above all, self-sacrifice, we have a chance to become the people we should be. No, we’re made into the people we are through our own choices.
Mary shazam movie#
The movie also pushes another important point home: None of us are born heroes.
And so Shazam! does more than remind us how important and powerful family can be: It also tells us that sometimes the best families aren’t always the ones we’re born into-a great message for foster and adopted kids everywhere. The Vasquez clan, especially disabled teen Freddy Freeman, becomes a catalyst for real change in Billy’s life. Forget legally-mandated group home: This is a family. They don’t see themselves as stopgap caretakers, but parents, and they love their children fiercely. He’s “out of options” (as his social worker tells him) when he lands in a group home run by Victor and Rosa Vasquez-a conscientious couple who are raising a bevy of boisterous foster teens and children. He’s run away from a bevy of well-meaning foster parents during his ill-conceived quest. And he’s saddled with plenty of his own pain: For most of his life, he’s searched for his birth mother. The Wizard Shazam could indeed do worse … but it takes a while for Billy’s character to become as bright and shiny as the lightning bolt on his chest.īilly’s no hero at first. So he settles for a 14-year-old foster kid named Billy Batson. That’s a way more effective transformation process than changing clothes in a phone booth (whatever those are).īut strong-of-spirit, pure-of-heart types are pretty rare these days, and Shazam’s in a bit of a time crunch. Say the name, and boom! The chosen one becomes the World’s Mightiest Mortal. Only one thing can save the world from a really nasty future: the wizard Shazam must find a champion of his own-one strong of spirit and pure of heart, one willing to use the fabled name and unfurl the powers it unlocks. Thaddeus Sivana breaks into Shazam’s stone temple and grabs the glowing, orb-like embodiment of those sins, that selfsame orb slams into Sivana’s eye socket and allows the nasty sins to escape-and take up super-powered residence in Sivana’s body. (Well, it did, but let’s move on for now.) And for the longest of times, a grand old wizard has kept the name and safeguarded its powers-and in so doing, kept some monstrous manifestations of the Seven Deadly Sins at bay.Īlas, even a wizard’s powers don’t last forever. Sure, it may sound a little goofy, but it’s not like the name came like a bolt from the blue.
What’s in a name? Shakespeare once asked.Īnswer: Quite a bit, actually-if the name’s Shazam.
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