Shazam (4 Stars)

When I moved to Germany from England in 2016 it meant a change in my viewing habits. In Stuttgart there's a much bigger selection of films available. In Birmingham the cinemas show mainly American and English films. Films from other countries are few and far between. In Stuttgart the same selection of American films is shown, less English films, but a huge selection of German and French films. The film festivals held three times a year also offer the opportunity to see films in other languages. Stuttgart is a relatively small city, less than a third of the size of Birmingham, but it offers a lot more film excitement.

The biggest problem with cinemas in Stuttgart is the prices. In Birmingham a cinema card which gives me access to as many films as I want to see costs £17.40 per month (20.20 Euros). In Stuttgart the typical film price is 7.80 Euros (weekday) and 9.80 Euros (weekend). I visit the cinema twice a week on average, and even though I avoid going on the weekend I'm spending up to 70 Euros a month on cinema tickets.

Now things have changed. The Cinemaxx cinema has dropped its prices to 5.99 Euros per film, regardless of the day. That's £5.15 per film. That should reduce my costs to 50 Euros a month, and more importantly, I can go to see films at the weekend more often. Okay, maybe 50 Euros is too optimistic, because there are some films that are only shown at the other more expensive cinemas. I'm hoping that the price reduction at Cinemaxx will force the other cinemas to follow suit.

Now let's move on to the film itself. Shazam is a superhero whose comics were published by Fawcett Comics from 1940 to 1953. Fawcett Comics went bankrupt in 1980, and the rights to Shazam were sold to DC Comics. Actually, the character was called Captain Marvel, but DC changed the name to Shazam because another company had copyrighted the name.

Captain Marvel was a popular wartime hero. He was a 14-year-old boy who could transform himself into an adult form by shouting the magic word "Shazam". Using his super powers he could beat up the Germans and the Japanese. God bless America!

The film takes place in the modern day. 80 years later, Billy Batson is still a 14-year-old boy. He's summoned to a secret cave by a wizard who's looking for someone with a pure heart to fight evil. Billy is hardly pure, but the wizard has been searching for so long that he's desperate and has to accept the second best.

Billy is a rebellious teenager who's been passed from one foster family to another. He doesn't intend to stay in his current family for long, but he makes friends with Freddy, one of the other boys in the family. Freddy is an expert on superheroes, and he helps Billy adapt to his new powers.

When I saw the trailer in the cinema last month I laughed. It looked so ridiculous that I couldn't take it seriously. On the other hand, it looked so bad that it might be good, so I had to check it out. I'm glad I did. Shazam is even less credible than other superheroes, and I couldn't stop laughing at his misadventures. It's true, the film builds up to a battle with his nemesis, someone who isn't pure, an embodiment of the seven deadly sins, but the important part of the film was seeing Billy acting awkwardly with his new powers. I don't think this is a film that can have a sequel. In the next film the initial awkwardness would be gone, so it would be boring.

I'm happy to see that DC still knows how to make good films. "Shazam" isn't up to Marvel's standards, but it's still very good.