If the superheroes on the big screen are arranged in a row according to the time of their appearance, it is not difficult to find a clear arc: superheroes have become more and more "humble", whether it is DC or Marvel, they are gradually moving away from the creation of gods. Calm down during the carnival and give the role more and more "humanity". In the era of social media triumph, this is an era where everyone can be a five-minute celebrity, superheroes get rid of the coldness and mystery, and are very close to the people. They may not have noble origins, and may not bear the hatred of the country and the family. Even if they become "sons of heaven" by mistake, they still retain many of the shortcomings of ordinary people, and they are very good at turning these shortcomings into "cute points" to please the audience. .
The Marvel animated film "Spider-Man: Parallel Universe", released in 2018, showed a universe where everyone can be a Spider-Man. And the DC movie "Thunder Shazam" released a few months later not only turned an ordinary child into a superhero, but even the child’s brothers and sisters also "ascended to heaven" and had a superhero addiction.
A hero is an existence between man and god. When superheroes transform from human beings to gods who save people from water and fire, they usually undergo a transformation. Most of the time, this transformation is just putting on a uniform and taking up a weapon. But "Thunder Shazam" moved a bit during this ceremony: after the hero Billy became Shazam, he not only changed his equipment, but also became a strong adult man. This setting makes the protagonist full of contrast, adds a lot of absurd and funny plot to the film, and the theme of the film is more concrete.
On the surface, the film seems to be a showdown between righteousness and evil. But in my opinion, Billy and the villain Shiwana are more like two sides of the same coin. The war between them is more like a collision between the two consciousnesses of "choosing to grow up" and "refusing to grow" in a teenager's heart.
It was only when the story reached one-half that Billy and Shiwana officially met. But before that, there has always been contrast and intertextuality in their experiences. Billy separated from his mother when he was a child. Many years have passed. He still does not give up looking for his biological mother. He always keeps the little compass that his mother gave him. Shivana also lacks maternal love since he was a child (at least he never appeared or even mentioned him in the movie. Mother), who has resentment towards his father, the first thing he does after possessing superpowers is to kill his father and brother. Billy and Shivana have become two branches of the Oedipus complex.
Both have also experienced car accidents. Billy, who became Shazam, had vanity and performed juggling in the square, accidentally causing the bus to fall from the bridge; Shivana also indirectly caused a car accident when he was a child, causing his father’s legs to be disabled. He has become more sensitive and suspicious since then. Be squeezed out by the family.
The car accident was a milestone event for Billy and Shivana in their lives, and a turning point in their growth. Faced with the crumbling bus, Billy evaded at first, and stood up to rescue the passengers at the last moment, and later admitted carelessly that he was too playful and out of control that caused this shocking scene. At this moment, the teenager began to realize that superpowers are not only fun, but should also shoulder greater responsibilities. And Shiwana, who has also experienced a car accident, although he is nearly half a hundred years old, his psychological age has always stayed on the day of the car accident.
The second milestone in Billy's growth was to take the initiative to break contact with his biological mother. He finally found his biological mother, thinking that the separation of flesh and blood was over. Unexpectedly, the birth mother indifferently pushed away the arms he embraced, and admitted that she had deliberately abandoned her child. Billy quickly accepted the reality, stopped entanglement, and returned the compass he once regarded as faith. If the bus incident made Billy understand the importance of taking responsibility, he took the initiative to leave his biological mother and made Billy completely complete the psychological weaning, and he has quickly grown into an independent individual from then on. On the other hand, Shiwana, his life has always been controlled by his father's words, even if he kills his father, the old wizard quickly becomes a replacement for his father's image and controls his life. From the beginning of the movie, it is known that there are many people who are summoned and denied by the old wizard, but it seems that only Shivana is like a naive little boy who is paranoidly thirsting for magic.
In recent years, there is a very popular term—juvenile spirit, which is used to describe adults who are not tired by the reality of the fly camp and still remain kind and curious about the world. It is different from the childish and naive impulse, and is more inclined to take responsibility while maintaining a pure juvenile mind. When Shivana met Shazam for the first time, he provocatively said: "So this is the perfect person in the legend." Compared to other DC heroes, Shazam is not perfect in terms of IQ, appearance and superpowers. But looking at the world of ordinary people, Shazam clearly carries the modern imagination of the perfect adult: in daily life, without losing the youthful spirit, away from the temptation of the seven deadly sins; changing at a critical moment, taking up responsibilities, and resisting difficulties. , Become a hero to protect your family. From this perspective, both Billy before the transformation and Shazam after the transformation are metaphors for the beautiful qualities of adults.
It is worth mentioning that the film creates a distinctive adoptive family. The couple are orphans and grew up in an adoptive family. After their marriage, they adopted a group of non-mainstream orphans-black, Asian, disabled, autistic obese boy, white teenage school bully, and problem teenager Billy. This is of course a gathering of political correctness, but it also strengthens Shazam's symbolic meaning: a true hero is someone who is willing to stand up for his family.
In addition, the symbol of DC's iconic hero, Batman, has also appeared in the film many times, forming a subtle contrast with the image of Shazam. Although they are all superheroes with orphans, Batman eventually became a lone ranger, a lone hero, and a night knight; but Shazam paid more attention to the relationship with people and won the duel with the villain, which was largely due to Strong assists from brothers and sisters.
The scene where the brothers and sisters turn into superheroes is undoubtedly the climax of the film. Six unrelated children, after holding the magic wand and calling the spell, all turned into surprising adult images: African-American girls became glamorous girls with outstanding temperament, and the lame little boy lost the cane and gained flying super Ability, autistic obese boys also grow into confident muscular men. It was as complete as the end of a fairy tale, "Since then, they have all grown to look like their ideal adults."
Because the plot is playful, the protagonist is a child, and there are no scenes unsuitable for children, some people will attribute "Thunder Shazan" to a child theme. But I personally think that the movie talks about both the dream of a teenager and the dream of an adult. We all want to have a superpower that can become brave and powerful adults at any time, and can also travel back to the innocent youth at any time.
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