This weekend When It Was Cool headed out to the theater to see the latest offering from the DC movie universe with Shazam! Shazam (Captain Marvel) has long been one of our favorite comic book characters dating back to his return to the mainstream in the 1970s with the Mego action figure, Shazam! comic book series, Saturday morning cartoon, and live action Saturday morning series.

Over the last decade, DC Comics has made significant changes to the Captain Marvel character including altering his classic name to Shazam (it’s a long and complicated story). While I’m not a big fan of that change, well, it is what it is. While the new version of the classic Captain Marvel might rub old school purest the wrong way the new character still had the chance to be redeeming and, in our opinion, it was.

Far and away the brightest, funniest, and I dare I say the most entertaining of the DC movie universe offerings to date, Shazam! was a the story of a moral journey of lone street survivor outcast Billy Batson and his road toward understanding the true meaning of family and being a hero. Along the way you got all the superhero tropes you would want - a bad guy, monsters, super human feats, and yes… a fight scene that ran too long.

The movie isn’t perfect by any stretch. The CGI effects of the Seven Deadly Sins left a lot to be desired in 2019. The final fight scene between Shazam and Dr. Silvana went entirely too long and the characters lack of an actual proper name (which is also an element of the current Shazam! comic book series) is irritating and unnecessary.