Shazam! Review: 7 Ups & 3 Downs

2. It's WAY Too Long

On paper Shazam! seemed like a movie that would clock in at a tidy 110 minutes and basically serve up snappy, breakneck laughs all the way to the end credits.

But it's actually on the surprisingly lengthy side for a movie this simple and silly, clocking in at a hefty 132 minutes, which it unfortunately doesn't fully justify.

The pacing is basically all over the place: it's well over a half-hour before Shazam (Levi) makes his first appearance, and after a solid hour of origin story shenanigans, the third-act showdown ends up outstaying its welcome by a good 10-or-so minutes.

A little more in the way of judicious editing would've gone a long way here, by cutting the self-indulgent scenes and making the end product feel less flabby overall.

It's certainly not a chore to watch Shazam! at any moment, but it's definitely longer than it needs or wants to be.