This Forgotten DC Movie Does Family Way Better Than the MCU’s ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’

Fantastic Four: First Steps, ironically, took a big step in course correcting the MCU, rewarding fans and critics with a solid entry after the lackluster Captain America: Brave New World. It had everything one has come to expect from the MCU: big action pieces, humor, Easter eggs, and a dynamite setup for Avengers: Doomsday. It even corrects what has typically been the MCU’s weak spot, villains, with a truly ominous turn from Ralph Ineson as Galactus.

But make no mistake, Fantastic Four: First Steps is about family. The main characters are a family, the world is a family, they all work together as a family. Sure, it’s touching and inspirational, but it’s almost too perfect, for, as anyone knows, family can be messy. Somewhat surprisingly, one of DC’s films actually does a far better job at focusing on what makes a family, and that film is Shazam!.

‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Is About Family—We Get It

Fantastic Four: First Steps doesn’t begin with a big action piece, or the initial stages of the villain’s nefarious plans, or even the precursor to an origin story. Instead, it begins with Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) doing menial personal grooming before Sue (Vanessa Kirby) shares that they’re going to have a baby. It’s a lovely family moment that then extends to their broader family–Johnny (Joseph Quinn) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach‘s Ben (who may not be blood-related, but is very much family)–over a wholesome group dinner.

The fact that family is a major theme is driven home right away. Indeed, if you don’t realize it, then, to paraphrase one Lord Edmund Blackadder, “you wouldn’t see subtlety if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord, singing ‘Subtlety is here again!'” Drilled into the audience from the get-go and throughout the entire film, there’s even one specific scene where Sue even plays the family card to abate the uproar over not surrendering Franklin to Galactus, and everybody buys into it! Seriously, there’s not one dissenter worldwide? The theme of family is as big as the movie itself, a brightly polished, epic CGI extravaganza in the grand MCU tradition.

‘Shazam!’ Explores the Theme of Family With More Nuance

As far as spectacle is concerned, Fantastic Four: First Steps blows Shazam! out of the water. The set pieces are bigger, the CGI is far better, and its significantly larger budget affords the film luxuries, like its A-list cast, that the small-scale Shazam! just doesn’t come close to. What it does share is that theme of family. Yet, where the former crams this theme in your face for the duration of its runtime, Shazam! has a much more nuanced approach that builds organically as the film progresses.

It starts when we’re introduced to Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a 14-year-old who has left every foster home he’s been placed in, who embarks on a quest to find the mother he was separated from 10 years before—the only true “family” he’s ever known. That quest to find his mother doesn’t change when he’s brought to a care home under the control of Víctor (Cooper Andrews) and Rosa Vásquez (Marta Milans). They and their five foster children – Mary (Grace Fulton), Pedro (Jovan Armand), Eugene (Ian Chen), Darla (Faithe Herman), and Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) – have made a true family together, but Billy’s too blind to notice it. They try to invite him in, but he’s too closed off, and it’s only when he transforms into his superhero alter-ego, Shazam (Zachary Levi), that he welcomes Freddy’s help.

But the strength of this family gets revealed to Billy slowly, and most significantly, when he, as Shazam, rescues Mary from getting hit by a car, only to realize that she wasn’t paying attention because she is too upset at the thought of moving away from the only family she’s ever known. This is then intensified by the movie’s most poignant moment— when Billy learns that he will not reunite with his mother, and that she actually left him behind all those years ago on purpose.

That’s when he first realizes that he has a family, a real family, waiting for him, and when he gifts them the powers of Shazam during their fight with Sivana (Mark Strong), this is the moment he realizes that he can lean on them for familial support. Such is further solidified by the moment Billy joins in with the family’s tradition of saying grace at the dinner table—accepting and embracing them as one his own.

The Smaller Scale of ‘Shazam!’ Aids the Family Theme

What also works in the film’s favor is that smaller scale. The theme of family is allowed to build naturally, not needing to compete with spectacle, as it does in Fantastic Four: First Steps. Because the film allows that theme to grow with Billy, we, too, as viewers are brought along with him. By the time Billy’s ready to accept his new family, we’re ready for him to do it. Mind you, it wouldn’t also be quite as believable if there wasn’t such a palpable chemistry between the members of the family, allowing the theme to organically unfold gradually throughout the film.

We accept the theme of family in Fantastic Four: Next Steps because we’re told to. There is no gradual buildup, no development of chemistry. It’s right there from the start, and even the promotional material ahead of the film trumpeted the theme as its ace in the hole. Ultimately, the nuanced subtlety of Shazam! is far more powerful in exploring the idea of what makes a family. Certainly better than having it crammed down your throat.

Shazam!

Release Date

April 5, 2019

Runtime

132 minutes

Director

David F. Sandberg

Writers

Henry Gayden, C.C. Beck, Bill Parker, Darren Lemke

Producers

Peter Safran