Not great Goldman but there have been worse comic book adaptations and the source material sounds a little silly to start off with. I can’t think of a film with an orphan hero where the orphanage he lived in at the beginning of the story was such a nice place – Billy has hot Jenny to drool over, and a nice billionaire overseeing the whole thing. It’s not great for creating sympathy.
There are some terrific bits – cockroaches spilling out of the main villain’s corpse, the warden Hackman (presumably a nod to Gene) who refuses to believe the villain is dead and insists on having him tested, saving Jenny from crashing on rocks by breathing her up.
The main villain is probably treated a little too comically (for a genius he’s failed a lot – it makes it less of a threat), the finale involving a brain test isn’t that visually gripping (Goldman admits he struggled with his endings – taking a stadium full of hostages feels tacked on), it feels as though Billy has too many ways to get out of trouble without using his own skill (eg saying Shazam and turning into Captain Marvel, having Captain Marvel draw on the skills of Zeus and Solomon at key points, being rescued at the end by the villain’s daughter).
Lots of Goldman references in the big print to things like Jean Simmons, James Cagney, Willie Mays etc. (Would a modern day teenager really have pictures of Jean Simmons on her wall?).
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