Minor spoliers ahead

Shazam! starts showing that the wizard Shazam is looking for someone pure of heart that can weild the power the wizard has to offer and resist the temptations of the 7 deadly sins. After turning down the first kid he "interviews" for the position (Thaddeus Sivana) and returning him to the car with his father and brother, Thad starts to make noise about being turned down. His father nearly wrecks the car and we get a glimps of the less kid friendly aspects of this movie, John Glover reprises hes role as a more cowardly Lionel Luther from Smallville. Harsh and overly cruel towards his son, yelling at him and reacting as you would expect from a father that basically hates one of his kids. After they are hit by a truck and his father is thrown from the car, his older brother openly tells him that the wreck is his fault. Older brother basically following in their dad's footsteps, this same type of scene with a cruel father and older brother replays itself years later with these characters. And yes if you've read the comics and are familiar with the joke of a villian that is Dr. Sivana, this is him, though not as much of a joke as some of the comics show.

We finally meet Billy Batson and find out that he is an orphan looking for his mom. There is a funny moment with some police officers and him finding someone with the same name as his mom who clearly isn't her. He gets sent to a group home and meets his foster brother Freddy and there are some funny moments. Dealing with the foster siblings and school bullys Billy is finally given the power of SHAZAM after Dr. Sivana finds a way to get back to Shazam and free the sins, gaining basically the same powers that are given to Billy, as long as the sins are posessing him. We are treated to a very non-kid friendly scene where Sivana kills a bunch of people in a board room, though the scene isn't very bloody it is rough enough that I wouldn't let younger kids see it.

The rest of the movie is about Billy and Freddy getting up to various shenanigans while learning the extent of Billy's new powers and keeping his secret from the rest of the foster kids, parents, and kids at school. There is a big showdown between Billy and Sivana and the rest of the Shazam! family makes an appearance.

Overall the movie is really good with the childlike adult hero forms of Billy and the rest of the Shazam! clan. We see moments of insight of the adult hero but fewer than you would expect considering that he is supposed to possess the Wisdom of Solomon. All of his other powers are obvious and present. Strength of Hercules, Stamina of Atlas, Power of Zeus, Courage of Achilles, and Speed of Mercury. There are plenty of comedy moments in the movie and it only has a few scenes that make it a problem for younger viewers. I agree with the MPAA rating recommending that younger children avoid this movie, but if you think that your kids can handle it please watch it first without them, there is enought nightmare material in this movie that you may reconsider.

My overall rating for the move 9/10.