Shazam!

Summary: When a young Billy Batson is separated from his mother, he finds himself on a continual search for his birth mother as he bounces around from foster home to foster home. In the process to building a family unit, Billy is endowed with the powers of an ancient wizard, who is the last remaining of a group of wizards who sought out to protect the world from the Seven Deadly Sins. While learning to use his new superpowers, Billy discovers who is truly is as well as finding the family he has always wanted.
A Deeper look: At the very surface of this story, the viewer is treated to the hilarious journey of a hero discovering his purpose, his identity and the family that he longs for. Yet, taking a deep dive into the more developed aspect of the story there is a lot that the audience can dissect, think through and gather a better understanding of the characters and themselves.

1. The Seven Deadly Sins: In the beginning of the film, the lone wizard searched for a pure-hearted soul who would not fall into the temptation of the seven deadly sins, which were statues that would whisper into the individual’s mind tempting them to fall. Billy, even though he is imperfect, he never dwells on the evil deeds that the Deadly Sins often offers. This assumption is made showing that Billy’s motivations were pure in the choices that he was choosing. While the villain of the film continued to be falsely led by the voices of the Deadly Sins.
2. Foster care system: With the backstory of Billy Batson, the audience is given glimpse of the foster care system that we rarely see in superhero movies. In a stark contrast to the traditional superhero origin story, the audience sees that Billy often finds himself bouncing around from foster home to foster home as he looks adamantly for his birth mother. This aspect of the story adds a deep layer to the movie. This builds sympathy for Billy and the rest of the foster kids. Another aspect of the foster care system that is well portrayed is the roles of the foster parents that bring Billy in to their home. They are portrayed as a love, caring and supportive couple that really cares for the children that they care for.
3. Personal need for family: As previously stated, Billy Batson spends a great deal of his childhood going through the foster care system, giving Billy an insecurity when it came to his need for a family. Throughout the film, the audience gathers enough evidence that shows that Billy desires a family unit, yet due to his tragic childhood, Billy tends to distrust many people. Throughout the movie, Billy makes the choice to trust the family that he begins living with. The bond begins with Billy entrusting Eddie, who is a huge Superman and Batman fan, with training Billy (Shazam) with his newly discovered powers and later develops in a trust and love for the entire family.
4. Finding oneself: Billy begins this movie being very self-reliant, yet very broken and unsure of himself. As a result of the fact that Billy is trying to create an identity through his family unit, he seems to be lost. Billy seems to struggle with who he is and his responsibilities as a hero and how he fits in the world that he is thrusted in. At first, Billy, as Shazam, enjoys playing a superhero, but when being a hero becomes a responsibility, Billy disassociates himself from the situation. By the conclusion of the story. Billy has developed an identity of who he is within the world that he belongs as well as finding the family unit that he’s always desired. This gave Billy the identity that he carried at the end of the movie.
   
   As a Christian, I can see plenty connections that can be made from this film to our spiritual lives. Prior to becoming a Christian, I often felt hopeless. I searched for something I knew I desperately needed. I just never fully realized what I was looking for. Similarly, to our protagonist, Billy, I was searching for my family. A collective of people where I felt I belonged. Since I didn’t realize I was searching for purpose, I remained lost and clueless to who I really was and who I was meant to be.

I truly many people struggle with these internal needs. I am not just speaking about those who don’t follow Jesus, even Christ followers often find themselves in a void of hopelessness when it comes to their identity in Christ and their purpose within that.
For those searching for hope, I will continue to pray for. I pray that we can find our hope in Jesus. Regardless of the difficulties that we face daily, there is always hope and family in the church. Now is the time that we realized that we belong to this family within the church and that God is our heavenly father that provides us with a purpose that is greater than we can ever imagine.