During this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, DC and New Line Cinema released the new trailer for the upcoming Shazam! movie. He used to be known as Captain Marvel but then Marvel decided to swoop in and make sure that DC didn’t have a hero named Captain Marvel, so now he’s simply known as Shazam. Anyway, the near three minute trailer sets up the movie’s protagonist and gives some weight to his character development.

Now this seems to be a mix of both Marvel and DC’s cinematic efforts thus far. For instance, we have the formulaic super hero origins story that Marvel seems to have mastered, complete with some lighthearted side-kicks and out-of-the-costume character development.

But then there’s also the darker element to the film, with the color tone and world building having the edginess that DC has been desperately trying to replicate since Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy. Shazam’s costume pops on the screen, but the backgrounds have a lot of desaturation and crushed blacks to give a sharp contrast to the glowing chest symbol and costume of the main character.

You can check out the trailer below to get an idea of what they’re going for.

The trailer starts with Billy joining a foster home and teaming up with another crippled kid as his sidekick. How he earns his powers is kind of lame, as he’s called out and transported to a place and given the magical ability of Shazam.

After being given the abilities, Billy heads home and begins testing out his abilities. The trailer keeps it fairly light and one might even imagine that this was something made for the 1980s or 1990s.

We don’t get to see much in the way of villains, and we don’t see much in the way of adversity, but the trailer does a fine job in setting up the character and his traits, along with giving audiences a sound premise on what to expect from Shazam as far as characterization is concerned. So in that regard, I have no complaints. DC and New Line Cinema seem to have at least done a decent job in introducing Shazam! to the wider audience in a likable and entertaining way.

The film is out in April of 2019. Let’s hope the rest of the trailers are as consistent and well made as this announcement trailer.