In year that gave us Avengers: Endgame and Joker, 2019 also gave us Shazam! which is a certain comic-book movie that deserves far more love than it got. Granted, it played well with the majority of critics by earning a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 82% from verified audiences, but at the same time there seems to be this notion that the first Shazam! is very enjoyable and nothing game changing. True, it’s nothing ground breaking by any means, but it’s such a delightful and charming movie that it’s a little bit surprising why people aren’t nearly as obsessed with as some people are (myself included). The characters are great, there’s so much heart and what David F Sandberg did by making a comic-book movie that had the sprit of Donner’s Superman but in the body of Tom Hanks’ Big is something that a lot of people overlook. Knowing the track record of Sandberg as a horror director, it was also nice to see him channel in his horror qualities in certain sequences.
Suffice to say that first Shazam! is gifted movie in the comic-book movie genre. Certainly not the best of all time but a great one nonetheless and while it didn’t do gang-busters at the box-office, it was enough to warrant a follow up with the entire cast and crew set to return. Despite the constant release changes, Shazam! Fury of the Gods faced an even bigger problem with the whole status of the DCEU movies/universe getting a new state of direction. Nobody is really certain what character are or aren’t coming back which does include Shazam. We won’t have a real grasp of what the future of the DCEU will look like until maybe the release of The Flash, but even that was made before the new ownership. Be that as it may, we’ll take what we can get before this franchise switches into new gears and as charming and as magical as the first Shazam! was, this sequel isn’t so much.
For the first two acts, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a mid to average comic book movie that ultimately doesn’t pick up any momentum until the third act with its big and arousing action set piece involving a dragon. The first two acts are a mixture of humor that works but at times feels inconsistent, line deliveries that feel almost unrehearsed and some very problematic special effects. It’s got some highlights for sure and despite all the money on the table for this and where we’re at with the DCEU, there almost seemed zero point to release this thing in theaters.
In this superhero adventure, we see Billy Batson and his fellow foster kids living with with the same powers that were bestowed upon Billy, while also trying to maintain life as normal teenagers.
When a vengeful duo of ancient gods, Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Hespera (Helen Mirren), arrive to Earth in the search for stolen magic, Shazam and the rest of his foster kids battle it out to save the world but to protect their family.
The one thing that everybody can generally agree on is the casting of Zachary Levi as Shazam. Levi is once again a perfect Billy Batson/Shazam and is having a blast with this role and as long as he’s playing this character it’s at least worth something. The rest of the foster kids are also highlights of the film as well by bringing some heart and humanity to the narrative, even though there’s a huge lack of it. As stated earlier, the third of act of the film is the portion where the most excitement and thrills happen because you can never really go wrong with throwing a dragon in your movie. But there lies the only redeeming aspects that this superhero sequel has to offer because despite some positive merits, this movie is too silly for it’s own good. Even the additions of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as the films villain felt like the biggest waste imaginable. They’re poorly developed, you don’t fear them once and they almost felt like generic villain from an early MCU movie.
It should be pointed that aside from the heart and soul the first Shazam! movie had, it was still not ashamed to show it’s silly side from time to time. It never too big in scale because despite his abilities, the first Shazam! felt better as a much smaller scale story and more personable traits. Fury of the Gods takes things in a completely different direction by being more silly than it needs to be, being a lot bigger in scale when bigger isn’t always better and a less focus on family. Another problem with Fury of the Gods is its humor was tonally all over the place. Some its humor really clicked but a lot of felt in the moment to the point where the was almost no oversight to it.
In conclusion, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is such a massive disappointment especially when you compare it to the first film and knowing how much good will it was built on. There is some great action at the end and the brief moments of emotion that you can find in this movie is nice to see. However, this entire movie felt empty and they tried to so hard to set up future material even though things aren’t looking so good for this particular franchise.
Zane's take at the Cinema's 