Shazam! Fury of the Gods Review

The thing about the first Shazam! movie was its charming and earnest approach, where the stakes were fairly low and the funny was dialed up. It was unlike anything DC had made before, and was straightforward and entertaining.

Shazam 2 sees David F Sandberg once again at the helm, and with him is producer Peter Safran - but there are significant changes to the role of the latter. When the first Shazam! movie had been released in 2019, DC was trying all sorts of new things after their Avengers-style creation, Justice League, did not live up to its lofty expectations. Aquaman had been a surprise superhit, and Shazam's newer approach was also praised. Producer Peter Safran has since teamed up with veteran filmmaker James Gunn to spearhead DC's creative side, and they have since made multiple changes to the series and its stars, while also engaging more with the fans and their expectations.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods introduces us to the daughters of the god Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), who are on earth to restore their father's legacy using the magic staff of the broken Wizard (Djimon Hounsou). Meanwhile Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is suffering from imposter syndrome, and only feels able when his foster family is with him, and feels unworthy of his bulked-up superhero form, Shazam (Zachary Levi). His foster siblings growing up and having their own life plans also does not help his case - the eldest Mary (Grace Caroline Currey) wishes to go to college, and his closest confidante Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) is slowly developing feelings for his new classmate Anne (Rachel Zegler).

Billy and his siblings soon clash with the daughters of Atlas, and realise that they are outmatched both in strength and preparation. Faced with the very real danger of losing both their loved ones and their powers, the Shazam crew and Billy in particular have to make a choice whose repercussions extend far beyond their family.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods feels like a film that tries to balance two different approaches. Originally slated for an April 2022 release, then postponed to the Christmas slot, it finally released in March 2023 - and the aforementioned leadership changes at DC fall right into this timeline. There are inconsistencies in the movie that feel like they were put in before the showrunners came in, such as the superhero costume changes. All that could have been forgiven if the movie kept all the elements that made its prequel such fun - alas, it becomes a classic case of balancing too many things.

For starters, the movie's attempts to recapture its goofy vibes are at odds with a couple of its grim scenes, which are further exacerbated by the fact that such grim scenes don't play out to anything. What starts out as a cute moment between Freddy and Anne ends up in Freddy's favorite high school teacher being mind-controlled and jumping off a school building, and he is never spoken of again. Then there's the extremely blatant product placement, so much so that a certain sequence close to the film's climax is literally an advertisement inserted into the movie. You see, a unicorn is the king of beasts, the monster of whom other monsters are afraid - but unicorns are not friendly until they get the nectar of ambrosia. We are mere earthlings, and are not blessed with access to ambrosia, but fret not, for "cute kid" of this movie, Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman), offers the unicorn the next best thing - Skittles. Yes, we get an entire sequence of Darla tossing Skittles at a unicorn, with a slo-mo shot of multi-coloured candy cascading through the air - complete with a dialogue, "Taste the rainbow". Yours truly just sat through it all, at a loss for words.

The talented cast of Shazam 2 make it at least an okay watch - primarily its first billed protagonist, Zachary Levi. Levi is as assured as one can be at not being assured, just like in the first movie. Big names like Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu feel a tad out of place in a movie this silly (our superheroes track Mirren's character by smell after they drag her to their lair through a portable toilet), but hey, who better to portray literal goddesses? The entire foster family is perfectly casted - from the proud and worried parents Rosa and Victor (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews) to all the kids and their superhero avatars, everyone feels like they are a snugly fitting part of the puzzle.

The soundtrack, this time by Christophe Beck who replaces Benjamin Wallfisch, is fun and upbeat - with bangers such as Bonnie Tyler's "Holding Out For A Hero" fittingly used when a woman gets rescued by Shazam (Levy even points it out, adding to the goofiness).

Overall, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is still fun, and still watchable. Just not as much as its predecessor.