‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ Review: A Sequel Made for Audiences From 20 Years Ago
The topic of superhero fatigue has been dismissed by box office numbers for many years now, as the creatives behind the camera have been trying their best to keep the movies as fresh and different from each other as possible. For the most part, it’s working; despite less than overwhelming reviews, even movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness or Thor: Love and Thunder made Disney hundreds of millions of dollars, and films like Joker and Aquaman each cashed in a billion for Warner Bros. But every once in a while, we get movies like Black Adam or Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where the people behind the camera haven’t caught up with the fact this is not 2005 anymore. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is another example in that category.
David F. Sandberg returns to direct after making a charming film that went largely unnoticed in a pre-Avengers: Endgame box office landscape. Fans and critics who caught up with it sang its praises loud enough for Warner Bros. to hear them and think there was enough in the IP to make a second installment. The problem with sequels, though, is that they usually get more expensive; and Shazam! Fury of the Gods definitely was. It’s almost as if the ratio of charm vs. CGI extravaganza in the first film was reverted in the second one, with the heartful moments stepping in only when the plot pauses for a second.
Billy Batson returns played by Zachary Levi (with a cameo by Asher Angel in his teenage form), a kid five months away from growing out of the foster family program. At the end of the previous film, his superhero alter ego, who still hasn’t received a name — but who, for obvious reasons, we will call Shazam — gave his five foster siblings the same superpowers he has, essentially turning the sequel into a team-up movie. If we didn’t know any better, from screentime alone it would seem like the teenage protagonist of the film is played by Jack Dylan Grazer, Billy’s closest brother and essentially his best friend. Their dynamic, though, feeds entirely from what we sort of remember from the first film, as Angel and Grazer barely spend two minutes together on screen this time.
The Shazamily is about to get into a lot of trouble, as three Goddesses from some ancient mythology that someone apparently was witness to and wrote into a book, are coming back for revenge against humanity, for which they need a goober that our heroes have a direct connection to. Does that sound familiar? It should, as it’s basically the plot of any comic-book movie with a rating below 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. They are played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler — the latter is by far the best part of the movie. Djimon Hounsou is also in the movie, reprising his role as the Wizard that gave Billy his powers. Well, Hounsou must have one of the best agents in the business, because there is practically no reason for him to be in this other than to give the actor a paycheck.
Putting awkward and cringy humor aside (not The Office-type, but rather the stereotypical writing of teenagers by adults who probably haven’t talked to anyone under 20 in two-to-three decades), the biggest problem with Shazam! Fury of the Gods is that it is entirely plot-driven. Things start to happen, and our characters react to that, but the emotional pull is relegated to second place. This is mostly because the movie has so many characters it needs to take care of, and the writers have a very hard time balancing them all out. (That is no excuse, though; The Fellowship of the Ring had twice as many characters, and in the first two hours Peter Jackson and his team made us care about every single one of them.)
In the end, it all comes down to the script, from its structure that prioritized moving the plot forward as opposed to the story, to the overall amateurish dialogue everyone was given. The cast does a fine job with the material; well, except for Rachel Zegler, who is just acting circles around everyone around her, including Helen Mirren. The movie feels all over the place and tries to overcompensate by overusing CGI and action setpieces that probably worked in a pre-Dark Knight world, but are vastly outdated nowadays.
Audiences are no longer here for the spectacle, but rather for the character moments that make us relate to what we are seeing on screen. And misrepresenting the entire young adult generation, who is also the target audience, doesn’t do the movie any favors.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is currently available in theaters worldwide.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
