Shazam! Fury of the Gods review

SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS: 

ZACHARY LEVI SAVES THE DAY AGAIN IN ENJOYABLE ENOUGH SEQUEL! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

WARNER BROS. PICTURES AND NEW LINE CINEMA

Zachary Levi is back in Shazam! Fury of the Gods

 

            Zachary Levi (Chuck, Tangled, Thor 2 and 3) returns as kid-at-heart (also literal kid) in an adult superhero body in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the latest installment of the DC Extended Universe and follow-up to 2019’s Shazam!. I really enjoyed the first Shazam! and consider it among the best films in the DCEU especially given that it was released during a time where DC was desperately trying to catch-up with its mouse-owned competition with middling results. 

            But with the success of Wonder Woman a couple years prior and other DC fan-favorites like Aquaman, Birds of Prey, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, The Suicide Squad, and the first Shazam!, the DCEU finally found their footing with more self-contained films still set in the same universe and proved themselves as a worthy competitor against the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The first film is definitely one of the more lighthearted entries of the DCEU, but still wasn’t afraid to have a dark edge with monsters and demons causing destruction and having a high body count. 

            On top of that, the characters are extremely likable, and the actors do a stellar job at being funny while also selling the film’s more dramatic moments. Most notably, the scene where Billy Batson (Shazam’s secret identity) finds his real mother and discovers the truth about her, which is easily the most heartbreaking scene in this otherwise fun and zany superhero film. 

            Given the film’s critical and commercial success, it makes sense to continue the character’s legacy and in this case it was continued with 2 back-to-back films, the 2022 spin-off movie Black Adam starring Dwayne Johnson and a direct sequel the following year. Which brings us to Shazam! Fury of the Gods with Levi and Asher Angel (Andi Mack) reprising their role as Billy Batson/Shazam! and David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Annabelle: Creation) back in the director’s chair. 

            Can the same cast and crew recreate the same magic as its predecessor? Not exactly, but I still found Shazam! Fury of the Gods to be an enjoyable enough sequel. 

            The film follows now-eighteen Billy Batson/Shazam! (Angel) and his foster siblings saving the day as their superhero alter-egos while still trying to balance their normal lives. But when a new threat comes in the form of the daughters of Atlas consisting of Kalypso (Lucy Liu-Charlie’s Angels 1 and 2, Chicago, Kill Bill: Vol. 1) and Hespera (Helen Mirren-The Queen, RED 1 and 2, Fast & Furious franchise) who have obtained and repaired the ancient wizard’s magic staff with their own plot to destroy the world, Shazam! and his family must stop them before it’s too late while also learning that anyone can be worthy of the wizard’s powers. 

            The film also stars Jack Dylan Grazer (It: Chapters 1 and 2, Luca, Ron’s Gone Wrong) and Adam Brody (Jennifer’s Body, Scream 4, Think Like a Man Too) as Freddy Freeman, Rachel Zegler (West Side Story (2021), The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Snow White) as Anthea, Ross Butler (13 Reasons Why, K.C. Undercover, To All the Boys 2 and 3) and Ian Chen (Fresh Off the Boat) as Eugene Choi, Meagan Good (Deliver Us from Eva, Brick, Think Like a Man 1 and 2) and Faithe Herman (This Is Us, Bodied) as Darla Dudley, Grace Fulton (Badland, Annabelle: Creation, Fall) as Mary Bromfield, D.J. Cotrona (Dear John, G.I. Joe: Retaliation, From Dusk till Dawn: The Series) and Jovan Armand and Pedro Peña, and Djimon Hounsou (Amistad, How to Train Your Dragon 2, Marvel Cinematic Universe) as Shazam the Wizard. 

            Overall, Shazam! Fury of the Gods doesn’t quite have the same “Spark” as its predecessor, but it’s still a fun sequel that retains much of the first film’s charm. One thing I really appreciate about this one over the first is that it’s more focused on Billy and his foster family and everyone has their time to shine whether it’s comedic banter, heartfelt dialogue moments, or characters going through their own arcs over the course of the film, most notably Billy’s best friend and foster brother Freddy who now has a love interest. 

            Given that this film is set a few years after the first, you do feel more of a connection between Billy and his foster siblings this time around and that Billy has accepted his foster family as his official family. Ironically, this movie has more to do with family than the Fast & Furious movies which is even name-dropped during a scene. 

            The actors once again do an excellent job portraying both the young and adult superhero versions of the characters with Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody being massive standouts as Freddy and Asher Angel being the heart and soul as Billy Batson. The only actor who I think is very hit-or-miss here is ironically Zachary Levi’s performance as the titular character, Levi is incredibly talented and often delivers humorous lines throughout the movie, but where Asher Angel portrays 18-year-old Billy naturally Levi still plays Billy’s Shazam! alter-ego the same way he did in the first film, and it doesn’t quite mesh together with the more restrained and authentic Angel. 

            The villains are also very one-note immortal beings that want to use their powers to destroy the mortal world despite Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu giving their all. You could say Mark Strong from the first movie fits the standard big bad guy in a suit trope, but he is having a ball with his performance as a scenery-chewing, cartoony villain, the villains here are just a couple pissed off gods who aren’t quite as fun or charismatic as Strong from the first film. 

            The action scenes are a lot of fun and like its predecessor, it does squeeze in a bit of a dark edge in terms of the monsters that the daughters of Atlas unleash on the city and what they do to civilians during the climax (Nothing bloody or anything, but there is a high body count). Even though not every effect is realistic, there is a lot of imaginative creature designs and fight sequences, some in particular were giving me serious Doctor Strange vibes with the visuals and look great on the big screen. 

            Shazam! Fury of the Gods is the perfect example of a flawed but fun entry in the DC Extended Universe and a serviceable follow-up to the 2019 original. It doesn’t break any new grounds in terms of comic book movies, but if you enjoyed the first one and curious to see how the Shazam! legacy continues or just looking for a good enough superhero movie, this might do the trick.