Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)


By 2023 pretty much everyone knew the DC Cinematic Universe was done.  James Gunn was taking over and rebooting the whole thing which, by that time, was the poster case of superhero fatigue.  Still, as long as it wasn't Batgirl, Warner Bros. had a number of movies that they were desperate to get out, mainly because there was still a glut from when theaters shut down for COVID-19.  One of those stragglers was a sequel to Shazam!, which was one of the few DC films that was any good. 

The staff made from the tree of life now sits in a museum at the Acropolis in Athens and, it turns out, by breaking it in half Billy Batson (Zachary Levy, Asher Angel) released the Sisters of Atlas from the realm in which the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) had imprisoned them.  Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) intend to use the staff to take the powers from Batson and his friends, now working as a team of superheroes in Philadelphia.

The ultimate goal is to gather what is needed to restore life to the realm of the gods, although Kalypso has ideas of her own to get revenge against humanity.  The Shazam team soon find that they are out of their league but, with a little help from the inside, they just may succeed in saving humanity. 

The reason I liked Shazam! is because of the situation of a young boy suddenly becoming an adult and having to act like one and take on adult responsibilities.  It has been done in many movies before, but it was well-written and quite amusing, even if the villain was forgettable.  That, however, was 2019.  Shazam! Fury of the Gods was ready for release in 2022, but was put on the back burner and, by 2023, no one cared enough about the original film or the characters to go see it.  The character never resonated in a way that made an impact on the public and it took too long to get a sequel.

Despite some good performances and a few instances where the humor from the original pops up there was not really anything to entice an audience to come back for more.  It's a pretty standard superhero film, lifting liberally from fantasy tropes and the visual look of the Harry Potter films in some cases.  It is CGI heavy but, to its credit, it looks good.  I do appreciate seeing a manticore, which almost never pops up in fantasy films.  There is also a unique take on unicorns, but it is ruined by the movie suddenly stopping to do a Skittles commercial, complete with tagline. 

This also suffers from dragging on long after it could have ended.  There is barely 90 minutes worth of material, but it goes over the two-hour mark and jams in a mid-credits and post-credits sequence, neither of which matter because this is where the franchise ends.  Any ideas David F. Sandberg or the writers had for continuing this series died when the reboot of the DCCU was announced.  I'm sure Zachary Levy would not have minded playing the role further, but Asher Angel is barely in the movie at all.  It's almost as if they forgot the kids, except for Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), who is given a large supporting role and almost makes the movie interesting.  

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Time: 130 minutes
Starring: Zachary Levy, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Grace Caroline Currey, Meagan Good
Director: David F. Sandberg

 

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