Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a painful example of all the problems in current filmmaking in a single movie. I felt overall less intelligent for having seen it.

I love movies. Up until recently, a month didn't go by without me going to the movies at least 3 or 4 times. I'll watch anything and enjoy myself, feeling refreshed and at peace when I leave the theater. Then came the dark times.

There are so many problems with the Shazam! Fury of the Gods, I don't know where to start. So, I'll start with the writing. It's bad. The most glaring and annoying creative debacle is the writer's inability to write teenagers. The main character is minutes away from turning 18 and acts and speaks like an 8 year old. And, not just an 8 year old but an 8 year old from the 1950's, think Dennis the Menace for those of you old enough to remember the tv show. Both as themselves and their superhero alter egos, every time these actors open their mouths idiocy of the highest caliber spills forth! I was truly embarrassed for the actors and constantly annoyed by the dialogue.

The plot was hugely contrived. Events transpired not as a part of the natural ebb and flow of a story but because they needed to happen for the film makers. Sometimes, this even broke rules the filmmakers created themselves.

The actors had nothing to work with and sunk to the challenge. I like the cast, I think Helen Mirren is a treasure and Zachary Levi is awesome but... wow. The best performances came from side characters, the actors playing the foster parents. The rest of the cast had me wishing everyone else would loose and the movie would just end. The wisdom of Solomon was smart enough to skip this movie.

I don't know what part of this broken carnival ride to lay at the director's feet, unless disjointed and nonsensical were his goal. I felt less intelligent for having seen Shazam! Fury of the Audience.

All the bad movies these days are lowering my movie bar. So, I'd give up this movie a 4.5/10. A lot of people worked hard to make Shazam! Fury of the Gods. It's a shame all there hard work resulted in this puddle of melted ice cream. I want my money back.

I mean the best thing I can give this film is that if you loved the first film, then you will love the second film. If you hated the first film, then don't bother with this one. This film literally captures EVERYTHING from the first and somewhat does it again. But for some reason, I think it did it better. The bad guys despite the horrible trailer, are actually not to bad. There perfectly fine one time villains. The action is about the same, visuals mediocre but compared to the MCU great and the comedy hits better. The film is less cringey and actually more funny than the first. Overall, I personally found this film the better version of the first film.

I did not really like the first Shazam. It felt a bit too juvenile and it tried too hard to be funny. But the first movie at least had some heart and a bit of fun, this movie does not have any of that.

If you saw the trailer you know what will happen, you can pretty much recite the entire movie without seeing it. This is very full of cliches, bad writing and many of the family of Shazam's are really bad actors. But my main issue with this movie is how incredibly boring it is. Nothing feels fun, no jokes land, no fights have any stakes, the story is bland and cliche.

The only good things I can say is that the DC tech department have stepped up their game in the past two or three movies. Their FX CGi used to be horrible, now it is not anymore. Perhaps I can give some props that this movie is not the worst I have ever seen, but damn this is so, so boring.

Also, did I mention how boring this is?

I give this a 3/10. Almost feels a bit generous, but most of the movie is not bad-bad, this just lack everything above decent and it is so boring and horribly written with cringe scenes every 2min I cannot stand watching it. If you liked the first one you definitely need to stay away from this one. This is one of the worst superhero movies the past years and definitely the most boring.

Did I mention this is a boring movie?

The sequel takes us through the Philadelphia fiasco, where Billy and fellow foster kids are enjoying their superhero days in their annoying childish manner. Enters the three daughters of Atlas who wants to take back their powers stolen from them and wreck havoc in the human realm. It is upto the Philly fiasco to be the Champions to beat the goddesses and save the realm.

What works is the humor despite the teens being annoying enough. Billy still is going through the impostor syndrome, trying to figure out where ye fits in. The action set pieces are elaborate and are entertaining for most parts of it. The screenplay checks off all the stuff a comic book sequel needs and the dull moments are lesser than anticipated.

What doesn't work are the weak villains. Though Lucy Liu makes the best of what she can with her riding the dragon in the third act, the trio however come out as bland. I mean they are goddesses who get overwhelmed by a group of kids. Add to this, Zachary Levi as Shazam / Billy is less fun and more desperately trying to be funny. His character didn't fully work for me.

Overall, the film knows it's limitations and plays along.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) is a movie that my wife and I saw in theatres last night. The storyline picks up where we left off from the first film with Billy and his orphaned friends being super heroes and secretly, regularly saving people from unfortunate events. When three sisters retrieve the broken staff from the first film and look to open a portal from Olympus to Earth to take over civilization, Billy and friends are the only ones that can stop them.

This movie is directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) and stars Zachary Levi (The Mauritanian), Grace Caroline Currey (Fall), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) and Meagan Good (Think Like A Man).

This movie kicks up the action scenes and special effects but the storyline lacks the heart and charm of the first film. I did love the incorporation of the mythological creatures, especially the villain's creatures and the unicorns. I will say the dragon was uneven with some sequences that were awesome and some that were too much. Once again Djimon Hounsou was excellent as the wizard and Liu and Mirren were great villains. The comedy was hit or miss with some good laughs here and there and some cheese also. Meagan Good looked amazing as always and I loved the cameo at the end. The ending credits sequence wasn't good.

Overall, this is an average addition to the super hero genre that's worth seeing once. I would score this a 5/10.