And so, I suppose I should back up to Shazam! Fury of the Gods, after finishing my ‘Flash review, if I want a complete picture of the last days of the DCEU. I neglected this movie when it was in theatres because, although I thought the first Shazam! was fine, it hasn’t stuck with me. The DCEU is also rebooting, so what’s the point? Rewatching the first Shazam! was essential because I’d really forgotten most of it.
Since granting his five foster brothers and sisters the same powers of Shazam, Billy Batson (Asher Angel as a teenager, and Zachary Levi as an adult) has tried to keep his team tight and insist they all transform together when the need arise. Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), however, is super keen on being a hero at any chance he gets, while the others might have different interests and priorities. When the Atlas Sisters, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), come to Earth for vengeance against the mortal Gods, and to reclaim the seed of life needed to rebuild their fallen world, the Shazam clan are going to have to scramble quickly to match their might!
Oh, what I like about this movie is that the threat is real. For the first half, I could see no way that this Brady Bunch of superheroes could ever hope to overpower the callous competence of Hespera and her sisters, and that was exciting. With the countless comic book movies out there nowadays, sometimes you assess the villain and hero ahead of time and realise it’s not an even fight, or sometimes there’s a visible steep learning curve for our heroes to overcome that will prove an eager challenge – this movie definitely strikes a perfect balance, and I was invested in the drama. As silly as it sounds, I also liked watching these adult-babies be kids – the way they deck out their lair, and aren’t too keen on refining their abilities, or even being noble. Perhaps you have to ignore the fact that they’re in the same universe as Justice League, but I could buy that they aren’t aware there could be any number of other beings out there who want to challenge their power, so they mostly just chill to the good life 😎 Any time these multi-coloured-lightning-bolts do something stupid, you can digest it as they have the mindset of children, which is a cop-out that a lot of other superhero movies can’t lean on. And I’m sure it was a layup to pitch that these wicked sisters eventually fall over because they don’t work together as a team, where the Shazam-family trust each other and their bonds end up being their main strength when it comes to getting over the line – on first viewing, that emotionally resonant ending isn’t quite what ends up happening in execution, but it’s definitely a theme of Shazam! Fury of Gods that the movie probably could’ve been stronger in bringing to the forefront.
So the action hooked me, but I think the way the movie handles most of its personal stakes leaves a lot to be desired. We don’t seem to hang out with a young Billy Batson as much as we did in the first movie, and so, his apparent setback of holding on to his new family too tightly, didn’t ring true for me. I didn’t expect Billy to be already nearly 18 by the time of this sequel either, and his conversation with eldest sister Mary (Grace Caroline Currey) about needing to start thinking about the responsibilities of his future never really goes anywhere. I thought there was an opportunity in the post-credits scene for Shazam to ask if joining the Justice Society of America pays, as a way to answer where his mind is at, wanting to use his superpowers for financial gain and support his family; but no, instead the movie goes with a quip about the Avengers being cool – tell us something we don’t know 🤓 But the thing that bugged me most is the tacky way the movie bundles the third sister Ann (Rachel Zegler) in being an obvious sympathetic hear. When we first meet Ann, she’s clearly been sent to manipulate Freddy, right? Then she ends up wanting to protect him in the blink of an eye. The movie needs her to be a weak link in the sister trio, I understand, but it handles it too casually, and without subtlety – Ann doesn’t even have the pompous British accent like her sisters, basically shouting at us that she’s an all-American good-gal who must be trusted right away. The other sisters are so direct about caring less about human life, and having Ann explain that her big sister can be bossy sometimes is not enough to explain why she is different. It’s really a blight on Hespera and Kalypso that they didn’t see that Ann was a real liability earlier, unevenly steamed for thousands of years.
And just like Billy and Freddy, the Wizard being alive confused me too. I would’ve had the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) be a new character, absolutely; and why not? The Wizard bemoans that he left his power in the hands of incompetent children – um, I was under the impression he exclusively sought out children, which is a shaky premise to find “Earth’s Champion” in the first place, if you want to get into it. Moreover, I want to clear up a thought I have concerning the Wizard from the first film – I took it that the Wizard searched for the ultimate being of good heart, and it was sort’ve his undoing, because he had to search for 35 years and found nobody. Bad dude Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong) finally revolted against the Wizard due to the callous nature of his search, which inadvertently caused his family to crash their car when he was returned. So then, nearing death, the Wizard basically transfers the powers to the next kid on the conveyor belt, and got lucky that Billy Batson was good of heart enough to figure out how to do the right thing. It was a source of annoyance to Thaddeus in the previous film that this kid was decidedly worthy where he wasn’t, but that was a misconception, or at least that’s how I read it anyway. Anyway, the Wizard should’ve stayed dead – if you wanted Hounsou to play the roll again, twin brothers or magic creating a familiar look-a-like could have existed, right?
I was prepared to say this movie reminds me most of Venom: Let There Be Carnage in that it moves fast and entertains, but it’s ultimately hollow, like an Easter egg! But I actually think I enjoyed Shazam! Fury of the Gods slightly more than that. Taming dark unicorns with Skittles is hilarious, and ridiculous, although I kind’ve admire the movie for having the gall to include it 😂 And I can’t be sour about that scene because Darla Dudley (Faithe Herman/Meagan Good) is the best hero in Shazam, big or small. Kalypso’s dragon is pretty sick. In fact, all the creatures are cool, coming from that tree of life. I know it’s weird, and I said it in my The Adam Project review too, but where are the action figures and playsets?! It’s a shame this movie was projected to flop, because it meant the studio could skimp on cool merchandising, while its designs and colourful characters are made for fun! As strange as it is that this movie goes down the resurrection path again, just like Justice League did with Superman, I’m also fine with a surprise Wonder Woman cameo where she gets to save the day, as a nice little cherry on top 🍒 I thought this movie was fine, but I think Bill Burr might like it best, because the city of Philadelphia gets absolutely destroyed.
3.5
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