Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a superhero film directed by David F. Sandberg and written by Henry Gayden. It is a sequel to the 2019 film Shazam! and stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, and Helen Mirren. The movie follows Billy Batson and his superhero alter-ego Shazam as they team up with their foster siblings to stop the villainous Hespera and her sister Kalypso from destroying the world. In this article, we will take a closer look at the film’s plot, characters, action-packed scenes, villains, humor, visual effects, cinematography, and soundtrack, and how it compares to the original Shazam! We will also provide an honest review and a final verdict on whether the movie is worth watching.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods: A Thrilling Sequel?
Not really, the movie missed the mark and wasn’t as good as the first one. Likely due to all the changes that happened at WB with Hames Gunn coming in. The film felt rushed and lacked character development. While the first Shazam! had heart and humor, Fury of the Gods seemed like a cookie-cutter comic book movie with little substance.
It was disappointing to see the sequel fall short of expectations.
Does the Film Live Up to Expectations?
No, I’m not gonna hate the movie, because it had fun moments, and a good chunk of the film was done far before Discovery came in and was pretty much done by the time James Gunn and co came in. However, overall the film didn’t live up to the expectations set by its predecessor.
Many of the performances were lackluster, and the writing was mediocre. The movie had a hard time balancing the humor and action, and often the jokes fell flat.
A Closer Look at the Plot and Characters
I think the biggest miss was going too big with this one. It felt more like a 3rd film than a follow-up to the first one. One of the things I thought was missing was the ending payoff was missed because Shazam himself, aka Billy, had almost no new character development in this one. The story was convoluted, and the characters lacked depth.
It was hard to keep track of all the super-powered foster siblings and their motivations. The film seemed more interested in creating spectacle than in telling an engaging story.
Diving into the Action-Packed Scenes
The action was fine, but the biggest issue I was having was again, the lack of characters being developed. This might be because of having so many of them now with superpowers. With the runtime and story, it was hard to focus on any one of them. Most of them are just there, this wasn’t much of an issue in the first one.
But now you can notice it as it tries to tell a story between each of them. Yet, the one who should have moved forward Billy doesn’t seem as such. The action scenes were well choreographed, but they lacked emotional weight and impact.
The Villains: Intimidating or Underwhelming?
I forgot who the bad guys are, oh yeah these sisters who are all different ages and whatnot, are “evil” for the plot because of what happened in the first one. Mostly the staff is broken. So these are free, and there is this random part with one of them being old enough to pass off as high school who befriends Freddy but just as quickly reveals herself, so what was the point?
Only for her not to be evil and the one who had the flattest character for a villain, end up being the final boss. It felt like bad writing like they didn’t know how to handle the story. The villains lacked depth and were forgettable.
The Humor: Hit or Miss?
Honestly, this one wasn’t as funny. The only thing I laugh about was when Shazam was called Captain Marvel by someone, which is a nod to his name in the comics. But for legal reasons, it was changed from Captain Marvel to Shazam because when DC grabbed that comic rights, they didn’t trademark the name Captain Marvel, and Marvel comics did.
Yeah, Shazam wasn’t made in-house for DC, it was picked up by someone else. So the early stories of the character weren’t on the pages of a DC comic. Beyond that, the humor was rather flat. It lacked the charm and wit of the first one.
Examining the Visual Effects and Cinematography
Really what is there to talk about? These days everything is so well done, and so much money and time are put into these Superhero films that very little visual stuns me now. I almost wish we’d go back to using more practical effects. I mean grated yet, that is still a visual effect, but something about everything done on a Computer now just seems too overdone.
It could just be superhero films starting to look too fantastic that it’s fake now. Because even your random Love story film, had oddly a lot of visual effects done. The visual effects were impressive, but they didn’t provide anything new or exciting.
The Soundtrack: Does it Enhance the Film?
The music for this one I think was for the most part the same as the first one. Nothing stood out to me in terms of the score. This is sad because I feel that Shazam should have an awesome theme song, but he doesn’t. The soundtrack was forgettable and didn’t add anything to the movie.
How Does it Compare to the Original Shazam!?
I wouldn’t even compare, the first one was done on the heels of a DCEU that didn’t know what was doing on. At that point, we didn’t have a direction. No one was officially fired or let go yet. All just plans being made. So the film laid itself in a place where even if they changed actors, it wouldn’t affect the movie.
Even now the ending of the film had a cameo of Henry Cavill Superman, which was just his stuntman, we didn’t see the face. But beyond that, it was rather a standalone film from everything else. It had the right tone and format. I thought DC had the right path in world-building and tone. Nope, I was wrong, and this one just seemed like a run-of-the-mill comic book movie. Cookie-cutter, sadly.
Final Verdict: Is Shazam! Fury of the Gods Worth Watching?
I’ll be honest, the movie had its moments, but it wasn’t bad, there are far worst films. I still rank Catwoman as the worst comic book film ever made. Fury of the Gods was not a great movie; it was fun but very forgettable. I’ve forgotten most of the movie already, and it’s been less than a week.
Also, with the director coming out and saying he knew it wasn’t going to do well. I feel like the whole James Gunn announcement killed any hype I may have had. They should have just put it out on HBO Max right away. Who cares about the cameos? Wonder woman shows up, but from my understanding, the whole thing was again done on a Green screen, she was added in after the fact. Dumb if you ask me and a big waste of money. Far as we know, she’s not part of the new DC, at least the actress isn’t.
From what I read, the movie only hit 30mill, which is far under the first one and honestly a bomb for a comic book movie. It comes out on I think DVD on April 18th. Heck means it’ll likely drop off in theaters next week. Sad, but overall I give the film a 2 out of 5.
In conclusion, Shazam! Fury of the Gods had its moments but ultimately failed to live up to expectations. The film lacked character development, depth, and emotional weight. The humor was flat, the action scenes were forgettable, and the villains were underwhelming. The movie felt rushed and lacked the heart and charm of its predecessor. While the visual effects were impressive, they didn’t provide anything new or exciting. The soundtrack was forgettable, and the movie didn’t add anything new to the genre. We can only hope that the next installment in the series will be better.