here we go again
Is DC's 'Shazam! Fury Of The Gods' Any Good? Here's What The Reviews Say
The DC extended cinematic universe is about to be over. An upcoming reboot of all the films from James Gunn is incoming, and this is one of the last films with the old Warner Bros. guard, shoe-horning in the old continuity on the big screen. While the reviews for the first "Shazam" were quite great, the sequel "Fury of the Gods" has not faired quite as well.
The movie stars Zachary Levi, Rachel Zegler, Ross Butler, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou and Helen Mirren, is directed by David F. Sandberg and has been written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan. Both Sandberg and Gayden worked on the first film too. Was it a wise decision to go through with a sequel? Here's what the reviews say.
How 'Fury of the Gods' fits in the DC cinematic universe
Following a string of creative and commercial disappointments, and in light of an overriding plan and structure that might generously be called disjointed, DC Studios recently hired James Gunn and Peter Safran to right its movie universe’s wayward course.
On the basis of "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," that reboot can’t come soon enough. A sequel whose goofiness extends not only to its lame humor but its convoluted and senseless plot, David F. Sandberg’s film is something like the light-side equal to last fall’s "Black Adam" — fitting, given that the antihero of that Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson vehicle is a classic Shazam villain. Messy and mirthless, it resounds as the death knell for this interconnected cinematic enterprise’s current iteration.
Unfortunately, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" still falls victim to — or perpetuates, depending on your level of cynicism — the apparent necessity for all superhero movies to have a huge muddy CGI-filled final act, undermining all of the goodwill it earned in the first third of the film. Before we get to that, though, we should start at the beginning.
Billy is under a lot of pressure. He's about to age out of the foster system, just as he's settled into something of a routine with something like a family. He's also trying to keep his super-powered siblings together, which butts up against Mary's desire to go to college (which she put off for vague reasons) and Freddie's desire to grow up.
The new (and prestigious) cast are wasted
Meanwhile, the ancient gods Hespera, played by Helen Mirren, and Kalypso, played by Lucy Liu, have returned to Earth in search of the magical staff Billy broke at the end of the last movie. It turns out that for thousands of years the wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) had been using the staff to keep gods and magic out of the mortal realm, and now that it’s broken those threats can come back. (All of this would probably come as quite a shock to Wonder Woman and the Suicide Squad, since they’ve been dealing with magical superthreats and gods for a while now.)
[The Wrap]
It's another retch-inducing mix of pixels and gibberish. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu are unlucky to be dragged into "Fury of the Gods," a sequel to "Shazam!" that’s light on ideas and heavy on inanity.
It's quite a forgettable experience
There are movies that stick with you — cinematic memory worms that grip and linger. Then there are movies such as "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," which evaporates into thin air the moment its end credits roll (or, more accurately, when its mid-credits 'surprise' scene wraps up). Shazam! Poof! It is all the same exclamatory ephemeral nothingness.
The first "Shazam" movie from 2019 was praised for its lighter, brighter worldview, its Gen-Z brio and for being generally unencumbered by the portentous and spurious gloom of earlier DC films. This is true of this sequel too, only it’s hard not to notice that it could simply be fitting into another boilerplate model (there’s a cheeky gag about "The Avengers"). A group of superheroes, all with cartoony character traits and a sprinkling of funny lines, wind up battling an intergalactic invasive menace, culminating in the usual spectacular but unserious CGI urban apocalypse, with people saying things like: “This ends tonight!”
Director David F Sandberg, and his writers Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan, haven’t been given the room — or simply don’t care enough — to actually establish how a "Shazam!" film should look and move. The wisecracks in the script are either about other Warner Bros properties ("Game of Thrones," "Annabelle" and "The Lord of the Rings" all get a look-in) or their rivals over at Disney. A contractually obligated cameo plays out with the same insane bombast as a wrestling entrance. One key scene is just a promotional tie-in with Skittles.
It looks bad, and the CGI is horrible
Poor "Shazam." Its production and release hampered by COVID and now seemingly lame-ducked by the arrival of a new regime to run DC Studios, the big red-suited lug’s second movie, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," finally makes its lonely stand in an effort to tap into the good will generated by his 2019 big-screen debut and, perhaps, plead its case to keep this off-brand DC franchise going.
My eyes! My eyes! My orbs are aching for I have seen "Shazam! Fury of the Gods." And well, I now definitely believe that extended exposure to really ugly visuals can cause acute ocular pain.
From the get-go, the makers of this latest “Shazam” feature appear to have been set on making the cheesiest-looking picture imaginable. It seems they spared no expense (the special-effects end credits are endless) to make the movie look cheap.
TL;DR
As an avowed fan of comics and superheroes, I watch these things and I wonder “Is this what people really want out of these movies? To watch a bunch of CGI effects with zero human emotions or stakes?” I certainly don’t.
The DC movie is exceedingly grating, labored and annoying, and that's in large part due to star Zachary Levi's utterly confounding performance as Shazam, the superhero alter ego of teenage Billy Batson (Asher Angel).
[LA Times]
Watch the trailer:
