Shazam! Fury of the Gods brings back that heart and emotion, to bring you a fun adventure now with the whole family.
BY ELLIOT LINES MARCH 15, 2023
DC has not had the best run in when it comes to its movie universe. Sure you've got films such as The Dark Knight sitting outside the main timeline, but when they have attempted what Marvel have built, its safe to say they haven't found the formula. However, Shazam! (2019) brought a new kind of superhero to the screens, this was a film that was full of heart and great fun, a total change from what came before it. Forward on 4 year, Shazam! Fury of the Gods brings back that heart and emotion, to bring you a fun adventure now with the whole family.
We're introduced to our new villains in the first scene, with the Daughters of Atlas showing their power and the amount of threat they cause. Billy Batson and his foster family all now have superpowers, in which they use in various different ways to fight crime. When the Daughters of Atlas want to unleash a weapon that could destroy the Earth, Billy and his siblings must find a way to stop them.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a movie about family. Billy Batson (Zachary Levi/Asher Angel) still seems to be getting used to the idea of being part of a family, or he just doesn't want to be disappointed like he has his whole life. He is always focused on keeping the family together, but is losing grip. Either when he is Shazam or Billy, both actors portray these feelings in droves selling the fact these characters are losing grip.
There is one that stands out amongst the rest of the family, and that was Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer). He has comfortably settled into this role from the first movie, elevating this character to new heights. His comedic presence whenever on screen is scene stealing, managing to execute those one liners with ease, with just the right amount of emotion to compliment the line.
The Daughters of Atlas are an unknown villain to the comic book world, but that doesn't alter the standard comic movie set up. The scene where they first appear shows their power in full light, but also shows that they will stop at nothing to reach their goal. The three daughters are Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler), all of which play big parts of this story. Lucy Liu is menacing as the vengeful sister, while Rachel Zegler brings more humanity to their roles and Helen Mirren sits in between the two, mostly. Each of these actress perform well in their roles, bringing balance to these three new characters as a collective.
I mentioned Freddy's comedic timing earlier, but the comedy was something that resonated through the movie for me. The jokes never felt forced, and neither did my laughter. Due to the great comedic timing, and even simplicity at times, it truly felt you're spoilt with plenty of laugh out loud moments. This may however feel like the stakes here are lowered slightly, but at the end of the day these heroes are kids in a adults body, so you can probably cut them some slack.
Fury of the Gods is no different to any other superhero movie when it comes to the CGI, it's absolutely full of it. This was highly expected and at times some of the scenes certainly felt a little choppy and some moments felt like they needed a little more work. That said, the action scenes throughout packed a punch and worked well with the overall tone of the movie.
I can safely say that Shazam! Fury of the Gods surprised the hell out of me. It managed to capture the heart and emotion of the first film, even though there we plenty more cogs in the machine. Other than maybe the last 10 minutes, the story was certainly enjoyable with heaps of emotion and scattered with funny one-liners. Shazam! Fury of the Gods may just be on the same level as Shazam!, if its not then its god-damn close and a worthy sequel.
Oh one more thing. Stick around at the end as there are two credit scenes, which may say something about this character going forward...
STAR RATING
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