Shazam! Fury of the Gods | Review, 5 things I liked and disliked about it

Prologue:

The film continues the story of teenage Billy Batson who upon reciting the magical words “SHAZAM!” is transformed into his adult Super Hero alter ego, Shazam.

IMDB: 6.7
Rotten Tomatoes: 54%

Plot:

The second installment of Shazam starts at a museum in Rome where we see two strange ladies appear in Roman warrior costumes, who are later revealed as Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Hespera (Helen Mirren). The ladies are sisters and daughters of Atlas, the Greek God. They are back on Earth looking for the powers of their father and want them back which were bestowed by the last Council of Wizards, Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) to the champion – Billy Batson / Shazam! (Asher Angel / Zachary Levi). As we see Kalypso and Hespera steal the broken staff that gave the power to Shazam, we also get to see their powers. Kalypso has the power of chaos through which she controls the mind of people inside the museum. Whereas, Hespera has the powers of elements, through which she turns everyone in the museum into stone.

On the other hand, we see Shazam with a pediatrician discussing about his problems and mistaking him for a psychiatrist. Billy talks about everyone in his foster family is growing up and getting busy in their lives. Billy also talks about how everyone in Justice League utilizes their abilities to their full potential.
Later we see how all the foster siblings together fight all the crime and even if there is a problem, all of the siblings always stick together. Now we have to see how will the Shazam foster siblings deal with the daughters of Atlas who are coming to take their powers back.

Review:

‘Shazam: Fury of the Gods’ delivers on the same level as its previous installment. There were many improvements in this movie from the previous part, but also there were some aspects where the movie disappointed. We will discuss all of it but let us address the movie first.
The movie starts off decently, not too good or too bad. We get to see much more interaction with the foster siblings this time. The one that stood out among all siblings was Mary Bromfield (Grace Caroline Currey), who is always there to help out her brother.
As I have discussed in past DC reviews like Black Adam, DC is getting better with its cinematography. Till Snyder’s era, the cinematography was really dark and dull which used to be a pain for viewers’ eyes to watch. But thankfully, recently the color grading has been getting better. There were a couple of jokes about how Shazam was actually called as “Captain Marvel” in the comics, which was a fantastic nod for every comic fan. Although there were a few weak acting scenes from the actors, but it was well managed by the overall plot. The story of the golden apple, a seed that nourishes and destroys the world could have been explained a bit better. There were more good and bad things about the movie which will be discussed below briefly.

The writers keep the movie plain and simple, having childish humor which makes even the adults giggle. Everything is explained properly. There is no suspense or mysterious element forced in the movie. Basically, the movie looks quite similar to what Marvel did in their first couple of Phases. Shazam 2 will be a much better movie for kids than adults. Overall, this movie is a fun one-time watch. Although there is already a reboot announced and no one knows where Shazam will be heading. We will have to wait for James Gunn’s announcement for further updates. We might get a better idea after the release of ‘The Flash‘.

5 things I liked about Shazam! Fury of the Gods:

The entire movie experience was pretty simple and hardly challenged its viewers. It also maintained simplicity throughout which became the best part as currently comic-book movies try to complicate things. Below are more things I liked about the movie.

1. CGI for dragon and demons that erupt at the end of the movie was a really good experience to watch. The dragon really felt like it was carved out of wood. Every time Shazam hit the dragon, there were pieces of wood falling off it, which was really good attention to detail from the VFX/CGI team. The demons that came out of the roots of the tree from the golden apple were precisely made to look like demons forged from the mixing of animals and had a freaky vibe.
2. As I mentioned above cinematography of the movie was really good and it has been improving for DC. The element of music was well maintained from the last movie and carried out to this one as well. Getting the music and songs as per the requirements of the scene made the movie experience better and surely elevated the movie itself.
3. Zachary Levi did a fantastic job in portraying a teenage superhero as a 42-year-old himself. Levi surely showed his range of acting to the audience. Every time Levi gets his screen time, he effortlessly maintains the energy and excitement in his body language and dialogue delivery. Also, the jokes landed almost perfectly from him. Although we haven’t yet seen Zachary Levi playing a serious role yet, but he has surely excelled in the role of portraying Shazam.
4. We get to see more of the other cast members as well this time. Foster siblings like Mary, Frederick Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer / Adam Brody), Eugene Choi (Ian Chen / Ross Butler), Pedro Pena (D.J. Cortana / Jovan Armand), and Darla Dudley (Meagan Good / Faithe Herman).
5. The childish humor remains consistent from the previous movie to this one as well. Humor does not remain just for the kids but it is also good enough to entertain adults as well. Writers do not leave a dull moment in the movie. Of all the jokes in the entire movie, lots of jokes land well and that could have been a big obstacle for the directors and writers.

5 things I disliked about Shazam! Fury of the Gods:

Now let us get on to the things that I did not like about the movie.

1. There were some obvious plot points that I was predicting throughout the movie. From the entry of Anthea (Rachel Zegler) in the school and meeting Freddy till she is revealed as the third daughter of Atlas, it was quite predictable. Even the fight scenes and various interactions between the Greek sisters and foster siblings, there was nothing special in the movie that one could not predict.
2. The mid-credit scene introduces Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) who comes to revive Billy, who lost his life while defeating the Kalypso. This scene was even teased in TV Spots released by DC as well. But as we know that the current DCEU will be ending this year, teasing the audience Wonder Woman felt like a joke pulled on the audience. If we will not get to see the previous Justice League ever in the future, writers could have avoided it and given us a different ending.
3. Even though I have appreciated CGI in the things I liked about the movie. There were scenes where we could see that the studio tried to manage its budget and gave us low-quality CGI for a few scenes. The scene where we see a dome being built around the city felt fake and did not provide good-quality of CGI.
4. The design of the suits for Shazam was much better and comic accurate in the first movie. In this part, there was just an alloy on the chest of the superhero which sometimes glows in the dark and did not appeal well enough compared to the suit in the first movie. Even the movement of the cape was not managed well enough and according to the movement of the heroes.
5. The uncertain future of Shazam and the currently ongoing DC Universe should have been cleared before by DC Studios’ CEOs. Even though we get a post-credit scene where we get to see Doctor Thaddeus Sivana (Mark Strong), who has spent some time in his prison cell. It feels pretty bizarre knowing that we might not get to see these actors reprising their characters ever again.

It’s Review Time rating of
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
6/10