Shazam! Fury of the Gods certainly isn’t free from flaws, but it’s a super sequel that serves up tons of fun action and interesting mythology while retaining the franchise’s heart and signature style of humor.
Overall Score: 8/10
Image: DC Studios / Warner Bros. Pictures
How do you top Shazam!, a great superhero movie with a big heart that’s fun for the entire family? Well, as its sequel shows us, sometimes, the key to success is simply having more of everything.
Indeed, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is an ambitious follow-up, but it's the rare kind that simultaneously lives up to, improves upon, and surpasses its predecessor. How is it able to do all that? To answer, we’ll first have to conduct a brief re-examination of the original film.
2019’s Shazam! was never exactly a game-changer. No. In an already overcrowded genre of superhero flicks, instead of going big, the filmmakers decided to do something a little more basic with their contribution. But in telling a simple and rather straightforward story, they were able to add their own unique brand of heart and humor into the mix, resulting in one of the most endearing, enjoyable, and funniest comic book movies of all time.
So, just what exactly does Fury of the Gods bring to the table? For starters, it gives us a great continuation of Billy Batson’s ongoing character arc. In the first film, he was a foster kid who felt that he was let down by the system and his loved ones, but here, he has to learn to not hold on too tightly to his family and to let go of the fear that he may be abandoned again. It’s an organic progression from where he initially was, and the movie does a good job of dealing with it without having to repeat any previous plot points and developments.
Another thing this sequel does is give us more of Freddy (Billy’s foster brother). On top of being promoted to a much-welcomed co-lead status, this time around, he’s the one who gets to be the heart of the film. Much like in the first Shazam!, Freddy is bullied by his schoolmates, and to compensate for his unpopularity and insecurities, he brags about knowing world-famous superheroes and claims that he acts bravely because he knows that he has powers. But through a certain someone he meets, he learns that none of those things actually matter and that who he is as a person is what truly defines his identity and heroism. In other words, "The most powerful thing about you, is you.” Now that’s some compelling stuff.
Fury of the Gods also makes sure that the entire Shazam family has much more to do. They’re all given much larger supporting roles and they each have a moment to shine. Even billy’s foster parents get more screen time, which is nice because it reminds us that the Shazam! films, as Billy himself says, are “all about family."
Furthermore, there’s a lot more humor here than there was in the first movie, and surprisingly, most, if not all, of the jokes landed for both me and the rest of the audience in my theater. Everyone was laughing really intensely and very frequently, and honestly, I can’t remember the last time I was in a theater that was this lively, so to me, this has already become one of the best viewing experiences in recent memory.
Also, Fury of the Gods introduces us to a pair of truly outstanding villains. Dr. Sivana? The Seven Deadly Sins? Old news! All hail the daughters of the Titan Atlas: Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu! Mirren brings a sense of grandness and regality to her character, while Liu’s performance is delightfully hammy. They’re both fantastic, believably menacing, and very fun to watch — and seeing the now 77-year-old Mirren beat up the film’s protagonists is definitely what I didn’t know I needed to see. Oh, and on a side note, Rachel Zegler is great (just as she was in West Side Story), and I hope to see her in more movies and in bigger roles in the future.
And in terms of tonal balance and consistency, I have to say that this film is much better than its predecessor. Shazam!, for all of its lightheartedness, tends to become overly dark and violent whenever its villains appear on-screen. We’d see things like jarring shifts between teenage humor and shenanigans to ancient demons biting off people’s heads. Those are polar opposites when it comes to tone, and honestly, I don’t think that the filmmakers did a very good job of finding a balance between them. Fortunately, Fury of the Gods doesn’t suffer from the same issue. We still get a couple of scary moments that help establish the danger and threat that its villains pose, but it never gets too dark in tone and never goes too far in terms of violence.
However, even with all of these positive aspects, that doesn’t mean that the movie is free from flaws. Most are minor and can be overlooked, but there’s one that’s just downright inexcusable. I’m talking about the ending — or rather, a very specific section of it. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that it’s rushed, lazy, comes out of nowhere, and cheapens the actual ending or climax. It’s a shame that it sucks, and I really wish that the writers had spent more time working on it. So for as long as I continue to live, I’ll just have to refuse to accept that it’s part of the film.
Nevertheless, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is, for the most part, a very good sequel that gives us more of what worked in the first movie and perfectly balances high-stakes action, drama, and comedy. And although the fate of the Shazam! franchise is still up in the air, I’m at least glad that we were given two solid family-friendly superhero films.
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