Shazam Fury of the Gods hit theaters on March 17, 2023 and was yet other attempt to make an outstanding superhero film by DC that misses the mark.
Shazam Fury of the Gods continues the story of teenage Billy Batson who, upon reciting the magic word “SHAZAM!,” is transformed into his adult Super Hero alter ego, Shazam. Billy Batson and his foster siblings are forced to get back into action and fight the Daughters of Atlas. They must stop them from using a weapon that could destroy the world.
Fury of the Gods was directed by David F. Sandberg, who also directed the original film, and written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan, and stars Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Billy Batson / Shazam, Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody as Frederick “Freddy” Freeman, Ross Butler and Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Meagan Good and Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Rachel Zegler as Anthea, Lucy Liu as Kalypso, Djimon Hounsou as Shazam, and Helen Mirren as Hespera. Christophe Beck, who also recently composed Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, served as the films composer.
— Possible Spoilers Below —
Now we are not the biggest Shazam fans in the world, not even the biggest DC Comics fans. So, as we entered the theaters to see Shazam Fury of the Gods we didn’t really have our hopes set high and because of that we weren’t as disappointed as we could’ve been. However, that is not saying much.
While the same can be said about the recent Marvel Studios film, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, this movie just no real moments of wonder and fell short.
The cheesy humor based around Shazam being a grown-up and more adult version of Billy Batson, along with his friends was getting old by the end of the first film and they just kept going with Shazam Fury of the Gods. We get it, the kids are now superheroes. While the comedy didn’t land for us, we at least saw the direction.
Parts of the film felt like a copy of the effects used for Doctor Strange over at the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the level of special effects in Shazam Fury of the Gods felt a bit off. Just not quite at the level you’d expect from a DC or Warner Bros. feature film.
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A cameo from Michael Gray, the 1970’s Shazam, who uttered words we never thought we would hear in a modern Shazam project was a nice addition to the film while not over doing it. The cameo/appearance from Wonder Woman on the other hand was odd to us as the future of the character is in limbo and seems out of place to continue to add these characters a universe that may not continue. Of course, to complete the story of the film it made sense to use Gal Gadot‘s character to help, but with the influx of the films it felt weird to give us more Wonder Woman without knowing what the future holds.
Being a huge Peacemaker television series fan, seeing a few characters from the show appear in the mid-credits scene to recruit Shazam to the Justice Society was a huge highlight. However, not much sense can be made from these two characters helping recruit. Sandberg discussed this with The Hollywood Reporter, “So there were supposed to be characters from [Black Adam’s] Justice Society, but that fell apart three days before we were going to roll cameras.” So a quick replacement was made to help further the story and possibly give Shazam a future in the new DC Studios?
Overall, the the first film didn’t do anything in the way of making us more DC movie fans and Shazam Fury of the Gods did less. As a fan of comics and superhero films we will continue to head to theaters for these movies, but really hope James Gunn can help guide this universe in the right direction.
Shazam Fury of the Gods hit theaters on Friday, March 17 and brought in $30.5 million over the weekend, below the expected $35-40 million projected. However, it did win the weekend as being the top grossing move in the theaters.
