Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Sandberg) 2023

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Shazam! Fury of the Gods, directed by David F. Sandberg, released this weekend in a long anticipated sequel the Shazam! The sequel follows Billy Batson (Asher Angel), otherwise known as Shazam (Zachary Levi), as he fights against the daughters of Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler).

Though Shazam! was a fun and engaging film, Fury of the Gods fails at capturing what its predecessor had. Levi failed to successfully pull off the childish persona he put on for the first film, turning it into a cringe worthy performance, using words like “trippin” and putting on a hip urban accent. Paired with Angel, the duo simply falls out as Angel’s teen version of the character becomes an even more grounded and anxious typical teenager, not to mention that Angel only appears about five times throughout the film. It’s like pairing water with cookies, it simply doesn’t work. Sandberg attempted too hard to push the kiddish narrative we loved the first time around, but rather than invoking laughter he invoked a sense of awkwardness and cringe worthy moments.

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Despite the stacked cast with greats like Liu, famous for her role as O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill, Zegler (Maria in West Side Story), and Academy Award winner Mirren, they didn’t seem like they wanted to be there. The poorly written plot didn’t help their case and while the daughters of Atlas and the main villains of the film, the trio was shallow and lacked a proper story, unlike other DCEU villains such as Black Adam or Lex Luther. The writers wedged them into the mix and pulled them out just as fast without a memorable story or even one memorable line. Moreover, Batson’s orphan family, consisting of actors such as Jack Dylan Grazer and Grace Caroline Currey were fill-ins to merely move the plot along, proving no real substance aside from Grazer who stole this film right from the star studded Levi.

Grazer, as Freddy Freeman, is the star of the film with great acting and no loss of his previous superhero nerd status. He was the only character that felt like he belonged and didn’t somehow become a whole new person. His eagerness to spurt out random superhero facts to the continued bullying at school for being ‘that superhero kid’ didn’t vanish between the two installments. He’s still the good old nerd we all love yet hate. Ironically, Grazer somehow gets more scenes than Angel himself.

In short, Shazam! still reigns supreme as one of the best creations out of the dreadful DCEU. Shazam! Fury of Gods, despite its flaws, is still somehow more entertaining than Justice League.

5 out of 10​

Author

Sean has been writing reviews for The Oscar Project since 2023. Check out all his reviews on his main review page. Follow him on Letterboxd (@Twiggz04).