Zachary Levi returns as the electrifying superhero with god powers. The second installment in the Shazam! movie series. The 12th installment in the DC Extended Universe. The film was directed by David F. Sandberg and written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan.
The movie stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou, and the great Helen Mirren.
There will be SPOILERS in this review!!!
Overview
It seems like movie critics are being far too harsh on movies lately. The second movie in the span of a month where the critics have been insanely harsh on the reviews, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion and review of the movie but when the audience score is higher rated than the critics it is hard to not take notice.
Is it because it’s Shazam? DC? Zachary Levi? I just don’t get it. All week I’ve been seeing people hate on this movie, TikTok clips hating on it, leaking scenes, for what? Is it a perfect movie? No. Is it a disgracefully bad movie? Not at all. In fact, it’s an underrated action-packed, comedy that takes you through a roller coaster of emotions, especially at the end.
The movie by no means is perfect, the first 50 minutes felt slow, and the build-up to the villains wasn’t truly set out, it basically threw you straight into it. If you are wanting a series tone, Shazam is not it by any means. Any true fan of the character will tell you that.
The tone of the movie wasn’t serious, it only became a series in the last quarter of the movie and that was purposely done because of the actual storyline of the villains. I see people complaining about the new suits for the heroes, this is another thing I am confused about. The suits were incredible.
This new tone of the city is great, it feels real. Yes, people would be happy that they have heroes to protect them, but let’s be honest, the news, and people would be skeptical of them and the trouble that arises in the city since they debuted. This movie plays on that tone.
Story
The story centers around the fallout of the first movie. Back in the first movie, Shazam broke the wizard’s staff in half, leading to the events of this movie. The barrier between worlds has been broken to allow the daughters of the Titan, Atlas to seek revenge and repair the staff to activate the powers.
Fast forward the family tries to do their own thing with Billy trying his best to keep everyone together even though the group is drifting apart due to their own personal interests. The Wizard comes to billy while he’s having a dream and warns him about Hespera and Kalypso, but it’s too late for Freddy as he falls for a new girl named Anne, who is the younger sister to Hespera and Kalyspo. The family wants revenge because Wizard killed their father.
After trying everything to get Freddy back, The Shazam Family gets into a fight with the two sisters while the younger sister, Anne frees Wizard and Freddy. This is all a plan for the two sisters to get Hespera caught and taken to the Wizard’s temple.
Fast forward we get to see a ton of character development within the story. We get to see that the Wizard is more light-hearted, mainly due to being around the Shazam family and them being children. We get to see that Billy is afraid of being kicked out of the family due to turning 18 years old.
Obviously, it wouldn’t be a decent story without deceit and deception, Kalyspo turns even eviler and mortally wounds Hespera and removes Anne’s powers, and then flies around the city causing havoc and fighting Shazam with the rest of the family without the Shazam powers.
This is where Billy’s emotion-driven character development comes into play. This caught me off guard because of how amazing it was. Earlier in the story, the sisters put a shield up around a section of the city, the plan was to make the shield go smaller and keep the sisters locked in it but Billy had other ideas, he becomes the hero he is, the hero he was destined to be. He becomes Shazam the god.
He takes the fight to Kalyspo and the dragon, he manages to get a few hits in but also takes some huge hits himself. He then flies with the staff straight into the dragon killing the army, dragon, and Kalyspo as well as destroying the tree.
He does this by sacrificing himself. A true hero. The family takes Billy to the kingdom to bury and mourn him. Wonder Woman arrives and repairs the staff, imbuing it with her power before using it to revive the Gods Realm and resurrect Billy.
Characters
Before I start talking about the Shazam family, I want to speak about Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren. These three incredible talents absolutely killed their respective roles. Lucy Liu brought that evilness that I never thought I’d see from her and Helen Mirren is incredible in everything she stars in.
The standout for me was Rachel Zegler. She absolutely crushed this role. I can not wait to see what she stars in next and I hope we see her in the next Shazam movie. Her performance as Anne was truly magical. She brought life to every scene.
Zachary Levi and Asher Angel flawlessly act as Billy. You can tell that these two have spent a lot of time together practicing and learning to be one. It’s not easy being the same hero as well as the same character.
Another standout performance was Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy. He absolutely stole the movie. You felt like he had grown so much compared to the first movie. He was still this nerdy, funny, witty, and awkward kid but on the other hand, he was this confident, brave, and full-of-life hero in both Freddy as a kid and a Shazam hero.
The rest of the cast was rounded out incredibly well, it was like we never even had a year or two wait between movies, you instantly had the same feelings again. What I will say though it bringing Grace Currey in as both young Mary and the hero Mary was a fantastic decision from the director. She fits both roles perfectly.
For the full cast list, you can visit IMDB by clicking here.
Hype
I feel like the hype for this movie wasn’t where it should have been. The movie was being marketed where DC was going through a rough patch to put it nicely. I kept seeing trailers, and photos, and obviously the actors speak and do press for it. As normal, but other than that, I largely saw people speak on it negatively, even without seeing it.
I feel like a certain fandom has hurt the hype a lot, as well as some question tweets from Zachary Levi himself on Twitter. I did see a lot of people question him about a tweet he released a couple of months ago.
Favorite Moments
1. The whole Billy becomes the true Shazam, the god-like Shazam at the end. Fighting to save the city, the world, and more importantly, his family. Him telling Freddy that everyone leaves him, but when he found Freddy and the family, he didn’t want that to be the same, he makes the decision to fight the dragon and Kalyspo by himself, ultimately sacrificing himself.
2. Rachel Zegler’s performance as Anne. It was perfect, funny, and just incredible. Anne saves Freddy and the Wizard and tells Freddy that she didn’t need his help with the bullies because she was going to turn their insides around with her powers but he is brave for standing up to them for her.
3. The opening bridge save scene. You expect the heroes to save everyone, save the bridge, and ultimately be the heroes that the city deserves. This does not happen, well the saving people do, the bridge? Not so much.
4. The scene where Freddy shows Anne that he is a hero gets interrupted by Hespera and Kalyspo. Then the teacher who likes Freddy arrives after Kalyspo steals Freddy’s powers and she uses her powers on the teacher to make him commit suicide. For a movie of this type, this scene was brutal.
5. Daria uses her skittles to lure unicorns. Yes, this might sound weird but it happens. I actually really liked this scene. It was fun, something you would not expect.
Dislikes
1. I didn’t like how we immediately go into seeing the villains. I hated that we didn’t truly get any build-up to seeing them. I did like the villains though so don’t think I didn’t.
2. While I get this is a Shazam movie, I would have liked to see the family use their powers more, instead of just being in their superhero form until the end when they had the power stolen.
3. While I did love the scenes between Freddy and Anne, I do dislike how she immediately found Freddy in school. It just felt cheap.
Recommend?
I would recommend this. 100%. I went into this movie with a lot of negative thoughts impacted by social media for this movie, but all of that went out the window. The movie is fun, action-packed, and just an underrated comedy superhero movie that has elements of emotions. It’s not the most perfect DC film but it’s certainly not the worst.
Verdict
Honestly, a much more entertaining, beautifully shot, and action-packed superhero comedy. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and although the first 40-50 minutes were slow, it didn’t truly impact the movie badly. By no means a perfect movie, but a fantastic watch. It also has opened more doorways for more magic elements in the DC universe.
Rating: 8.8/10
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is available in cinemas worldwide. You can visit here for more information on Shazam! Fury of the Gods.
The Review
Story - 8
Structure - 8
Quality - 9
Action - 9
Characters - 10
Entertainment - 9
Antagonist - 10
Hype - 7
8.8
Great
Honestly, a much more entertaining, beautifully shot, and action-packed superhero comedy. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and although the first 40-50 minutes were slow, it didn't truly impact the movie badly. By no means a perfect movie, but a fantastic watch. It also has opened more doorways for more magic elements in the DC universe.
Totally agree with your summartion.
I took my daughter to go and see it and we both loved it. I wish it were doing better at the box office, simply because that would mean more people would get to see this super fun movie.