Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a super-entertaining, action-packed adventure movie, it’s also hilarious and filled with a lot of heart. Making it a great follow-up to the first movie.
The stakes are so much higher in this sequel; with the challenges that the heroes face, and villains they go up against.
There are some mixed tones in the movie, much like the first. It felt as if it was starting off darker and then there are also many comedic moments that land well!
Parts of the movie do somewhat have similar tropes to Black Adam and various other superhero films like Avengers: Assemble and Justice League. The powerful villains (Daughters of Atlas) have the typical minions/creatures that slow the superheroes down and more that would lead into spoiler territory.
Going from the second and third act, the film did start to have a very slow pace, and then it luckily picked up again, apart from that I didn’t mind the pacing.
Shazam family chemistry is slightly better, which is still a work-in progress for the plot. Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer) continues to play an important part in this movie and he handles emotional scenes really well. The rest of the characters still needed to be more fleshed out here. That’s usually the problem when there are too many to focus on. Their superhero team up scenes were so fun though!
Younger Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is starting to mature a lot now in terms of serious scenes, more than the older version, however Shazam has become a leader; to deal with responsibilities and trying to handle situations, while also being goofy and playful in the role.
Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu play brilliant villains and their story is explained enough to know who they are. Mirren does also have a funny scene in the movie that got most of the audience laughing.
Some of the best scenes for visual effects are when abilities are being shown; especially for those impressive flying shots and speed abilities. The fighting scenes were fantastic too!
The creature designs looked quite scary and created really well. However, there’s always a problem when it comes to having much larger CG characters interact with live-action, as you may have seen in the trailers, with the dragon. A show such as Game of Thrones that was able to do better work with these types of scenes.
It does appear that superhero movies are now being stuck creating Doctor Strange/Inception/Doctor Fate-like scenes in there. That is getting quite tiring to see tons of buildings move all over the place like in some mirror dimension.
This sequel also has major improvements for suit designs; in the first movie, Billy Batson and the rest of the Shazam family were wearing over-puffed muscle paddings and lack of a decent suit textures.
Now, the suits are more refined and fitted to each of the superheroes, the designs are also consistent between them all. They did look great! There’s just two things they should have altered; still keep a hood on Shazam, as well as a slightly larger lightning bolt on his chest.
Although, just as the design change doesn’t seem to be explained in the movie, the sudden change for Grace Caroline Currey to play both Mary and the super version, instead of Michelle Borth is also completely skipped over. Grace did a great job with fitting into the role, it would have just been good to get an in-universe explanation.
I loved the superhero scores by Christophe Beck, the music here reminded me of a cross between Danny Elfman’s Batman and John William’s Superman themes. Beck nailed those heroic vibes! Although, the sound design was quite immense and overwhelming at times in IMAX.
There are a few surprises to see during this movie, especially in the two credit scenes.
Warner Bros. Pictures movie ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ releases in cinemas on March 17 – Directed by David F. Sandberg and starring Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Grace Caroline Currey, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody, Rachel Zegler, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, D. J. Cotrona, Hellen Mirren, Lucy Lui and Djimon Hounsou.
