SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS (2023)
Tagline: Oh. My. gods.
(Action, Comedy, The Daughters Of Atlas) [PG-13]
Children stole the power of ALL the gods! This is very personal, Billy.
In this one the SHAZAM! family has been working together to fight crime but a few of the family members are starting to show signs of wanting to branch out. Meanwhile, the daughters of Atlas, Kalypso, Anthea, and Hespera have found a way to break into the human realm and are taking revenge on SHAZAM! and his family because they believe the powers they have were stolen by the wizard. Can SHAZAM! and the fam stop the Daughters of Atlantis in time to save earth?
First off, this movie too me was a LOT funnier than the first one which I thought was a total blast and very funny. The great news about this thing is that it never really takes itself that seriously, but still manages to grab hold of you emotionally to give some unexpected depth to the plot on that level.
Where this thing fails is in the actual plot. There are just loads of problems with this thing even getting to the point of feeling incoherent. There are also a few things that are mentioned, given dialog and attention, but never fully explained. I normally don’t give a crap about this kind of stuff, because my mind is pretty good at filling in plot holes, but some of the stuff in this is “glaring”. We also get some kind of funny but “cringe-level” product placement that even get mentioned in the dialog which just feels “ugh”. There is also a weird event in this movie that I always hate to see in comics and comic book movies, but I won’t spoil it.
Casting wise this thing is loaded, Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews return as Rosa and Victor the house parents taking care of the “SHAZAMLY”. We also get Helen Mirren (TEACHING MRS. TINGLE) as Hespera and she does a fantastic job. I felt like Lucy Liu (KILL BILL: VOL 1) upstaged her in the final act as Kalypso and Lucy is also great in this. Djimon Hounsou (GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY) is given quite a bit more to do in this movie than in the first one. Meagan Good gets more lines and does a great job of playing Super Hero Darla. Grace Caroline Currey is given the second most focus in this one as Mary and kills both aspects of the role. This time around she plays both Mary and adult Super Hero Mary which makes a lot of sense because Grace was at least 26 when this was getting made. Then the main cast is rounded out by Zachary Levi who plays Shazam!, Rachel Zegler who plays Anthea, and Jack Dylan Grazer who plays Freddy Freeman. I thought this whole cast was great and the change to have Grace take over for Michelle Borth as Super Hero Mary actually works well. Contrast this with the weird ANT-MAN AND THE WASP: QUANTUMANIA replacement of Cassie from ENDGAME with Kathryn Newton.
When we start getting to the stuff that works there is a lot that does. The design work is impeccable. The CGI overall is fantastic. The action sequences are top level and if anything I think we could have used more of at least one of the major fight scenes in this movie. The 2-hour and 10-minute run time seems like it all takes place in a 30-minute span. This movie gets going right away and doesn’t ever really let up. It’s very well-paced and feels like a complete movie. I think now that we know the characters, they are far more lovable than in the original and I don’t buy the crying about SHAZAM’s immaturity. He’s still a kid in an adult body. That stuff all makes sense to me. The scale is on point and seeing some of these cast members I mentioned earlier in this was awesome. I also loved the humor level for the 95% of this movie and it never feels like they THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER’d the crud out of this thing.
Overall this thing gets a 6 out of 7 for me. I do think it was more entertaining than the original, but holes in the storyline were problematic and for that reason, I can see why so many critics are saying the first one was better overall.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF NEW LINE CINEMA AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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