Set two years after the events of 2019’s Shazam!, Fury of The Gods finds our erstwhile confident and braggadocious hero experiencing a crisis of confidence.

Shazam! Fury of The Gods

In Shazam! Fury of The Gods, Billy Batson (aka Shazam) has spent the last two years as the de facto leader of his super-powered foster brothers and sisters, and it’s not been going well. The super-team will perform heroic tasks like saving people from a collapsing bridge but not save the bridge, so the media will lambaste them as failures. Now, Billy’s only a few months from turning 18 and “aging out” of foster care. So, in addition to feeling inadequate, he’s been smothering his brothers and sisters out of fear of losing the only family he’s ever known, and they are pushing back.

On paper, it sounds like a solid premise for an interesting superhero movie that deals with identifiable themes not usually addressed in big-budget CGI-laden punch-it-till-it-stops-moving flicks. In fact, I found myself rereading that paragraph and asking myself, “how did they screw this up?”

The first Shazam! was lauded mostly for not sucking, and this film falls trap to many of the same issues that have plagued superhero sequels forever. There are more superheroes/main supporting cast members, more villains, more subplots, and WAY more of the juvenile humor that was dosed out just enough to make the last entry somewhat endearing (like a lot lot more). Mix in a gluttonous amount of convenience and contrivance, and you’ve actually got a bit of a mess on your hands.

One of the biggest criticisms of the first movie was that Billy Batson and Shazam behaved so differently from one another that they were basically two different characters. However, Zachery Levi’s childlike enthusiasm as the titular character could be somewhat forgiven because of the excitement and newness of Batson’s transformation. No matter how dower one might be, it’s virtually impossible to believe that nearly everyone wouldn’t be wearing a huge grin on their face for the first several months of being able to fly and toss city buses around like toys. Furthermore, Levi was a delight to watch.

Now, two years later, Shazam is still goofy and far more immature than the streetsmart and brooding boy that lies beneath the cape, and what was once charming has worn thin and comes across as childish and oafish. Combine that with an underdeveloped and underwhelming super-team/cast, and the film’s foundation just can’t support the bloated weight of its many plots and subplots.

The primary plot is that the three daughters of the Titan Atlas (you know him for his maps and globe-supporting statue) are seeking revenge on the last remaining wizard responsible for their father’s death and their millennia of imprisonment. They also want to find the beneficiaries of his power and reclaim it for their own. Also, one of them just like wants to be like left alone by her big sister and like be allowed to live. Also, one of them wants to trick the Shazams into taking her to their secret hideout so that she can find a golden apple. Also, they want the golden apple because it holds the seed of the tree of life and can restore their realm to its glory. Also, one of them wants to destroy the world of man. Also, the Shazams need to find unicorns.

But wait, there’s more: Billy still needs to overcome his “imposter syndrome” and become the team leader/superhero that he is destined to be. Early in the film, The Wizard sends him a magic voicemail to tell him that he sucks and is embarrassed by his decision to make Billy “The Champion.” Then toward the end of the film, The Wizard randomly decides to change the meaning of wisdom to that which is actually the complete opposite of wisdom, and then Billy suddenly has confidence and starts making good decisions. There’s no good reason for this. Billy doesn’t do anything to earn it. It was simply the time that the algorithm determined that the hero needed to get his act together, so it happened.

Even with all of this going on, the movie has time for the youngest of Atlas’s daughters to fall for the crippled Shazam kid and for him to fumble around and mug at the camera. Keep in mind that she is 6,000 years old and he is only 17. Even Leonardo DiCaprio thinks that’s pushing it.

Do you see how much the flick is trying to shove into this sausage casing? It’s far too much, and none of it is delivered with any pizazz or even much competency.

There’s a Family Guy episode in which the Griffins vacation in Purgatory. While they’re there, they just sort of float in nothingness, and comment to one another that it’s not that bad…but it’s not that good either. They might as well have been talking about Shazam! Fury of The Gods. Some of the effects are kind of ok, while others aren’t that great. The dialogue gets you to the next scene, but it’s not particularly good. The jokes are plentiful, but the beats feel like a 90s sitcom waiting for a laugh track. The plot could have been worse, but it could have been better.

When the ozone clears and your eyes readjust from the lightning blast, Shazam! Fury of The Gods is entirely mediocre and doesn’t need to be watched. Watch the superhero film that started it all instead.

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