The first Shazam film was a huge heartfelt coming of age surprise to myself and many other DC fans, which is why I had high hopes that lightning would strike twice with its sequel. Unfortunately, while there is certainly some good humor at times, mainly from Zachary Levi, Director David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a classic case of sequelitis, one that is bogged down by a half assed script, witless jokes, and generically underwhelming CGI action sequences. Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Captain Marvel/Billy Batson respectively are still very charming and likable here, with Levi delivering the most genuinely funny jokes of the film. Levi’s just great as Captain Marvel and his likably energetic screen presence keeps the film from being completely unwatchable. Jack Dylan Grazer is also quite good once again as Billy’s best friend Freddy, however he is put in an awkward teenage romance arc with Rachel Zegler’s character that felt incredibly ham-fisted and out of place. The rest of the Shazam family is… fine, but gone is the freshness and natural chemistry they all had together in the first movie. Even Djimon Hounsou as the Shazam Wizard feels out of character with him cracking jokes like the rest of the cast. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as the Daughters of Atlas were two of the most cliché, uninteresting, and forgettable villains of any DC movie to date as they both seek the magical staff thingy to you know, take over the world. The action sequences are full of half cooked VFX, big ugly grey CGI creatures, and loud bursts of flashing lights flying everywhere that have been done better by other superior comic book films. The amount of shameless product placement in this movie gives the Michael Bay Transformers sequels a run for their money, as there is one scene in particular involving candy that made me roll my eyes so hard that I almost died from cringe. The script from Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan is chock full of boring exposition and cheesy one-liners that lack any wit or nuance. Not even a well advertised glorified cameo from a member of the Justice League can make me forget the 2 hours of dumb jokes, headache inducing VFX, and poor attempts at recapturing the heart of the first Shazam film. The older I get, the more I want meat on the bones of my superhero films, which is probably why I love Zack Snyder’s direction of the DC Universe. That doesn’t mean these movies should be absolutely devoid of humor or lightheartedness, but when those elements feel so forced, unnatural, awkward, rushed, and superficial like they do here, I can’t help but feel unfulfilled. There are two post credits scenes and with all the reconfiguration of the DCEU going on, none of its implications elicit any sort of excitement from me. Overall, while Shazam! Fury of the Gods continues to put on display the hilariously lovable talent that is Zachary Levi as Captain Marvel, the film is so lifelessness, unmemorable, generic, disappointing, and perfectly resembles the messy current state of affairs of the contraption known as the DC Extended Universe. As someone who totally loved the first Shazam movie, it gives me no pleasure in reporting that I found this sequel to be an immense letdown.
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