Journal & Topics Media Group

‘Shazam!’ No Blast From Past


Zachary Levi in “Shazam! Fury of the Gods”.

“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” (130 min, Rated PG for sequences of action and violence, and language). 7 out of 10

Not every superhero movie (many of them so derivative) can hit a home run — and like the recently poorly-reviewed “Ant-Man” movie (third in its series) — the same can be said for “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” stuck in the “where do we go now mode” of strung-out sequels. And that’s exactly what most film critics are piping up about with a film featuring a nowhere-to-go plot, though with likable but stale characters, that were fully realized in the fun-filled first “Shazam!” in 2019. And it’s no crime…just a fact that catching lightning in a bottle twice is very difficult.

Returning screenwriters Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan along with returning director David F. Sandberg from the first film have tried to infuse the same spark of originality and humor that was so fresh in the first film. Though some of that same charm is captured in “Fury of the Gods”, this film is fraught with an overly-familiar theme of doom at the hands of bland supervillains. I’m not taking away from the delightfully cartoonish performances of Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu playing daughters of Greek God Atlas who have come back in time to claim a missing ancient magical staff. Like the film, they’re stuck in the “been there, done that” mode with both veteran actresses chewing up the screen with evilness.

As the story goes, with the foster kids now four years older, well into their teens, this group led by Shazam (Zachary Levi, the alter-ego of Asher Angel’s character Billy), has them playing as life-saving crime fighters (in their spare time from school) in Philadelphia, hiding their superhero identities from their foster parents (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews)…and from the world as well. That all changes with the arrival of three ancient Greek goddesses, Hespera (Mirren), Kalypso (Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler of “West Side Story” fame) to reclaim an ancient magical staff taken from them that wields tremendous power. Hespera and especially Kalyso want to use it to punish us mere mortals while Anthea is sympathetic and actually likes humans (nice subplot with her).

This of course springs Shazam and his crime-fighting foster brothers and sisters into superhero action at the bequest of the old wizard (Djimon Hounsou) who bestowed his powers to Billy to become the new Shazam in the first film. From there it’s a series of battlegrounds between the good guy superheroes and the evil, power-hungry Greek goddesses (all sisters) for control of the staff…and a golden apple, which also has powers. It’s all a bunch of mumbo-jumbo superhero terminology bringing ancient powers into the 21st century in which good triumphs over evil (YAY!).

With an overabundance of corny CGI mythological beasts and creatures reincarnated to do battle with our superheroes laying waste to broad areas of Philadelphia — especially their baseball stadium — it ends on a thud of predictability. Most of the film features a by-the-numbers template for superhero movies that have nowhere to go but feature new villains to vanquish. Even though I enjoyed the overall production values, and the fact the kids are all likable…there just isn’t enough substance to take them into the next phase…young adulthood. For all the wink-wink humor delivered by the gifted Zachary Levi (he’s a hoot most of the time), the film doesn’t cut the mustard in the pantheon of superhero film lore. Let’s face it, folks…“Shazam” had its day in the sun in 2019.

“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” opened at theaters on March 17.

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