Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) Review 

DC are in a really interesting position currently. They are stuck between the remnants of the DCEU and the reboot universe being set up by James Gunn. One of the last films of the DCEU is Shazam! Fury of the Gods and I watched it yesterday with this being my review. The premise of the film sees after the events of the first film Shazam! is looking to try and keep his family together while taking on the new threat of the daughters of Atlas. 

Main Character

Zachary Levi reprises his role as the titular character and he does an okay job. He is clearly having a great time in the role and you can't help but enjoy watching him in the role. The main issue though is that he comes across as a bit too annoying for me. His character development is minimal and I just felt like the focus on his humorous side was just a bit too heavy here and that is a shame because if it was a little more balanced this would be deemed as a stronger character. 

Supporting Characters

Helen Mirren plays one of the daughters of Atlas and though this isn't one of her best performances or characters, I liked how she was giving it her all and wanting to make this an enjoyable watch. Mirren does her best to add some star power to this film and an enjoyable character. Djimon Hounsou returns as The Wizard, which is not a spoiler as he is in the trailer. But he is given way more to do in this film and he is certainly an enjoyable aspect of the film that was a pleasant surprise. But the rest of the cast fair worse. Jack Dylan Grazer reprises his role as young Freddie Freeman, he is the young actor who gets the most screen time here and gone is the charming kid from the first film and here is this loud and annoying kid that possibly ruins the entire thing. He gets way too much to do an absolutely nothing works. Lucy Liu & Rachel Zegler play the other daughters of Atlas and they are just really dull, Zegler is a really generic character that offers little and Liu offers incredibly little as well. The child cast is basically cast aside and that is a shame because the aged up versions aren't very good either and I didn't care about any of them at all. 

Story 

I liked how the story of this film really takes place because of events from the previous film and the link is well handled. There were elements of the story that had weight and heart to them but it just isn't emphasised a lot. This film tries to drip in lots of story beats but misses the mark with the majority of them. The motivations of the villains isn't particularly interesting and the whole family dynamic lacks the heart of the previous film. 

Script

This film has some decent drama in it despite the issues I have mentioned earlier in the review. It also has a few funny moments but for a film that relies on comedy it isn't that funny. Unfortunately, it is a weaker script then the previous film and just about gets away with being considered average. 

Style 

The film looks good, the CGI, action scenes and costume design is well done and feels worthy of a big blockbuster superhero film. Though the film isn't particularly well paced, it felt quite long to me despite clocking in at around 2 hours. I also feel the first act took too long to actually get going and thus made it difficult to completely get into the film. 

Overall

Overall, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is an average sequel that is way worse then the original film. It doesn't fit the mould of DC films and I think it is one that can be easily skipped and it won't matter in the long run. 

Rating - 5/10