[Review] Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (6/10)

 

Title - Shazam! Fury Of The Gods
Production - New Line Cinema, Warner Bros., DC Entertainment
Starring - Zachary Levi, Jack Dylan Grazer, Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren, Rachel Zegler, Asher Angel, Grace Caroline Currey, Adam Brody, Meagan Good, Ross Butler, D.J. Cotrona, Djimon Hounsou, Cooper Andrews, Marta Milans, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Rizwan Manji
Writer - Henry Gayden, Chris Morgan
Director - David F. Sandberg
Release - 17 March 2023

It would never have been easy to make a sequel that is as good as the first Shazam movie because of how charming an origin story like that was. The chemistry between Zachary Levi and Jack Dylan Grazer was phenomenal and really made that origin movie work.

So now that the origin story has been told, the sequel would just be another superhero with a familial backdrop. 

Unfortunately, every time the movie cut to Shazam and his superhero team sitting around talking, the pacing felt like it came to a standstill. These individuals with their personal issue was not interesting nor entertaining.

But when it's just Levi and Grazer's characters again, those were great; but they were few and far in between.

The new addition of Rachel Zegler was a good choice, though her 9,000 age difference made me raise an eyebrow because Grazer's character was barely 18.

Helen Mirren, she slays everything. She makes every role of hers an award-level performance, and easily the best actor on the screen. Lucy Liu, however, was just adequate in her role, partly because she didn't have that much to do even though she's the main antagonist.

I also am not a big fan of David F. Sandberg. Some of the choices he made, such as having Mirren stop Liu from touching the staff was pointless. And, when to have the dragon breathe fire to kill immediately, or when to instill fear with some mystic dragon power; these decisions seemed to be just for the convenience of making a scene work. This is when, I feel, Marvel side have a better handle on things.

Also, that last bit of the movie when someone else came into frame, how did that even happen and why not earlier when the monsters were terrorizing the streets - which also was very conveniently to have bystanders in some scenes and no one in others.

But as a whole, it was still fun and I was entertained enough to be enjoying it.