Review of Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Shazam! Fury of the Gods was recently released in theaters and I went to see it in Cinemark XD (Cinemark’s version of IMAX). The story picks up two years after the events of the first Shazam! movie, which was an origin story for Billy Batson and Shazam. In this second chapter, Billy and his foster siblings have had some time to learn and adjust to being superheroes in Philadelphia. They often have opportunities to use their recently gained superpowers to transform into their magical alter egos with supersuits and rescue their fellow men and women.

Despite the negative reviews and social media crapstorm that has erupted over this movie, I enjoyed this movie and encourage you to watch it for yourself, if you haven’t already, to form your own opinion.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Shazamily

We see from the beginning that the Shazam team works well together as they rescue people’s lives (and cats), and while they do make a difference they often make mistakes despite their good intentions. The City of Philadelphia’s media often criticizes them despite the many good things the team is able to accomplish.

Also all is not unicorns and rainbows within the team. After their opening rescue scene and our reintroduction to the team, they go back to their Lair at the Rock of Eternity and we see how they have been handling being superheroes after the rescue attempts. Billy Watson always wants to rehash and review their rescue, and how well their teamwork is going, and also to point out the good things but also offer constructive criticism for their mistakes. The team is getting bored with this approach and the newness of being a superhero is starting to become ordinary and the team is starting to want to do their own thing more than don the suit.

We find out that the number one rule is that they do everything together as superheroes and there is no freelance superhero work. We also learn that individually they are wanting their own life. Mary Marvel wants to go hang out with friends more, wants to go college, get a job, and experience life outside of being a superhero. Freddy Freeman wants to do more than the others as he is still excited for his role, he is wanting to go out on his own since the others aren’t as motivated to do more superhero work. The others seem bored of being a superhero and they are wanting to do their own thing too. Throughout the film we do get to see more of the Rock of Eternity and why it’s such a unique place for Shazam and his family to reside in.

Meanwhile in another part of the world, the Daughters of Atlas arrive on the scene and steal the magical staff of the Wizard from the first movie. With the staff, as well as the Golden Apple that contains the seed of the Tree of Life, the Daughters of Atlas will be able to restore the Realm of the Gods that was taken from them in the past. The majority of the movie reveals the struggle between the Daughters of Atlas to restore the staff, find the Apple, and bring forth their Realm on Earth, with the Shazamily and the Wizard (who is not dead after all) trying to stop them.

Along the way Billy Batson/Shazam gains confidence in himself and his leadership abilities as well as finally being comfortable with his new family, Freddy Freeman comes to the forefront, a sidekick no longer, and finds someone who cares for him despite his shortcomings. Mary Marvel realizes she can be her own person and still stay true to the people she loves. The others have their moments too with Pedro being comfortable with who he is and his family accepting him, Darla demonstrates courage by enlisting the help of unicorns by helping them taste the rainbow.

Kalypso, Hespera, and Anthea are a threat to be reckoned with!

The Daughters of Atlas, Hespera (played by Helen Mirren), Kalypso (played by Lucy Liu), and Anthea (played by Rachel Ziegler) were a great trio of villains that also grew and had some character development during the course of the story. Hespera finally realized her mistakes and was able to atone for them in the end, Anthea was able to come to realize the goodness that mortals possess and she comes to demonstrate compassion towards humans despite her immortal status. Kalypso has the least character development of the three but does have some, as she went from deferring to Hespera to taking command of the trio and dispatching Hespera in the process.

Kalypso has a magical staff, a dragon, and the Golden Apple.

The final confrontation comes down to Billy battling Kalypso while she is on the back of a dragon. Despite a lot of collateral damage, Billy is able to defeat Kalypso but dies in the process of saving his family, friends, and the City of Philadelphia. Afterwards, the family mourns his death and with the help of Anthea are able to take Billy to be buried in the Realm of the Gods. While mourning by his graveside, Diana Prince, Wonder Woman, attends the funeral and using her godly powers coupled with the Wizards staff she is able to bring life back to Billy Batson and he rises from the grave like Boba Fett from the Sarlacc Pit. After flirting with Diana Prince (because yeah, who wouldn’t?) the Shazamily is reunited and head back home to Philly. Anthea decides to tag along due to her attraction to Freddy and the family is able to move forward with their lives as everything does become unicorns and rainbows for them at this time in their lives.

There are a lot of things to like about this movie and I enjoyed seeing this in theaters and will be buying it on digital as well. I personally like the character of Shazam/Billy Batson and I feel that Zachary Levi and Asher Angel portray him really well and have done a memorable job in doing so. The concept of a family coming together to fight together as superheroes and finding their collective and individual identities in the process is a very intriguing story and I believe that David F. Sandberg (the director) pulled it off so well.

The story was humorous (but not overly done like a Marvel movie), dark and impactful with meaningful consequences, with stand up and cheer moments throughout.

The supporting cast excelled again in this film and with the addition of the super talented Rachel Ziegler, with the great and iconic Helen Mirren, and the always captivating Lucy Liu as the villains; this cast of characters were so entertaining and it was fun to watch them work together.

I’m a soundtrack guy and always pay attention to the score and music of the films I watch. The film score by Christophe Beck was much better than the first movie soundtrack and I found it enhanced the film while watching the movie in the theater, and I’ve also enjoyed it while listening in my car when driving around town.

The Wonder Woman cameo gave me chills to see Gal Gadot as Diana Prince on screen once again! She IS THE Wonder Woman for this generation and carries that superhero mantle very well in every film she is in.

Who wouldn’t shoot their shot with Wonder Woman standing right in front of them?

There were two after credit scenes. The first was a mid credit with two characters from Suicide Squad, Emilia Harcourt and John Economos, showing up to recruit Billy Batson to the Justice Society of America. Billy accepts despite it not being the Justice League. The second is an after credit scene that was a follow up to the end credit scene from the first Shazam film with Dr. Sivana still in jail, with a beard since it’s been two years from the last time we saw him, and the talking caterpillar, Mister Mind. Mind shows up to let Sivana know he still has a plan for them to take over the world, but that it’s still not the right time.

Overall I give this movie an 8 out of 10 and it was a success in my book. Go see it if you haven’t already!

There is a lot of negativity out there, mostly in social media, that has been created by people who have not even seen the film, as I’ve seen that most people who have actually seen it in theaters have enjoyed it. We here at Credible Nerds have always eschewed sites like Rotten Tomatoes or clickbait internet sites, and YouTubers who create polarizing, mostly negative headlines, to get clicks and sow dissension among the fans; in favor of watching what we find interesting despite popular opinion and judge it for ourselves. We form our own opinions and we often end up liking what we see, read, or play. With that in mind, watch this movie and decide for yourself if you like it or not, you may be surprised.