Shazam 2: Fury of Gods Review – A Fun But Slightly Stale Superhero Film

It won’t be overstating to say that the last decade was dominated by superhero films but from the looks of it, their dominance might be coming to an end. Although we are getting more and more superhero content every year, almost all of them are now falling flat and offer absolutely nothing fresh. Sure they are fun while they last, but the moment you exit the theatre, you realize that they had absolutely nothing to say. Counting the past 2-3 years, this has been the case for most of Marvel Phase 4, Umbrella Academy Season 3, most of DCEU, and now add to this list Shazam: Fury of Gods as well. While it has its moments, it ends up being a kiddish, slightly cringey film with only a little substance. For our in-depth spoiler review, proceed forward.

Shazam 2: Fury of Gods Review – Lots of Fun, A Little Heart, but No Brains

Rating – ★★★

In no way is Shazam 2 a bad film but at the same time, it is not good either and end up being pretty skippable. However, compared to the other superhero film currently in theatres (Ant-Man 3), it is heavenly. The reason is that Ant-Man 3 wasn’t even fun and fell flat on every aspect of film-making but Shazam 2 does manage to be a lot of fun and at the same time, also has one or two points to make. These points are that it has a few lessons about love, fear of loss, family bonding, and sacrifice. I’m not gonna lie its been long since I shed a few tears at a superhero film but Shazam 2 somehow managed to have a few genuine tear-jerking moments. For me it was the tender moment between Billy and his adoptive mother in the final act and unlike other such moments, the writers did not spoil it with an unwanted joke or cringey dialogues.

Jack Dylan Grazer was the absolute highlight of the film as he did an amazing job with character Freddy. Everytime Freddy was on screen, the movie was at its finest and this character is undoubtedly the MVP of both the Shazam movies. I had high expectations from Rachel Zegler after her performance in the West Side Story but by the end of the film, I had a lot of mixed feelings about her character Anthea as well as her performance. The wizard portrayed by Djimon Hounsou was another highlight of the film and I really enjoyed the dynamics between his character and Freddy. Oh man, I so wish Freddy was the main protagonist of this franchise, as Billy just ain’t that interesting or multi-dimensional. In fact, Zachary Levi’s funny and kiddish portrayal of Shazam is more suited for Freddy’s character and not Billy’s.

Talking about Zachary Levi, he did exactly what he did in the first film and made Shazam 2 a lot of fun. It actually seemed like he was enjoying his time and doing the best he could have with the script and the dialogues he was given. As for rest of characters, they were… well.. there and left no significant or lasting impact. Even the villain, Kalypso, wasn’t at all interesting and in fact, was probably the worst character in the film. I highly enjoyed Kalypso’s dragon, however, as both its design as well as CGI looked amazing to me. That dragon was probably the best I’ve seen on screen after Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, and Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. In fact, there was a really funny scene where Shazam referred to Kalypso as Khaleesi. Honestly, credit where credit is due, the film did have a lot of hilarious moments, even though some of them where cringey.

All the moments involving Steve the Pen especially, made the crowd laugh out loud and then there was a sequence where they threw skittles at unicorns. The moments involving Wizard were funny as well, be it the Wonder Woman dream sequence, or his grimace when Freddy and Anthea took too long to say goodbye. Another such hilarious moment was when the kids barged into the parents room in their superhero alter egos and when Billy literally rose out of a grave. This reminds us of that Gal Gadot Wonder Woman cameo which was pretty well placed and for a change, served a higher purpose than just to give fans cheap thrills. Being one of the last surviving Greek God she reignited the spark of the staff, fixed their broken world, revived Billy from the dead, and returned everyone’s powers. So, technically she did more in a 2 minutes cameo than other character in the whole movie combined.

That said, the film did have a lot of plot holes, lot of cringey moments, a very very basic plot, a lot of one dimensional characters, and a really poor villain. Add to that, the fact, that the moment you exit the theatre, you forget all about it and leaves no particular impact on the viewers. Its saving grace, however, are its brilliant VFX, well placed action sequences, some genuinely hilarious moments, and EVERYTHING FREDDY! Nothing exceptional about its soundtrack, cinematography, or color palette though. Also, its post credits scenes really aren’t worth it on both, the hilarity and hype-worthy meter. So, you can skip them if you want.

Final Verdict – Shazam: Fury of the Gods packs some hilarious punches and is fun while it lasts but that is all it has to offer. That said, it is a great family weekend film but it surely won’t end up being the highlight of that weekend.

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