Shazam! Fury of the Gods starts off where the first
movie left off, in terms of storytelling. If you did not see the first movie,
it is not clear at all which high school kid turns into Shazam. It’s Billy Batson.
But his foster brother Freddy Freeman kind of dominates the first part of the
movie, so a viewer might conclude it’s Freddy.
So to get people caught up, when Billy yells “Shazam!’ he
turns into that superhero (played by Zachary Levi). Now his foster siblings
(Mary, Freddy, Darla, Pedro, and Eugene) can do the same.
It turns out their powers were stolen from certain obscure
Greek gods, and now they want them back, hence the title of the movie.
The Shazam! movies are not the dark sort of DC movies.
They are meant to be more lighthearted, to draw children as well as teens and
adults. So I have to warn you there is a scene where an adult commits suicide.
I do not want anyone complaining I just did a spoiler. They want children and
teens to see this. I am not under any obligation to hide what they show.
The original Shazam! had a good amount of humor, much
of it childish. It was genuinely funny. This sequel also has humor, though not
as much. I didn’t find most of it funny, but other people in the audience laughed.
However, it was a good laugh when Shazam mispronounced Solomon as “Solo-Man.”
The cast made an unusually good catch with Helen Mirren as
one of the Greek goddesses. Lucy Liu also looks great. But no offense, she
doesn’t seem like a deep character while sharing the screen with Helen Mirren.
Very few people can.
As for Billy/Shazam, he suffers from imposter syndrome. He
does not believe he deserves the powers he’s been given. So he overcompensates
by demanding the foster siblings always stick together for their adventures. But
his imposter syndrome stays with him. Will he be able to resolve this before
the end?
SPOILERS * SPOILERS * SPOILERS
