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
A side story featuring the little sister Darla was
essentially a long commercial for Skittles.
When Shazam sacrifices himself in the climactic scene to
save the world, Hespera (Helen Mirren) watches. She says something like, “Really
a god, after all.” This is obviously a reference to the Roman centurion saying,
“Truly this was the Son of God” as he stood at the cross where Jesus was crucified.
Christians will find this either interesting or irritating.
So Shazam dies and is buried. Then Wonder Woman makes a
shocking cameo and brings him back from the dead. People enjoy seeing Wonder
Woman, but this seemed kind of cheap. It would have been better if they left
him dead, like Spock at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Then
they could have played her theme music and showed her sword after the credits,
to give us a hint of things to come.
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