Film Review: SHAZAM! - Fury of the Gods

 

SHAZAM!: Fury of the Gods is a better sequel than most people are acknowledging.

The movie takes place a few years after the first film.  Billy (Zachary Levi/Asher Angel) is trying to hold onto this newfound family of his.  But as the others are reveling in their new powers, their interests are pulling them in different directions.  This is especially true of Freddie (Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody) who really wants to make a name for himself as his own hero.  However, the daughters of Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu), have recovered the Wizard's staff.  They plan to use this in order to rebuild their broken world.

Like any good second chapter of a hero's story, this one focuses on the inner growth of the characters.  Billy has received his powers and taken on the leadership role, but he has not yet come to understand the part of about sacrifice.  He is too busy trying to hold onto everyone rather than let them go.  You can see this in his relationship with Mary (Grace Caroline Currey), whom he talked out of going away to college in order to continue to be a superhero team member.  In many ways he is still a child playing with adult powers.  But the course of the movie shows Billy come to that heroic understanding of self-sacrifice for the greater good.

What I found very interesting about the story is that in many ways, this is also Freddie's story.  A good deal of time is spent on his arc.  His transformation into his superhero persona has a lot more resonance because of his handicap.  Being transformed is almost like a drug to him.  But one of the things the movie does really well is showing us how heroic Freddie is without his powers.  His humor is armor that he uses to those who would hurt him.  And that armor is strong, sometimes strong enough to withstand the tortures that come his way.  This heroic side of him helps win him the affections of the new girl at school played by Rachel Zegler, which is one of the driving forces of the film.

Director David F. Sanburg does an excellent job of making fun and exciting action sequences.  The opening scene is almost like something out of a horror movie and sets up how deadly and cruel or villains are.  The fights that the SHAZAM! family takes part in are dynamic, colorful, and full of life.

Plot-wise, the movie moves things along at an exciting pace, though it does take quiet a few too many shortcuts in the script.  There are too many coincidences where the heroes happen to be in the right place to encounter a specific plot point.  There is also a magical pen named Steve that acts as an exposition device throughout in order to have the heroes get caught up on the information.

Levi is very good again as Billy.  He still acts a bit younger than the 17-year-old Billy, but he has a enough charisma and charm to make not to be a big problem.  Grazer has great chemistry with both Levi and Zegler and he really is the glue that holds this movie together.  The other members of the SHAZAM! family do a good job, but they are not given enough to explore.

The first SHAZAM! explored the theme of family and its meaning.  This one continues that, but it looks at what happens when that family dynamic begins to change.  It wrestles with the universal experience of watching that stable structure begin to transform and all of the discomfort that comes with that.  It also explores the idea of real, adult heroism more deeply.  There is a small subplot of one Pedro (Jovan Armand) being same-sex attracted.  In and of itself, there is nothing about this storyline that violates Catholic morality.  In fact, there is a nice moment where the family simply acknowledges and accepts him in love.  But since this movie is mainly targeted at a younger audience, this felt out of place.

The movie never quite hits the depths and the heights that it could.  The side characters never get a chance to shine the way they should.  The real tragedy is that this movie should be building up to a confrontation with Black Adam, but the realities outside the world of the movie are making this impossible.  Perhaps it is unfair to hold a movie accountable for what it is not rather than for what it is, but I could not help but feel this way about this film.

SHAZAM! The Fury of the Gods does not make a big enough impact, but it is a fun couple of hours of movie-watching adventure.