Shazam! Fury of the Gods

I've teased it twice, and now you'll get it. Shazam, aka the first Captain Marvel, aka anything else his juvenile alter ego Billy Batson can think of, is back for round two. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a decent sequel to a great superhero film. Here's what else I thought about it.

Billy (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) and his foster "Shazamily" poorly defend Philadelphia from catastrophe. They open the film saving people from the collapsing Benjamin Franklin Bridge but fail to save the bridge from collapsing. Billy frets about aging out of the Shazamily once he turns 18, while his siblings pursue other things. Billy's fears are compounded by Hespera & Kalyspo (Helen Mirren & Lucy Liu), two of the daughters of the Titan Atlas, one of the six sources of his SHAZAM powers. They want their powers back.

We also get some subplots. Foster Brother Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody) falls for the youngest of Atlas's daughters, Anthea (Rachel Zegler). The Wizard Shazam (Djimon Hounsou) is somehow still alive. The Daughters use his staff to depower the Shazamily. Billy has a crush on Wonder Woman. There's also a Golden Apple that Kalypso, especially, really wants. Of course, she could use the tree it spawns to revive her realm, but she uses it to wreck Philadelphia. Billy and the Shazamily have to get it together to save the Earth.

Director David F. Sandberg and writer Henry Gayden are joined by new writer Chris Morgan for this sequel. The Shazamily dealing with one of their "benefactors", or their descendants, is a good concept. The elder Daughters view the Shazamily as thieves by proxy. Yet, Billy doesn't counter with how his powers were forced upon him by the Wizard. The Wizard's lack of guidance in the first film is addressed now that he's alive. But it doesn't address how he is alive. The Wonder Woman subplot pays off at the end when she's the literal deus ex machina. It's kind of silly, but it's fine. The same goes for how the Shazamily tames a herd of unicorns in Act 3.

It's still a fun time thanks to its cast. It's impressive how both sets of Shazamily actors play their parts cohesively. The adults feel like kids rather than adults trying too hard. It's easy for Grace Caroline Currey, who actually plays both versions of Mary, while it's seamless for Meagan Good and Faithe Herman (Darla). They're quite likable, which makes the finale nearly moving. I say nearly because of Wonder Woman. Freddy's chemistry with Anthea is fine, while his bickering with the Wizard is funny. Hespera and Kalypso are good villains, and they get the best laughs when they read, in all seriousness, the Shazamily's rambling letter to them. 

A close second in humor comes from how the Shazamily redecorated the Rock of Eternity. That's the best bit of an overall decent production design. The Shazamily's costume flourishes from last time are gone, but Anthea's golden attire is striking. The best visual effects come from Kalypso's steed, the dragon Ladon, whose roar is unsettling. Kalypso and Hespera's opening attack on the Acropolis Museum is perfectly unnerving and is a good introduction to Christophe Beck's formidable score. Kalypso's powers of persuasion are punctuated with some creepy sound design. We also get a few great heroic themes along the way.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a harmless superhero movie. Its fun tone and cast compensate for its imperfect story. That story decently moves along at 130 minutes. You'll have a good family matinee even if it's not as strong as its predecessor. Its end credits promise a returning foe and his new ally. It would be a shame if this movie flops, or its continuity reboots, or those two are treated as a joke in the next film, because all three options are plausible. I guess we'll know once The Flash and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom debut this year. That's it for now.