Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (2023)

“I’m an idiot. I don’t deserve these powers.”

As a fan of Captain Marvel/Shazam from way back, I really enjoyed 2019’s Shazam! film. It was funny, had a solid cast and story, and I felt that it really captured the essence of the modern Shazam! comics. I hoped that 2023’s Shazam! Fury Of The Gods would do the same. While it definitely did retain the original film’s strong cast and story, director David F. Sandberg struggled to find a good balance between the humor, horror, and action.

All of the first film’s cast returned with the exception of Michelle Borth, who portrayed Mary Marvel (adult Mary Bromfield) in the original movie. Grace Caroline Currey (young Mary Bromfield in the original film) portrayed Mary in both her human and super form, apparently due to the fact that she was now an adult and no longer needed an adult form as a superhero. Zachary Levi reprised his role as Shazam! and Asher Angel returned as Billy Batson. Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler starred as Hespera, Kalypso, and Anthea, respectively.

In the film, Hespera, Kalypso, and Anthea steal the broken pieces of the Wizard’s staff and force him to fuse it back together so that they can reclaim the powers stolen from the gods and rebuild the realm of the gods. This means that they target the Shazam family and intend to take their powers one by one. Shazam is doing his best to keep the family together but age and consequence have the group splitting apart. As the daughters of Atlas begin picking off family members, Shazam and his remaining superpowered family devise a plan to defeat the trio. A few (highly predictable) twists are tossed in for good measure, but the film is ultimately just too silly and a bit dull. I enjoyed it, but not nearly as much as the first film.

Much of the film’s humor felt forced. The action, while well done, didn’t hold my attention. Also, despite this film being billed as a family movie, the horror was amped up from the first film and so was the body count. A ton of innocent people are hurt and/or killed in this film including a group of people of all ages in a museum who are forced to turn on one another and then ultimately turned into stone statues. There’s also a forced suicide in the film as well as a number of violent monster attacks on innocent people. This might be unsettling for younger viewers.

I have to admit that Lucy Liu outdid herself in this film. She stole the show and that’s hard to do whenever Helen Mirren is in a film with you. The CGI was very well done and the music was pretty solid. I also enjoyed one of the cameos in this film. I won’t spoil it for you, but if you’re a fan of the 1970s Shazam! series, keep an eye out for a certain fellow in a certain shirt. There’s another cameo as well, but I won’t spoil that one either.

I picked the film up on Blu-ray at Target. The Target exclusive also featured a DVD of the film, exclusive packaging, and six collector cards featuring the Wizard, the Tree of Life Dragon, the daughters of Atlas, and Shazam!

Predictable, loaded with forced humor, and dull at times, I still enjoyed Shazam! Fury Of The Gods and recommend that you check it out if you’re a fan of the Big Red Cheese. The character’s future in the newly created DCU of James Gunn is unknown, so this might be your last chance to check him out for a long time.

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