Shazam! Fury Of The Gods review: Superhero sequel rarely takes flight
Zachary Levi is still having a blast, but a convoluted story keeps this film from measuring up to the original

If you’re a superhero fan, there’s a good chance that director David F. Sandberg’s Shazam! turned out to be one of 2019’s most pleasant surprises for you at the movies. Though it was rooted firmly in certain superhero origin story archetypes and familiar scaffolding, there was an undeniable comic warmth and intimate sense of adventure thrown into this DC Comics adaptation that made it endearing as well as entertaining. It didn’t reinvent anything, it wasn’t a watershed cultural moment, but it was a film you rooted for.
Four years later, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods is here to try to foster even more cinematic goodwill with a sequel that hopes to recapture some of the original’s lightning while adding more action, bigger set pieces, and even more darkness (both literal and figurative). From the beginning, there’s a certain admirable sense of reach involved in what the new sequel is trying to do, and the ensemble cast certainly still crackles with exuberance. Sadly, though, lightning did not strike twice with Fury Of The Gods, a film that reaches for so many things at once that it can barely hold onto any of them, leaving a mess of a movie that serves as an underwhelming reminder of how much fun it was to watch its predecessor.
It’s been a couple of years since Billy Batson (Asher Angel) was granted superpowers from a mysterious wizard (Djimon Hounsou) that allowed him to transform into a wise-cracking, muscular hero (Zachary Levi), and he’s starting to feel like the other shoe will drop soon; His decision to imbue his foster siblings with the same powers at the end of the last film made him part of a cemented, unified family. But lately the other members of the Shazam! club are starting to drift apart. Mary (Grace Caroline Currey), the oldest, is preparing for a career and an academic future, while Billy’s best friend and foster brother Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer in kid form, Adam Brody in superhero gear) is starting to get interested in a solo hero career of his own. He’s also interested in Anne (Rachel Zegler), the new girl in school who takes a liking to Freddy’s bravery and sense of humor. As his family pulls in different directions, Billy starts to feel like his motto of “all or none” might be in jeopardy.
But family strife isn’t the only thing to worry about. It turns out that Anne isn’t just a teenage girl with a crush on Freddy. She’s one-third of the Daughters of Atlas, a supervillain team descended from the Greek titan himself, who’ve set out on a quest for vengeance thousands of years after the Wizard and his friends stole the power of the gods and doled them out to their chosen champions. For sisters Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and Anthea (Zegler), payback is long overdue.