Shazam! Fury of the Gods

When "Shazam!" first appeared back in 2019, it was an interesting concept in that a teenage boy's alter ego became that of an adult. It was a, sort of, superhero version of the 1988 film "Big" whereas a young teenager wishes he were big, goes to sleep and wakes an adult. both characters are still kids, but in an adult body. So, after seeing "Shazam! Fury of the Gods", that surprise element no longer being evident, it makes the film not seemingly as fresh. 

This film continues the story of teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who, upon receiving super powers from a wizard (Djimon Hounsou) by reciting the magic word "SHAZAM!", is transformed into his adult Super Hero alter ego Shazam (Zachary Levi). This story centers around the daughters of the god Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler). They claim that the wizard stole Atlas' scepter which possesses much power, so these daughters are on Earth to get it back since it subsequently ended up on Earth. So, this is basically a tug-of-war with Shazam and his crew and the daughters to showdown which has the stronger powers. 

Others to round out the cast are Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield, Faithe Herman as Daria Dudley, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Adam Brody as super hero Freddy, Ross Butler as super hero Eugene, D.J. Cotrona as super hero Pedro and Meagan Good as super hero Daria.

This was as well directed as its predecessor by David F. Sanders ("Lights Out" '16, "Annabelle: Creation" '17, "Shazam!" '19,"I Flip You Off for Four Hours" '20, "The Culling" '22) plus TV, shorts and videos. Because of the Shazam character being basically a kid in an adult body emotionally, having the same director was pivotal in that a different director could potentially cause the personas of that character to come off as different enough to throw off the story. Levi certainly seems very comfortable in his kid/adult role, however it truly takes fine directing to pull this off from one film to the next. It was also executed well by writers, Henry Gayden ("Earth to Echo" '14, "Shazam!" '19, "There's Someone Inside Your House" '21) plus TV and a short, and Chris Morgan ("Cellular" '04, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift" '06, "Wanted" '08, "Connected" '08, "Fast & Furious" '09, "Fast Five" '11, "Fast & Furious 6" '13, "47 Ronin" '13, "Furious 7" '15, "The Fate of the Furious '17, "Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw" '19) plus TV and a video, based on the Shazam! DC creation by Bill Parker and C.C. Beck. I'm at a loss of why Gayden received top writing billing over that of Morgan since Morgan clearly has the lion's share of experience. Possibly the reason is most likely because Morgan's name wasn't attached to the original whereas Gayden's name was. This certainly exceeded my expectations of how this film was going to unfold. Don't get me wrong, there were some flaws, such as it was a bit slow in a couple of places in which the running time could've been cut about 5-10 minutes and wouldn't have lost any impact on the story. Also, this constant cat-and-mouse game between the two worlds got a little tiresome, but it was still able to give its audience that one two punch. And the visual effects predominantly created by Double Negative, Weta FX, RISE Visual Effects and Scanline VFX were seamless and were able to enhance the film for the large screen.

Certainly, if you liked this films' predecessor, you'll love this. It has all that a family, popcorn and escape film would have: action, adventure, humor, excitement and great visuals all rolled up into a nifty film. This won't really shock you, but, wow, there will be a next installment. I know, what a shock. If you like that real close up and personal feel, this is also presented in an IMAX format as well. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                      Rated: PG-13                                     130mins.