Shazam!: Fury of the Gods: Movie Review

Cast: Zachary Levi, Jack Dylan Fraser, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler, Djimon Hounsou

Director: David F Sandberg

2019's Shazam! was a relatively solid superhero outing that made great fist of Zachary Levi's comedic skills and the usual tenets of the genre.

But the sequel has foregone some of that freshness to provide a mixed up muddle of Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Game of Thrones and the usual superhero movie desire to wreak CGI havoc in its final act.

It's unfortunate because the movie, which sees Levi's Billy Batson/ Shazam struggling with more imposter syndrome and trying to keep his family together when the daughters of Atlas (Mirren, Liu and Zegler) come looking to reclaim the Shazam family super powers, has moments of greatness with a cast that proves to be magnetic in moments.

But the whole thing feels overstuffed and overplayed as the Shazam family dynamic stretches to incorporate their sibling rivalry and play that against Liu, Mirren and Zegler's family issues. As a result, the CGI heavy film creaks in large parts squandering some of its better human work and making you realise what a newer Harry Potter movie could be.

Possibly that's some of the problem of Shazam!: Fury of the Gods in that it relies too much on other pop culture and Greek mythology and mystical forebears to carry it along. From letter that float like birds to a pen that writes itself, from Khaleesi references to a dragon through to Greek creatures that look like Ray Harryhausen CGI inventions, not much feels unique to Shazam as it's all corralled together.

But when it works, it does so splendidly.

Helen Mirren's playing it utterly straight delights in some parts, and there's a real menace to her Hespera when needed. Equally there's a playfulness as she deadpan reads a letter for one of the film's best laugh out loud moment (and don't even mention her reaction to being spoken to in the same sentence as the Fast and Furious films).

Fraser is equally spiky too, giving his Freddy a real humanity as he tries to break away from the relationship with Batson - and spending time in his himan form and bonding with Zegler is effective too. The highlight is his spiky antagonism with Hounsou's wizard who returns.

Yet the rest of the Shazam-ily don't fare as well, feeling relatively one note and rushed over to compensate for a plot that's both overly stuffed and yet overly familiar. 

Levi's solid again too, but it's merely a repeat of what he did so well in his first performance, which by its very nature isn't as fresh - along with some adult lusting over Wonder Woman and neuroses. But the obvious comedy of stating something and then seeing the complete opposite quickly wears thin.

All in all, while in parts, Shazam!: Fury of the Gods is a film that could have been more, and lacks somewhat of its own identity and place in the DC world, when it works it does so well thanks to its charm. But there's just not quite enough of that to carry it beyond the goodwill and joie de vivre of the first, and a feeling of overfamiliarity isn't in this god's favour.