Into the DC Murderverse: SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods

 "SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" (2023)

There are maybe like four movies in the DC Murderverse that I enjoy and "SHAZAM!" was one of them. There was just something about it that differentiated it. It didn't take itself it too seriously. It wasn't relentlessly dark. It had Zachary Levi in it. I was excited when I heard they were making a sequel. Apparently, I wasn't excited enough to see it in theaters, but that is neither here nor there.

Principal photography on "SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" began in May 2021 and concluded in August 2021. The film stars Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Billy Batson/Shazam, Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody as Freddy Freeman, Helen Mirren as Hespera, Lucy Liu as Kalypso, Rachel Zegler as Anthea/Anne, Ross Butler and Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, D.J. Cotrona and Jovan Armand as Pedro Pena, Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield, Meagan Goode and Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley and Djimon Hounsou as Shazam. The film was written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan. It was directed by David F. Sandberg. "SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" premiered on March 17, 2023.

In the intro to my post about "Black Adam," I mentioned that there were five movies that finished off the Murderverse and that I hadn't seen two of them.  "SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" was one of the two I hadn't seen. It's not that I didn't want to see it, I just didn't make it to the theater. I think this is maybe like the third time that I've done a recap of a movie where I hadn't watched the movie at least once. That's fun.

Part of what made "SHAZAM!" so endearing and enjoyable was that it was charming and it was silly. It was a movie about a bunch of kids getting Superman-like powers and it really leaned into that. That silly charm is still present here, but I don't necessarily think that it is here enough. I did love the running gag of the Wizard not remembering Freddy's name even though his full name kept being said in front of him. At one point he called him "Jeff" which was great. The unicorns and Darla are probably my favorite part of the movie. This isn't the first time that media has subverted the unicorn trope, but Darla still believing in them and feeding them candy to tame them somewhat was clever and fun. And there is something just really fantastic about watching these Greek monsters like cyclopses, harpies, chimeras, minotaurs etc fleeing in terror from unicorns.

I'm a big fan of Zachary Levi and I think this role is tailor made for him.He just naturally generates this boyish charm and enthusiasm which is what you need for Shazam. It never comes off as cloying or grating, which is kind of a super power in and of itself. My main issue is that it feels like he is in his adult form more than he needs to be. There's a scene where Mary talks to Billy as Shazam about how he's holding on to the family too tight because he's concerned about aging out of the foster care system and he's worried that Victor and Rosa will give him the boot. I think this would have been a lot more impactful if he was Billy. Just like the scene where Billy calls Rosa "mom" for the first time actually made me tear up because she was talking to Billy not Shazam.

Sistaaaaahhhsss!

I honestly can't be mad at a superhero movie that somehow convinces Helen Mirren to come and be part of the ridiculousness. She's fantastic as Hespera. She imbues her speeches with a grandiose that they honestly don't deserve. Her reading the note that Steve the magic pen wrote to her on the magical paper was genuinely funny. The kids not realizing that Steve was writing everything they said and then her reading it back with this incredulous look on her face was perfect. Honestly, its worth watching this movie just for that.

I love Lucy Liu so I was pretty excited to see her in this movie too. I appreciated that she attempted like a Greek-ish accent. It was Greek adjacent. I did think she was being a little underused until she turns out to be the main villain of the film. This isn't her fault but Kalypso is a little to mustache twirling for my liking. It was like the writers thought well we've given two out of three of the Daughters of Atlas pathos, we can't do that with al three so let's go straight megalomaniacal with Kalypso. Rachel Zegler is fine as Anthea. She's got that wide eyed innocent thing going on. And in a situation like this there has to be one immortal that is sympathetic to the puny humans and in this case its her.

Her subplot with Freddy was not my favorite. First off, I'm not a huge fan of Freddy n this movie. I get his motivations here. I totally do. And I'm typically the first person to say that a character doesn't need to be likable to be a good character or whatever, but maybe that doesn't extend to child actors. I have such a bias against them already and if they are just annoying than I'm going to hate every time they are onscreen. His love story with Anthea is meh to me. I completely understand that movies like this are going to lean into tropes and the immortal falling in love with the selfless brave human is one of them. But I need you to tweak it or twist it a little bit and the movie doesn't do that.

She's a wonder, woman.

What's the plot of"SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" you might ask? Well, remember when Shazam snapped the Wizard's staff in half in the original film? Turns out he just left the pieces lying around and they got picked up by a museum. The staff was keeping the realm of the gods sequestered and now the Daughters of Atlas are back to retrieve the staff and use it to steal back the powers the council of human wizards stole from the gods, the same powers that now imbue the Shazam family. And the Wizard is still alive and being held captive by the Daughters of Atlas even though we saw him turn to ash in the first movie.

We've now come to a segment that might become common in these movie recaps called "Eric Tells You How He'd Fix This Movie." I understand why they wanted to bring in a Greek god element to this movie. It makes sense because they have the powers of gods etc, but it's ho hum overall. It feels very done. And just like "Black Adam" why don't you just go to the source material. You have comics that you can adapt, people! I'm not sure why DC seems to forget this when they are making movies. There is a recent Shazam comic written by Geoff Johns where the Shazam family finds that they can travel to different lands. How cool would that be? And I think it would play to Shazam's strengths. It should feel fantastical and whimsical until those things become dangerous. They've got a whole room filled with mysterious doors that go to other places! I'd much rather see what's behind those doors than do what they are doing here.

I think the movie proves my point here, too. One of the coolest moments in the movie is when Pedro reveals that he found this magical library and has made friends with a magical pen called Steve who among other things has been doing his homework for him. Yes, this room looks like a rip off out of something from "Harry Potter" but I would have much rather watched a movie of them discovering things like this than another generic Greek demigods want revenge plot.

They could have paid off the post credit scene with Sivana and Mister Mind from the first one rather than giving us a second one that goes nowhere, too. But alas.

A wood dragon. Heh. Wood.

The action in this movie is solid. I did appreciate how they leaned into the fact that these are kid superheroes and though they are saving people they are also disasters. The media nickname, the Philadelphia Fiascoes, is extremely apt. They save all the people on the bridge but not the bridge itself. This feels like what would happen. I mean, the most realistic thing would be for them not save one or two people, but that's darker than what they are going for. Has anyone noticed that there are a lot of bridge scenes in superhero movies. Like, a lot. It is a trope in and of itself now. I get why. Our infrastructure is crumbling so it makes sense there would be a lot of bridges crumbling that heroes would need to save. Too bad they don't exist in real life.

My favorite action sequence was when Shazam and Hespera go at it. There's something about watching Helen Mirren slam Zachary Levi around that really makes me a little giddy. And then she gets slammed around. She's an almost 80 year old woman. It's wild. The CGI in this movie is not as bad as it was in "Black Adam." There was no slo mo that I noticed so that was good. Ladon, the dragon, was pretty dope. Some of the mythical creatures were neat, but honestly it was just another CGI fest. And did anyone else notice that Anthea's powers look like when they would rearrange dreams in "Inception?"

We talked about the post credits scene, but there is a mid as well. It features Emilia Harcourt and John Economos from "The Suicide Squad" and "Peacemaker." They offer Shazam a place on the Justice Society. But it doesn't seem like that will actually come to fruition.

Next up, God help us, it's "The Flash." We will get through this together.

What did you all think? Are there any big "SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods" fans? What was your favorite part? Do you hope that James Gunn will find a place for Zachary Levi in the new DCEU even though this movie flopped? Let me know in the comments.