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Today I’m taking you on a journey through the world of superheroes; we’ll be reviewing the movie Shazam: Fury of the Gods, a DC Comics production released in 2023. This sequel to the hit Shazam wasn’t well-received, partly because the story makes little sense and gets lost amid so many characters and plotlines. Plus, DC was still reeling from the failure of Black Adam, which is set in the same universe and was released earlier.
The film was directed by David F. Sandberg and written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan. I think both writers tried to take on too much and fell short in terms of character development. The plot feels a bit weak, and the special effects are overused, creating visual chaos that undermines the film’s staging.
The story follows Billy Batson and his adoptive siblings (Freddy, Mary, Pedro, Eugene, and Darla), who also possess superpowers, as explained in the first installment. Now they must face the threat posed by Atlas’s three daughters—Hespera, Calypso, and Anthea—who want to reclaim their father’s magic and restore his kingdom. To do so, they must find the staff of the wizard Shazam and strip Billy and his family of their powers.
The film stars Zachary Levi (Shazam) and Asher Angel (Billy Baston); this pairing continues to bring a fresh vibe, but this installment doesn’t offer much character development—it even leans toward a parody of Superman, a theme that had already been settled in the first film.
Jack Dylan Grazer plays Freddy Freeman, perhaps one of the most striking characters, as he uses a crutch due to a disability when he’s human. This character is also underutilized; Captain Marvel Jr. turns out to be one of the most complex characters because, in his transformation, Freddy remains himself but is completely healthy and possesses superpowers. That’s why it’s jarring that, in the film, the character continues to struggle with insecurities, and here they invent a teenage romance for him.
Rachel Zegler plays Anthea, the youngest of Atlas’s daughters. Her role is very important, as she pretends to be a teenager at school and makes Freddy fall in love with her; later, that feeling goes beyond a game, and in reality, she never acts like an antagonist.
Ross Butler plays the adult version of Eugene Choi, who has the power to control technology with his mind, while Lucy Liu plays Calypso, the middle daughter of the god Atlas and one of the villains in this film; she does an excellent job portraying her as evil and cruel. She possesses great power to destroy and create chaos.
For her part, Helen Mirren plays Hespera, the eldest daughter of the titan Atlas. She is a very well-developed villain who does justice to her role by adding nuance and creating mystery in the film. As you can see, there are enough superheroes and supervillains in this movie to put together a volleyball team.
The biggest flaw is cramming so many characters together without any character development, which is why each plotline feels rushed and it’s hard to follow the sequence of events. It’s also hard to wrap your head around the fact that some actors are children and others are adults; this contributes to the overall confusion caused by the drastic shifts in personalities. All the elements are in place to create chaos, even when watching the movie with the comics in mind.
While the first installment of this saga was presented as a fresh take amid the rigidity of the DC Universe—where Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy set the bar very high—the chaos intensifies when, right in the middle of the climax, Wonder Woman, played by Gal Gadot, appears out of nowhere. Because of her divine origins, she’s able to resolve everything in the blink of an eye.
They changed the formula and it was a resounding failure; the screenwriters emphasized comedy and mythology, resulting in a product that didn’t even manage to attract Shazam’s loyal fans, whose inclusion in the Justice League remains to be seen. It’s a shame to see this superhero’s decline so soon.
The movie is confusing, complicated by the number of storylines they try to develop in such a short time; honestly, I got lost trying to figure out which one corresponded to each character. So the viewer is expected to pay close attention to understand a story where humans, superheroes, and mythology are all mixed together in a single sentence, switching roles at every turn.
I can only single out the performances of two of the villains, Calypso and Hespera—they truly seemed like cruel goddesses devoid of any emotion. Their performances won me over, but I needed to know more about their past and about the god Atlas—about how we got to this point. I think this is a loose end that leaves the main story adrift.
I won’t deny that I was entertained for a while by this film, but most of the time I felt lost, unsure of where it was headed—not because of anything particularly innovative, but because of how chaotic the events unfold. I really liked the first.
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Rating: 80/100
