Review of Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) by Halofever — 26 May 2023

This movie is funny enough and flashy enough to be on the good side of mediocre. The teen superhero in an adult body is entertaining throughout. Instead of the dour, stoic heroes we know and love, these guys make jokes at their enemy’s expense. Perhaps a little too immature, but refreshingly human. The performances, though, cannot erase the stink of corporate interference. The pace of the movie is slowed down with each special effects shot. Too bad we’ve seen it all before. Gods on earth? Check. Seen in the Thor movies. Warping reality? Check. Seen it Dr. Strange movies. Dragons? Check. Seen it all over. Throw in a very blatant product placement and this movie is just another film ruined by notes from the studio.

The movie’s pacing is all over the place. These characters have super speed and can fly. So why do we have to wait so long for them to appear on screen? Oh, you wanted to spend 10 minutes showing us the destruction of the city and the deaths of all those people. Here’s a novel idea for a super hero movie: have the hero’s save people. At one point, the big hero talks with his family for five minutes while innocent bystanders are being eaten by monsters. Another heart to heart goes one while the bad guy is politely waiting to restart the big fight. At other times, the heroes zip in and with this Macguffin or that. It all creates a feeling of stuff happening, and not any kind of story. The original Shazam worked so well because the film moved with the characters. This time around, the characters can hardly keep up at times and have to sit around waiting for their cue at other times. The movie also makes some odd choices for kids film. Characters casually throw around the “s” word and we see people effectively die. Yet the big fights are rather bloodless, often comical considering how invulnerable these characters are made out to be. Just commit to PG if you want an all ages crowd. Last note here is the bummer of an end to this movie franchise and the DCEU. The studio should have filmed different post credit scenes. These are just sad. At least we have an actual cameo that ties to the rest of the now dead DCEU.