Shazam Fury of the Gods movie review: Zachary Levi returns in a plodding, convoluted misadventure

What does not return is the joy, exuberance and sheer frothiness of the first Shazam! that had made it float.

Fury of the Gods, in contrast, is a plodding, convoluted, much-too-talkative-without-saying-much venture, a lot of it staged in unattractive wastelands. There is so much more one could have done with Mirren, who has shown before her devilishly wicked side. However, an oddly shaped crown and some mumbo-jumbo that she spouts with stretched hands aside, she doesn’t get much to do. Liu is similarly wasted as her younger sister with more evil designs. The third sister – they are all “daughters of Atlas” — is played hopelessly ineffectually by Rachel Zegler (of Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story fame).

The few times Fury of the Gods touches a chord is when it focuses on the six foster children (two of them are technically not that anymore, as they are around 18 years old) when not in their spandex suits. They have their usual concerns about finding a job, navigating organic chemistry, surviving bullying at school, and so on and so forth.

The six are also as unlike as they come and hence more interesting to watch than their cut-from-the-same-cloth superhero selves, with Asher Angel as the younger Billy Batson and Grazer as Freddy, again leading from the front.

However, with intent to impress this time – unlike to express, like he did in 2019 – director Sandberg packs Fury of the Gods with dragons (hordes and hordes of them), domes, a powerful staff, magic seeds, unicorns, a wonder pen called Steve, several disasters in which countless lives may or may not have been lost, and a plot that tries desperately to tie it all together.

Shazam Fury of the Gods movie director: David F Sandberg
Shazam Fury of the Gods movie cast: Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Adam Brody, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Djimon Hounsou
Shazam Fury of the Gods movie rating: 1.5 stars