Review Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023): Quite bad, but I still liked it!

genre: superhero, comic book adaptation, action, adventure,

Shazam didn't exactly live up to the hype, but it was entertaining. So it was just a matter of time a sequel would be made. With the introduction of Black Adam and his connection to Superman, it looked like the ideal opportunity to put all of these superheroes together. But no, DC had to ruin it because they now all of a sudden decided to do away with what has been established and need to reboot it all. 

I don't know if the end result is what they had intended, or if they had to change up the story and events to sever most of the connections with old DCEU. It simply isn't good. The original already seemed like it was made for children. This one was even more childish. Why? I didn't mind it in the original, since Billy Bats still had to become the hero. Yet, he seems to constantly doubting himself, even when he is quite capable. It actually also becomes apparent that his brothers and sisters are in his way. Why they decided to make them heroes too doesn't make sense to me. Most of them don't even want to be heroes. Even the magician, who gave Billy the powers, finds it ridiculous. And like with almost every superhero in shows and films, it's very easy for these superheroes to lose their powers. I absolutely dislike that. It's so lazy and stupid, I wished they would stop doing that and actually invent new causes and reasons for superheroes to be overpowered. Then there are the villains portrayed by Lucy Liu and Hellen Mirren. For whatever reason, they opted for one of them to be the real main villain, who was just as incompetent as most of the heroes. Actually, this is my biggest complaint. Even when they say things were dire, it never felt like it was. The tension and suspense was severely lacking. Sure, the focus lied on the dynamics between the family members, which did infuse the necessary drama. It could have been more impactful. 

That being said, I am a sucker for feel good moments and, like in the original Shazam! Fury of the Gods excels in that, especially towards the ending. So while I initially started to get real tired of the predictability and childishness, I did have fun in the last thirty minutes or so. BTW, these do point out how effective Billy is when he is on his own. So if Shazam still has a future to be part of the new DCEU (lead by James Gunn) then please let him be on his own!

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