Shazam: The Fury of the Gods (2023)

[Greg]

I've come to the conclusion that DC doesn't make good sequels. Wonder Woman was great. WW 1984 sucked. Shazam was really funny and clever. Shazam: Fury of the Gods was the opposite of that.

What a mess of a movie. Plot lines come and go. People get to die and then not be dead. There is a dome over the city and then there isn't a dome over the city then they remember they had a dome over the city and bring it back. Plot holes big enough to drive a dragon through. 

My biggest gripe is that the character of Billy Batson is nothing like the character of Shazam. I find it quite annoying. Freddy Freeman must have negotiated for a bigger part in the movie because his love interest takes up a lot of screen time.

There were a few funny bits that gave me a chuckle, but not enough. Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu were sorely underused and made to speak some execrable dialogue. And the end had a total Deus Ex Machina. Ugh.

Come on, DC, get your act together. The two credits sequences were similarly bad.

[Drunk Monk]

Greg, you and I see DC films in alternate multiverses. I didn’t find the first Shazam outstandingly clever but it was funny and fresh. I found this funny too, funny enough to be entertained. Comic book movies are always a bit silly. This one was a bit sillier but it worked as a streamer for me (my opinion might have differed if I paid for it beyond my usual streamer fees). I agree that Mirren and Liu were underused, but they both seemed to be phoning it in somewhat. I liked how all the Shazamed adult superheroes still acted like kids. Eugene was a little better, although such a superfluous background character. I enjoyed the DC in-jokes, like the constant destruction of Superman posters. The Greek monsters were easily identifiable, so that worked for me too. I liked the dens ex machina, which was very literal, and the self effacing Justice League v Justice Society, and the Avengers Society made me smile. Perhaps this worked better because I just saw Black Adam, and the whole Shazam concept was fresh in my head (although I’ve never quite understood it). 

Mind you, I’m not saying this was a great film. It was diverting as a comic book movie, which is really all I ask of the genre.

Not D00M recommended but you might was it just to chime into another Gene siskel/Greg ebert debate.