Quickie -- Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (released as Shazam! Fury of the Kings in some countries) is a 2023 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Shazam. Produced by New Line Cinema, DC Studios, the Safran Company, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is the sequel to Shazam! (2019) and the 12th installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). It is directed by David F. Sandberg and written by Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan, and stars Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Rachel Zegler, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou and Helen Mirren. In the film, Billy Batson / Shazam and his foster siblings fight the Daughters of Atlas.

A sequel to Shazam! began development shortly after that film's release in April 2019, with Gayden returning as writer. Sandberg and Levi (Shazam) were also set to return by that December. The title and rest of the returning cast were confirmed in August 2020, with Zegler, Mirren and Liu cast as the daughters of Atlas in early 2021. Filming began that May in Atlanta, Georgia, and concluded in August.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods premiered at Fox Village Theater in Westwood, Los Angeles on March 14, 2023, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 17, 2023.

Cast

• Zachary Levi and Asher Angel as Billy Batson / Shazam

• Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody as Frederick "Freddy" Freeman

• Rachel Zegler as Anthea / Anne

• Ross Butler and Ian Chen as Eugene Choi

• D. J. Cotrona and Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña

• Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield

• Meagan Good and Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley

• Lucy Liu as Kalypso

• Djimon Hounsou as Shazam

• Helen Mirren as Hespera

Billy's foster family also includes Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews as Rosa and Victor Vásquez, the foster parents of Billy and his siblings. Reprising their DCEU roles in the film, Gal Gadot appears as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, alongside Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt and Steve Agee as John Economos in the mid-credits scene, and Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana in the post-credits scene. Rizwan Manji, who portrayed Jamil in the DCEU television series Peacemaker, appears as an unnamed character. P. J. Byrne briefly appears as a pediatrician whom Billy confused as a therapist. Diedrich Bader, who provides the voice of Bruce Wayne / Batman in various DC media, cameos as a school teacher. Director David F. Sandberg's wife Lotta Losten, who previously portrayed Dr. Lynn Crosby in the first film, cameos as a civilian who is saved by Shazam. Michael Gray, who portrayed Billy Batson in the 1970s television show, makes a brief cameo.

Plot:

** SPOILER WARNING **

In Athens, Greece, two of the daughters of the Titan Atlas, Hespera and Kalypso, break into the Acropolis Museum to steal the Wizard's broken staff.[a] They then take it to the imprisoned Wizard, forcing him to rechant "Shazam", thereby repairing it and activing its powers.

In Philadelphia, Billy Batson with his foster siblings save people on a collapsing bridge but are called out for the destruction. At home, everyone is drifting apart due to them growing older and having personal interests. Billy is worried about being kicked out of the Vasquez family after turning 18 and aging out of the foster system. In a dream, as Shazam, Billy is warned by the Wizard about the daughters of Atlas. Billy and his siblings then do research on the daughters.

Freddy, who is bullied at school, meets a new girl named Anne, develops a relationship, then shows off his superhero self. Unfortunately, Hespera and Kalypso arrive with the staff, stealing Freddy's powers. Anne is revealed to be their youngest sister, Anthea. As Billy, with his siblings, is about to save Freddy, the goddess daughters kidnap him, then put a dome around the city, trapping the family and the city's residents. Freddy is imprisoned along with the Wizard in their afterlife kingdom. The Daughters of Atlas reveal they want revenge because the Wizard killed Atlas.

The family goes to Rock of Eternity. They encounter a magic sentient pen nicknamed "Steve", which they use to draft a letter to Hespera calling for a deal for Freddy and the staff. Billy meets Hespera at a hamburger joint, where she admits her father was a tyrant and that his family stole all the powers of the gods. The family fights her along with Kalypso, who takes Pedro's powers using the staff. Hespera is defeated and brought to their lair. While they try to devise a plan, Hespera breaks free, finding the golden apple, the seed of life. At the kingdom, Freddy and the Wizard try to find a way to escape the gods' world with Anthea helping them. However, when they reach the door, Hespera walks through with the apple. The Wizard suggests stealing it as it can destroy his world. While trying to steal it, Freddy falls down, catching the daughters' attention, but luckily is saved by Billy.

Billy, Freddy, the Wizard, and the rest of the family reveal themselves as superheroes to their parents as a dragon is about to destroy their house. Kalypso chases them for the apple, with each member losing their powers. Mary flies off with the apple, but is zapped, losing her powers and falling. Billy chooses to save her, allowing Kalypso to retrieve the apple. She also gravely wounds Hespera, then plants the apple in a stadium growing the Tree of Life and unleashing various creatures, who then attack the civilians. The family stops at a parking lot to view the chaos. Billy feels hopeless and asks the Wizard to take back his powers. He tells Billy he chose him because of his selflessness and care for his family knowing it might be a suicide mission.

Billy turns into Shazam to stop Kalypso, the family tries to help him, and Darla asks Steve what the creature's weakness is: unicorns. Everyone gets off the van except the parents, and the kids with the Wizard look around. Darla finds a unicorn and gives it Skittles, befriending it; a herd appears, allowing each of them to ride one. Shazam persuades a dying Hespera to help him stop her sister. He makes Kalypso chase him, stopping at the tree where the stadium is, then the dome shrinks around them. Finally, the parents, Anthea and Freddy are near the dome where Billy is ready to fight Kalypso alone.

Billy fights Kalypso and her dragon and destroys them both by breaking the staff, though he is mortally wounded in turn. Anthea brings Billy's grieving family to her kingdom for his funeral as they mourn for him. The goddess Diana (Wonder Woman) suddenly appears and repairs the staff, and uses it to revive Billy, who happily reunites with his family. The family fixes their house with Anne and the Wizard living in their world.

In a mid-credit scene, Billy meets Emilia Harcourt and John Economos, who recruit him on behalf of Amanda Waller to join the Justice Society. In a post-credit scene, Thaddeus Sivana, still in prison, encounters Mister Mind once again.

The Verdict: 

This film came out on St. Patrick's Day to little to no buzz surrounding it. That confused me as I didn't think this was a bad film at all. It mostly played it safe and repeated what worked with the first film, even though I don't think this sequel was nowhere as funny nor as entertaining as the first, but it's still worth a watch. To say that this is one of the final projects to come out of the current state of the DC Extended Universe before it's rebooted and rebranded by James Gunns' DC Studios, I thought it would get a little more attention than the crickets I saw on social media over the opening weekend. DC Comics and Warner Bros. only have themselves to blame as I wasn't aware that they spoiled the major cameo (we'll discuss this in-depth in the closing thoughts section) in this film a week prior to its theatrical release and they have created this sense of "nothing to see here" or "this isn't going to matter anymore once we reboot this universe" following the slate of films and television projects that James Gunn revealed to kick off his new take on this DC Comics-themed cinematic universe. 

A lot of viewers, especially casual fans, don't see the point in watching these remaining films under the DC Extended Universe label when the continuity is going to reboot anyway. It's the same feeling that audiences had once Disney bought 20th Century Fox and there was little to no enthusiasm to see the remaining films from their old regime (specifically The New Mutants and X-Men: Dark Phoenix). Those audiences were ready to see those characters migrate into the Marvel Cinematic Universe... and we're still waiting on that as of March 2023 (laughs). As for DC Comics and/or DC Extended Universe fans, it's a similar feeling, especially when it seems like that James Gunn doesn't have any future plans for this character. That's definitely the impression I had going into this film, but we could be wrong, given the mid-credits teaser. 

Characters

Shazam! / Billy Batson
(Zachary Levi / Asher Angel)

Zachary Levi's Shazam! comes across as an idiot/airhead for most of the film's runtime for the sake of comedy while Asher Angel's Billy Batson is largely absent for majority of this film's runtime. 

I thought Billy's plight of trying to keep the Shazam! family together while he mitigates his own fears of being "phased out" of the adoption system (and even worse, the Vasquez family) once he turns eighteen in a few months was an interesting premise, but it doesn't get the attention that it deserves in this film's plot. Billy is too preoccupied with keeping the Shazam! family together in terms of their heroic activities and worrying about their public reputation in the city rather than dwelling on that problem. The whole notion of him being kicked out of the family when he turns eighteen is a little silly when Mary Bromfield is obviously older than Billy and college-aged in these two films. The Vasquez family haven't kicked her out, so what's the problem with Billy staying a part of their family? It sucks too as the film never seems to elaborate on why Billy feels this way. I understand that Billy has abandonment issues since everyone in his life up to that point where he was adopted by the Vasquez family had abandoned him, but I thought he was past that following the end of the first film? It just feels like regressing his character growth just to regress it for the sake of this sequel. A better journey for Billy's character for this film would have been challenging the idea of whether or not Billy Batson would be still worthy of these powers after he "grows up" since he officially wouldn't be regarded as a child anymore once he turns eighteen. The Daughters of Atlas would have still worked as villains in this version as Anthea's youthful worldview would still be a point of contention between her two elder sisters, Kalypso and Hespera. 

I think Billy's best character moment in the entire film came during the film's climax when the rest of the Shazam! family lost their powers and he was the last man standing against a delusional Kalypso and her mythical dragon while he was at the peak of grappling with his internal conflict of being an imposter with these powers or the fact was he even worthy of having them at all. Billy admits and owns his own shortcomings and offers to return his powers back to the Wizard for he could fight Kalypso instead, given his wealth of knowledge and experience in dealing with them in the past. It was in that moment, the Wizard recognizes him as being a worthy recipient of the power of Shazam!, since he never hesitated to sacrifice his power for the greater good and shared his power among his family of worthy individuals. I know a lot of people will scoff at the "worthiness" trope being reused here, but it makes sense for these teenaged/younger heroes to struggle with that despite how redundant it may feel in the superhero genre at as a whole.

I loved the Wizard's line there: "Anyone can wield power, but it takes a noble soul to share their power."

Rosa Vásquez had a great moment here too that gave the film the perfect excuse to bring out Asher Angel's Billy Batson for what would be the last time in this film before his heroic sacrifice. Rosa Vásquez said that she wanted to see "her" Billy, the one that she loves unconditionally as her own child, despite being adopted into this family. She reminded Billy that he had nothing to worry about all along. He's not going to "age out" of his family just because he was turning eighteen, they would always accept and love him, no matter what - with or without the superpowers unconditionally. 

I will go on record that I thought this film's decision to actually kill Billy Batson off was very ballsy. At the same time, I didn't think it was going to stick either. From the moment when the Wizard said that they needed a god to recharge the staff, I just knew that someone was going to pop up to recharge it. I just didn't see Diana (Wonder Woman) coming back to do the job. Given her Greek lineage in this continuity, it made perfect sense since the first Wonder Woman film established her to having ties to the Greek pantheon, specifically since she's the daughter of Zeus and Hippolyta. 

The Wizard
(Djimon Hounsou)

The Wizard gets lots of screen time in this film, even though he doesn't do much with it outside of laying witness to specifically Billy and Freddy's heroism firsthand. 

Nothing against Djimon Hounson's acting skills, but for the sake of this plot, it felt like that the Wizard was only here to provide context to the Daughters of Atlas' origins. It never made much sense to "kill him off" in the first film anyway, especially given the character's ties and comic book history to the Shazam! family and Black Adam. By the time the last act of this film rolled around, I didn't mind him hanging around for the action, even though by that point he felt like a fifth wheel to everything else going on since he didn't contribute nothing meaningful to the core conflict outside of offering some zen-like wisdom and knowledge. Unfortunately, by that point, the Shazam! family had Steve to offer exposition that needed to be explained or other knowledge that was required for the sake of keeping the plot moving. 

I never understood why Hespera and Kalypso never bothered to kill him anyway. They used him to fix the staff and technically didn't need him anymore. If the lightning bolt was all that was needed to fix the staff, then they merely needed any member of the Shazam! family to do that. That would have been an easy task to get done since even the Wizard succumbed to Kalypso's power of persuasion with minimal resistance, but somehow she had an issue compelling Freddy Freeman to do her bidding later in the film. 

The Shazam! Family

• Frederick "Freddy" Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer and Adam Brody)

• Eugene Choi (Ross Butler and Ian Chen)

• Mary Bromfield (Grace Caroline Currey; replacing Michelle Borth from the first film)

• Darla Dudley (Meagan Good and Faithe Herman)

• Pedro Peña (D.J. Cotrona and Jovan Armand)

Freddy gets the most screen time out of any member of the Shazam! family, except for Billy. Billy's disabled foster brother, Frederick "Freddy" Freeman, is essentially more of the star of this film than Billy Batson is to an extent. We see more of him and his super-powered alter ego more than Billy and his own superhero persona throughout this entire film than any other member of the Shazam! family combined. To Freddy's credit, I found him to be the most entertaining member of the returning cast and he has a natural charm and charisma that makes you want to root for the guy. I love how this film doesn't make his disability a handicap for him either just to garner pity from the viewing audience. With or without the superpowers, we see that Freddy's natural urge to do right outweighs his own capabilities time and time again. He's always willing to put others' first before his own needs and safety. This film goes out of it's way to emphasize Freddy's own degree of heroism, almost to the detriment of Billy's own to the point that it's borderline problematic, especially towards this film's climax. 

(Laughs) Freddy already gets the girl too (Anthea) while Billy struck out big time with Diana (Wonder Woman), but it felt like the film was going out of its way to establish Freddy as a finer hero (especially without powers) than Billy Batson, especially in the eyes of the Wizard. During my initial viewing though, I gave that a massive pass as I saw it as the film showing how the Wizard was warming up to humanity in general, despite losing his faith in them from Billy's blunder that kick-started this mess in the first place.

Darla Dudley's character is essentially unchanged from the first film to this sequel. It's just that Meagan Good seems to have cranked it up to an eleven in terms of how much fun she seems to be having portraying a young girl in an adult body when she's transformed. 

I feel bad for Eugene Choi as his character is just essentially just there and that scene where him and Billy are gaming felt so forced just to play into his "gamer" label from the comics continuity without any context in this film. I honestly assumed that's where he got his knack for wanting to map out the rooms/doors in their lair that houses the Rock of Eternity, but I would totally understand if other viewers didn't see it that way. 

At one point early into the film, I felt there was going to be a subplot with Mary Bromfield desiring to go to college and hang out with people her own age, but outside of one joke where she's clearly suffering from the aftermath from a night of drinking alcohol (i.e. a hangover), it's never brought up again. I thought it was strange that they never addressed why her appearance never changes when she transforms in this film either. If I'm not mistaken, that was a point of contention in the more recent Shazam! related comic books. In either case, that was a bit of a missed opportunity to explore, especially given that Mary and Billy were in the same boat in terms of "growing up." Instead, it felt like she was merely there to be Billy's "guy in the chair" (tech support/intel) in a sense, even though they had Steve for that after the halfway point into the film. To be fair though, Mary and Darla got to share a lot more screentime in the fight sequences than Eugene, Pedro, or Freddy outside of the opening sequence. 

I'm going to bring it up now since I know it's going to be a point of contention once more people see this film in theaters or word of mouth goes around. At one point of the film where the kids finally confess to their foster parents that they are superheroes, Pedro Peña just flat out confesses that he's gay. In the theater that I was watching the film in, I heard a ton of audible groans while I busted out laughing from everyone's reactions in the scene as everyone knew that already and was completely fine with it. I can already hear it right now that people are going to jump to conclusions that this is another example of DC Comics enforcing a "woke" agenda or shoving LGBTQ+ subject manner into another one of their live-action superhero properties. In this case, I honestly didn't see the problem with it. It was painfully obvious in the first film without saying it and it made sense to go ahead and put it out there in this sequel, especially when the future of Shazam! going forward in James Gunn's future DC Studios plans are up in the air. I'm sure the writers figured that they wouldn't have the chance to confirm nor deny this otherwise. I'm sure that there's going to be a certain sect of the audience that thought it was in bad taste to play that reveal up with comedy too, but I think that they are missing the bigger point. 

The overarching theme of this film is bond of family. The Shazam! and Vasquez family stood together no matter what happened in this film, whereas their petty differences nearly destroyed them all when it came to the daughters of Atlas. Everyone openly accepted Pedro Peña for who and what he is without batting an eye and went straight back to business. There was no need to dwell on it nor question his coming out. The fact that his family didn't make a big deal about it was special all on it's own. It gave viewers another reason why the family of outcasts and discarded/unwanted children are closer than the family born by blood that they are up against. It's not much to some people but that's a powerful message to convey to all ages.

The Daughters of Atlas - Anthea / Anne, Kalypso, and Hespera
(Renee Zegler, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren)

The film wastes no time setting things up with the daughters of Atlas at the start of the film. Hespera and Kalypso break into a museum and steal the Wizard's broken staff that Billy snapped in half during the events of the previous film's final battle with Dr. Sivana. They take it back to the Wizard who they've imprisoned and force him to say "Shazam" to repair it and restore its powers. 

This opening sequence give us a clear explanation of these gods' powers, with Kalypso possessing a degree of mind control, forcing her victims to be compelled to do her bidding and act against their own individual will. Hespera possesses a degree of elemental manipulation, even though she shows a degree of telekinesis and possibly magnetism later in the film. I honestly labelled her powers as assorted arcane magic in my head while watching to be honest. 

I don't want to take anything away from these talented actresses but Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu looked every bit of their ages in this film. I thought they did the best with what they were given in these roles as the two antagonists for this film though, especially with Helen Mirren throughout majority of this film's runtime. To be honest, she could have carried this film on her own as the singular titular villainess and it would have been a much, stronger and more cohesive narrative. On the other hand, the lack of a strong family bond was what did the Daughters of Atlas in and what was the key that allowed the Shazam! family to prevail so I'm not going to nitpick too much about that. 

Rachel Zegler's Anthea/Anne was okay but I saw absolutely no surprise in her change of heart in Kalypso and Hespera's revenge plot when it came to dealing with humanity after she began to have feelings for Freddy. Her powers seemed to deal with rearranging and reconstructing various materials. It came off visually impressive, but confusing nonetheless. 

The core of the film saw the daughters of Atlas working together to get the components that they needed to restore their realm and take back the magic that was robbed from them by the ancient wizards. In all seriousness, their reasons for attacking humanity was reasonable, especially after being stripped of the magic that was their lifeblood in a sense. Hespera even calmly states as such in her meeting with Billy Batson later in the film. She's only angry as she sees her father's powers being paraded around by "pretenders" like child's play as if mocking his memory. Out of the three daughters of Atlas, I was surprised that Hespera ended up being the one who could be reasoned with while Kalypso was the one who became fixated and obsessed with revenge, going as far as fatally wounding Hespera and stripping away Anthea's powers and transforming her into a human. 

Kalypso's own arrogance was what did her in as she underestimated Billy's heroism and willingness to sacrifice everything to protect his family. While I didn't have any issues with Lucy Liu's performance, I have to fault the film's writing for making it feel like she merely flipped a switch to go into "final boss" mode for this film's climax when she was more than content with playing second fiddle to Hespera up to that point. All three of the daughters of Atlas could have benefited with a little more screen time to flesh out their motivations for it wouldn't come off as a jarring switch for their characters in the last act. 

Closing Thoughts

Let's clear the air right now. This is a film that won't be getting any awards for stellar storytelling. There's plot holes galore and the lack of any sort of character development or any depth whatsoever for majority of the cast is just sad. Then we have a trio of villains with muddy motivations and even messier and vague power sets that are never fully explained in detail either. And last but not least, a McGuffin (the staff or the apple, take your pick) that the villains technically never needed in the first place to restore their realm and their powers, just the power of a god as shown during the film's finale. 

All of that being said, I can't say that this was among the DC Extended Universe's worst outings, especially when there are far more offensive, awful candidates to wear that crown. 

I will admit that I do have a problem with Wonder Woman's cameo essentially being the resolution to this film's crisis and undoes all of the damage caused by the final battle. If she was going to come in and fix everything then why didn't she show up earlier, especially during the final battle, and lend a hand there? The Daughters of Atlas are members of her Greek pantheon and family tree no less. It wouldn't have been far-fetched to see her lend a hand. It just creates more of a headscratcher in the finale of this film, especially after that line from the Wizard saying that there's no more gods left. 

I do think that's interesting that they would want Shazam! on their team for a future Justice Society film if that ever came to fruition. I thought the JSA were one of the only highlights in the Black Adam film and definitely thought that they all deserved their own film to shine in properly instead of playing second fiddle to Black Adam in his film, but at the same time, I wish Geoff Johns' version of that team that he depicted in the Stargirl TV series on the CW would have gotten at least another season. I would love to see those characters on the silver screen, especially with the same actors and actresses attached. I know it would never happen but that's just wishful thinking. 

Speaking of the Justice Society that appeared in the 2022 Black Adam film, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson allegedly vetoed any semblance of a cameo for those characters to appear in this film alongside Zachary Levi's "goofy" Shazam!. The original plans would have saw Hawkman, Cyclone, and Atomsmasher welcoming Shazam! onto their team in the previously mentioned mid-credits teaser. I guess we can put that talk of nepotism to bed concerning James Gunn just finding a reason to give his wife, Jennifer Holland, more work. Let's not forget that Zachary Levi is his best friend and his reboot slate/plans for DC Studios going forward didn't include Shazam! at all. That could change, but until we see a pattern of Gunn hiring nothing but his friends, colleagues, and his wife throughout this new cinematic universe for DC Comics, then I'm going to hold that nepotism label. 

Speaking of television shows, I think Shazam! would do well as a television series. I feel like these characters would scream the teen drama archetype and audience that a ton of these TV networks keep looking for, especially the CW, when it comes to having these shows on weekly television. That way they would have all of the time in the world to flesh out all of the children of the Shazam! family and go through whatever teen angst they might run into on a daily basis while juggling the burden of having superpowers. I think the whole dynamic between the Shazam! family would lend itself better for television as these two films haven't given all of these characters the time and dedication to depict them with the depth that they need and definitely deserve. They have a great cast here that definitely feels like they aren't being used to the best of their abilities given the time constraints.