Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Starring Zachary Levi, Jack Dylan Grazer, Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren
Directed by David Sandberg
After acquiring the power of the gods from the Wizard (Djimon Honsou), Billy Batson (Asher Angel) becomes the superhero Shazam (Zachary Levi) by saying the name, and he has gifted his power to his surrogate family as well, but their superhero antics are more a nuisance to the people of Philadelphia than a help, at least according to the media. Billy wants to keep his family intact, especially because he's worried that he'll soon "grow out" of the system when he turns eighteen, and like everyone else he's ever loved in life, worries that he'll lose his nuclear family as well. As he keeps trying to control his family, they spread out to live their own lives, especially his best friend Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), who's falling for new girl Anne (Rachel Zegler) and prefers to do the superhero stuff on his own. Then the daughters of Atlas - Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Hespera (Helen Mirren) - arrive to steal back the Wizard's staff that gave Billy his powers, vowing to get their father's power back. They also seek out the golden apple that will bring back the tree of life, and fight over whether or not to enslave mankind for their enslavement of the gods eons ago. Billy and his family must come together to prevent the daughters of Atlas from taking over the world.
"Fury of the Gods" is an interesting little film because there's so much convoluted storytelling that it tries to include it over-stuffs it, with important moments being tossed by the wayside in favor of comedy and big action sequences that, unfortunately, are things that we've seen before (although, I will say, fighting a giant dragon is pretty cool, and surprisingly had some great CGI to it). The main thrust of the film focuses on family (which would make Dom Toretto proud, and also has a funny aside in the film when Billy is talking to Hespera about seeing all the "Fast and the Furious" movies, which is only more meta because Helen Mirren actually stars in some of them), and how they come together and split apart. On one side is Billy's family, which includes a group of young superheroes who want to do the right thing, but ultimately are still children and make more mistakes than their grown-up counterparts. Billy tries to keep them all together, but they want to do their own thing - but still you feel the love. On the other side is the daughters of Atlas, where Kalypso wants to seek vengeance on humanity while Hespera just wants to get her father's powers back, and you sense the squabbling between them as something more nefarious than a family disagreement. The strengths of the film lies with these familial differentiations, but sadly they're very surface level.
The actual plot of the film is a doozy, and one that even Helen Mirren didn't understand. "Don't ask me about the plot," she said in an interview, "it's too complicated." When you have a Dame, who's also an Oscar winner, say something like that, you know you have a problem. Still, I'll try to explain the plot as simply as I can...
*Takes a deep breath*
The daughters of Atlas arrive to steal back their father's staff that the Wizard used to give Billy his powers and he in turn gave powers to his siblings to make them god-like superheroes because they feel that the powers were stolen from their father and want to get it back so they set out to get the powers that were given to Billy and his siblings and take them back for themselves while also by happenstance finds a golden apple that will bring back the Tree of Life but Kalypso wants to unleash it on earth because then it will bring about the end of humanity which creates a rift between the sisters and then she rides on a dragon after they create a dome around Philadelphia and plant the apple that brings about the Greek monsters that wreak havoc in the City of Brotherly Love while Billy and his siblings play the ultimate game of dodgeball as they keep trying to avoid being zapped and losing their powers and Freddy falls for the new girl Anne who isn't who she claims to be while the Wizard who was kidnapped by the daughters of Atlas escapes his prison to help Billy and his family fight them while Billy struggles with the worry he's losing his family and that he doesn't deserve his powers because he's still too young and doesn't think he can do it right while the family bands together to fight the daughters, the dragon, and the mythical creatures running amok in their city that they can't escape from because of the dome that's surrounding it.
*Takes another deep breath*
So yeah, a rather complicated story indeed.
Still, despite this, the film works due to the great performances and the heartfelt story that's beating somewhere in the middle of it all. While Asher Angel is sidelined throughout most of the film (a small detriment, since it's what made the first so great), Zachary Levi is more than capable to bear the weight of the film as he speaks for Billy about his fears and insecurities. The film works best when it's focused on the family, and like every family there comes a time to move on, but for Billy he doesn't want that to happen. Jack Dylan Grazer also performs well, even though he comes off as the most annoying character for pretty much abandoning his family for a girl he just met, but then again he's young and hormones and all that stuff. Lucy Liu worked well with what she had, and it was fun seeing Dame Helen Mirren taking on a more action role and both really seemed to enjoy themselves even though Mirren said that their costumes were "unbelievably heavy costumes...very hot and uncomfortable."
Despite its flaws, like most families, "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" comes together in the end, offering another family-friendly superhero adventure that's got the heart and action, but a convoluted storyline prevents it from being spectacular. Still, it's a breezy watch, where you're not particularly bored at any moment, and will find yourself chuckling a few times as well.
The Score: A-
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