Shazam: Fury Of The Gods (2023)
Dir: David F Sandberg
Writers: Henry Gayden; Chris Morgan; Bill Parker
Starring: Zachary Levi; Lucy Liu; Helen Mirren
by Paul Bernardo paulieb2003@gmail.com
If you loved Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), and nobody did, than you are going to love Shazam: Fury of the Gods (2023)!!! Every big moment is belittled with humor. Every serious character is belittled and devalued by humor. I remember one scene that was so bad – Freddie and The Wizard were going to steal something from the venomous Lucy Liu (because she is so teriffying) and Freddie says “No, I’ll go” “Why you?” “Because your knees creek when you walk”. Boom! Out of the moment, the scene is no longer serious or dramatic or interesting. I mean, If it were Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon, sure – a throwaway works in those moments from one cop to another. But a Grand Wizard and a Superhero? Nope. Does not fly at all. Brings us all out of the moment and sends us on our way down the hall for more popcorn. That’s what it does.
Billy Batson in this movie is about to turn 18. Pretty old for a kid to wish he was a Superhero. Too old for kid fantasies and kid behavior. The movie tries to turn away from Billie not belonging anywhere since he is a kid, to being taken away from his foster parents and being put into a home on his own. So that’s another problem. Shazam has real world problems now, no longer just a kid fantasizing about righting the world and becoming a Superhero for a little while to feel like a grown up. He literally now is a grown up. So that’s gone.
Let’s talk about Lucy Liu being a villain. Really? Not only the main villain, but more evil than Helen Mirren? Really? Lucy Liu? The Charlie’s Angel? Who was cast as a Charlie’s Angels because she is cute, non-threatening and fun? Now she is cast as the exact opposite? What? How? Lucy Liu from Kung Fu Panda and all the Tinker Bell movies? Lucy Liu who is 5’3” ? I’m sorry, what casting director said yes to this and why weren’t they fired on the spot? I mean it’s Lucy v Shazam. Really? At least get someone near 6’0 and who isn’t cute as a button.
I know I’m dumping on this pretty hard so let’s look at some good things. Mary. Mary is a good thing. Grace Currey plays Mary, and wow is she nice. I mean she fills out the uniform very nicely, she has good presence on film and she is the only one you can take seriously in this movie. I hope she gets some other roles because I think she is the only person who came out of this movie without a ton of dung on them.
Okay back to the bad, because yes, there is still a ton of it. Rachel Zegler plays Anthea. Now Anthea is the sister of Lucy Liu and Helen Mirren. Except Lucy is 55 years old. Helen is 77 years old. Rachel is 16 or 17. So yea, there’s another problem. Why is Rachel in high school? Why would a daughter of Atlas have to go to school? I don’t know. Why is she so young? I don’t know. How are they sisters? We don’t know. So Rachel is really really out of place here. The other awkward part is, she stops using her powers halfway through and she still walks around school and the city in her evil superhero costume. I’m like – someone let this kid go home and change please. A 16 year old walking around in a superhero costume and going to math class is just ridiculous. Why would the other sisters, 55 and 77 even listen to a word she has to say? Who knows. This movie is just out of left field and it shows aplenty. I think an 8th grader could have written a better script. There is no logic to this 2hr and 10min fiasco.
I don’t think anyone was watching the dailies on this at all. I think this was just a throwaway film that was already budgeted for, and they had to release it no matter what, so who cares. I mean nothing is being built upon this anyway. DC has James Gunn taking over who is bringing in his own people, own Superman, own everything – so who cares about Shazam? This movie clearly was not supervised by the studio or by anyone who knew what they were doing. This was like an 8th grade science project gone horribly wrong. I know it was delayed until movie theaters reopened, but this should have been tossed as a tax write off.
Let me just say this about Zachary Levi. Love the guy – he is great on camera, he is great as Shazam. Will he continue to be Shazam, no one knows yet. I love what he does, I love what he made of Shazam and this is not on him. He has admitted on social media that this film got no backing or support from the studio, and they were just left to do the best they can with nothing. Picking Lucy Liu has a villain is really horrendous casting though – no matter what your budget. Way better off going with an unknown to the do the job. Helen Mirren is great, but that’s one villain out of three.
I do hope to see Zachary in other movies – I think he loves this genre and I would love to see him get another shot, the way John Cena got 3 years of flops before becoming friends with Gunn. Zachary has way more talent then John Cena and I hope to see him get just as many chances as John did.
