Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The DCEU continues with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the sequel to the 2019 DC superhero smash hit that stars Zachary Levi as the titular character, the original comic book character named Captain Marvel. This DCEU installment sees Billy Batson and his adopted siblings use their god based powers to take on the Daughters of Atlas. The three powerful beings seek to take the powers taken from their fallen families and spread out punishment towards the mortal world. While this still carries some of the energetic and over the top fun from the first movie, a lot of the writing does feel lacking. Unlike the last one, Billy stays in his superhero form far longer and thus Asher Angel only appears for at best ten minutes. The transitions between Billy and Shazam is also a bit spotty since their personalities don't match immediately, unlike the rest of the characters when they change. While it's obvious that the sequel was meant to have Black Adam, and changed due to Dwayne Johnson's control over the character, the writing does do a good job at making the Daughters work within the narrative and give very memorable performances thanks to Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, and Rachel Zegler. David F. Sandberg's direction still has a good mixture of childlike wonder and surprisingly done horror elements. Add to that some very well done and creative action scenes that have good effects and editing thanks to Michel Aller. The highlight is of course the performances not just from the leads and villains but also the rest of the adopted family especially Jack Dylan Grazer, their own superhero personas, and Djimon Hounsou returning as the wizard. Sadly, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is not a very strong follow up, but it still manages to be very memorable and entertaining on its own right. Over all: 80%

2023 top list so far:

1. Creed III

2. Scream VI

3. M3GAN

4. Cocaine Bear

5. Knock at the Cabin

6. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

7. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania