It is no secret that DC has had a rough time in the cinematic universe space, with the dark tones of Man of Steel and Justice League (and all the murdering) made it so only heroes who could have dark tones would be on the big screen. But just as the DCEU seemed to be winding up we got new life with films like Aquaman and of course Shazam. Now in what could be considered the last days before the Dawn of DC we see if lightning can strike twice with Shazam: Fury of the Gods.
For those who aren’t familiar (and honestly it would help to see the previous film before watching the new one but we will do our best to recap here – so spoiler warnings for the first Shazam film) Shazam is one of the older properties from DC. Originally published under Fawcett Comics and debuting about a year after Superman in DC Comics – Shazam was like Superman… but switch the Sci-Fi for magic.
Gifted the powers of the gods by the Wizard Shazam, the young orphan Billy Batson would change into his adult self when he said the words Shazam with a lightning bolt coming down to transform into Captain Marvel! Well not Captain Marvel any more, as the character was renamed during a cataclysmic event involving the Flash called Flashpoint in the comics where timelines changed making Captain Marvel no more, replacing Captain Marvel with the Shazam kids after Billy shared his power with the other kids in his foster home.
While not beat for beat the comics that is actually pretty similar to the plot from the first movie, except sub in a villain (Doctor Sivana) who also sought after the Power of Shazam for his own. In the comics the Scientist Sivana was the Lex Luthor to Captain not Marvel’s Superman.
Fast Forward to the latest (and possibly last?) instalment of the Shazam with it being some time since Billy defeated Sivana by destroying the staff that gave both Billy (and Sivana at the time) powers. Billy and his family (including Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel Jr aka Freddy Freeman who were the original Shazam family prior to Flashpoint). Unknown to Billy the staff that gave him powers actually originally took those powers from the Gods and sealed them off from the human realm with some obvious exceptions (points at the demi-god Wonder Woman who was the child of Zeus and niece to Hades who was just wandering around earth during WW1).
Much like the original film the new one does split time between the adult and child version of the Shazam kids (except for Mary Marvel who is older and doesn’t really change except for the lightning bolt and cape). The Gods, or daughters of Gods, have returned to earth and are kinda pissed and want their powers back plus a little payback from being locked away giving a lot of reason to see the depowered versions of some of the characters.
As a film Fury of the Gods is entertaining enough for you to suspend belief and walk into cold but there isn’t any time spent on what occurred on the prior film to catch you up (which can be good as Bruce’s Parents and Uncle Ben can only die so many times). While there is some time spent at the Rock of Eternity most of the film has bright characters doing super things and as far as the special effects go, not seeming to use the current technique in Marvel films giving a little more feeling like things are happening against the backdrop of Philadelphia for the most part.
So should you go see it? We honestly do not know what is going to happen post Dawn of DC but there are enough parts of Shazam to connect it to the bigger picture and we already know some pre-flashpoint events will continue thanks to Peacemaker or Aquaman still coming out post The Flash movie mid-this year. If you are looking for some wholesome superhero’ing with a cheesy/slightly immature cast of characters without requiring a heap of homework before you can watch then this is absolutely worth it and if you loved the first one then this is a good continuation too. But maybe pickup a packet of Skittles to go with your movie watching in the cinema.
