Shazam, Fury of the Gods

Okay so I am a huge fan of the first Shazam movie, I think the Shazam family is great (there was a new comic this year that was awesome) and honestly I just love yelling SHAZAM! That said, when I found out there was going to be a second one I was excited, then I saw the trailer and my excitement waned a little bit. And of course the general public's reaction was not great. But we know I don’t really care about public opinion. I love Rachel Ziegler so let's see how this goes. This is my official review of Shazam, Fury of the Gods.

I love that these kids have worked out like a code phrase for when they need to go be superheroes. The family angle has always been the appeal of Shazam if we’re being honest. Still not wild about how they white washed Billy Batson, but at least he's a white kid turning into a white man and not a little hispanic kid turning into a white guy. The main complaint against Zachary Levi is that he plays his Shazam like Billy’s a lot younger than he is and to that I say, you’ve never talked to boys. Boys of 35 still talk and act like their teenagers so to say that he should be more mature not only misses the point of the character but also disregards that teenage boys and toddlers are virtually the same.

Mary is my favorite forever and always. This all or nothing rule is cute and all but it's not practical. Mary just wants to have a life. And apparently Billy is now 18 which I think was a mistake. I understand that they are trying to push life changes and you’ve got to grow up, but we only got 1 movie with Billy as a kid. Him being a helpless child who turns into a superhero grown man is like the whole point. I think aging him up was a horrible decision.

Having Wonder Woman in the movie but not having Wonder Woman in the movie was such a bad decision. Why am I watching a random woman in a wig without seeing her face? It was just so unnecessary. There was no need for it. I guess Shazam was just kind of riding the fact that the first one had a cameo without a cameo with Superman, but that was an end credit thing, not a main scene. Waste of time.

The kids decipher what the powers of the staff are and Billy acts like he wasn't told that when he was granted his powers. It's very much like the writer of this movie didn’t watch the first one. Which is really embarrassing because they used clips from the first movie.

Honestly the writing of this movie seems kind of all over the place. I have a really hard time not rooting for the villains on this one. The writing for the kids is really disjointed. I knew when the family came into it that we were going to have a hard time maintaining their dynamic and individual voices. DC has a severe structure and fundamentals problem. Most of their movies are demonstrations in what not to do in screenwriting 101 and unfortunately this movie is no different.

Halfway through this movie and the structure is really wonky. Like time wise we are supposed to be in act 2, and there is a clear “we tried to fight but the obstacles were too much moment” but the plot is so weak. Also the fight choreography is really bad.

Yeah the general public was right on this one. The writing lacked structure, context and forethought. It's like the first movie never happened, they seemed to start where the first one left off but apparently the characters knew nothing. The basic logline concept of this movie was fine, but every element of the execution was terrible. I am really ready for James Gunn’s reset because DC as it stands now is just so terrible. And we still have to sit through Aquaman this year. Overall the movie gets a 3/10…and I think that is pretty generous.