SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS
Under The Dome
RELEASED OUT NOW! 12A | 130 minutes
Director David F Sandberg
Cast Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren,
Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler
Back in 2019, the first Shazam! brought much-needed heart and levity to a DCEU at risk of drowning in its own portentousness. Three years on and one Black Adam later, with James Gunn and Peter Safran’s course-correct yet to bear fruit, those same qualities seem to be more needed than ever.
If anything, though, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods represents something of a backwards step into the kind of overblown, Cg-heavy bombast that characterised the Zack Snyder DC era.
Yes, there’s still fun to be had from a wish-fulfilling premise that has foster kid Billy (Asher Angel) turn himself and his friends into invincible superheroes with the help of just two syllables. Once
Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu’s vengeful goddesses turn up to take back the powers they claim Billy stole from them, however, the playful humour gets increasingly sidelined in favour of a numbing production line of battle scenes, the last of which acts as a virtual roll call for Ray Harryhausen’s creature back-catalogue.
An opening rescue mission on Philadelphia’s Ben Franklin Bridge gets things off to a zesty start, while a much-trailed (and potentially final) cameo from a popular DC regular provides a pleasing treat for fans.
For all the boyish glee Zachary Levi brings to Billy’s cape-wearing alter-ego, though, this blunderbuss sequel feels weirdly straitjacketed – something it shares with its host city, which spends much of the film beneath the same sort of dome that kept Springfield confined in The Simpsons Movie. Neil Smith
Annabelle, the diabolical doll from the Conjuring franchise, features in the scene where Shazam consults a therapist.