Reel Review Roundup

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (MA)

Directed by: David F. Sandberg

Starring: Zachery Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu

Review by: Julian Wright

A group of teens/foster siblings who can turn into their superhero alter egos battle vengeful Gods in this long and uninspired sequel to the hit DC film.

While dealing with the usual teenage awkward, angsty situations, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) aka Shazam tries to keep his superhero family on the same track, while concealing their identities from their parents.

They are suddenly faced with the daughters of Atlas, Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Ziegler), who regain control of and mend a broken staff that holds vast powers.

A mighty, city leveling battle ensues between the two camps.

While the first Shazam was a fun, funny and cheeky addition to the seemingly endless superhero sub-genre (or is it its own genre now?), this follow up is a dreary, stale and overblown headache.

The cast playing the superheroes get to have some fun, but the films greatest sin is casting Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as vengeful sister Gods, and having them deliver boring, one-note performances.

Liu hardly registers any inflections in her dialogue delivery, and Mirren is surprisingly wooden.

Heck, even the Fast and Furious let Mirren ham it up.

This film even has a dragon and it is still dull.

This entry was posted on March 23, 2023 at 6:51 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.