Shazam! Fury of the Gods 4K 2023

The second 'Shazam!' was somewhat perplexing from the very beginning. It is not clear for whom and why they decided to make a sequel at all, considering that the first part did not really shoot out. It was a mediocre superhero flick which offered little in the way of original and truly interesting, no unique auteur's vision, no special staging. Yet here it is, 'Fury of the Gods', which predictably failed to live up to even the lowest of expectations.

The problem with 'Fury of the Gods' is exactly the same as with the first film - it is an empty, disposable bubblegum, which does not strike the imagination of modern viewers with anything. Yes, instead of one Shazam, there's a whole bunch of them flying around, and the Dominic Toretto theme of family, disguised as superheroics, is again a leitmotif, but it's nothing new. And the film doesn't even try to present itself with some delicious sauce, no, it's a bland, tasteless comic book movie without a core of its own, without a distinctive feature that would allow the film to stick in the memory.

Although, no, there is such a feature, only it does not embellish the film at all. It is Zachary Levi. His overacting and gyrations are so repulsive that it will take a long time to get them out of your mind. At the same time, Billy Batson in his normal guise in the film about eighteen years old, that is, call it a child well do not. And in his human, teenage form of Billy behaves plus or minus his age. But for some reason, Zachary Levi is acting as if the almighty hero is not an eighteen-year-old boy, but a five-year-old with a developmental delay. And you have to take into account that all the other kids in the guise of superheroes also behave generally for their age. That makes Levi's solo clowning look even more aloof and defiant of common sense.

What else is good to say about the film? The picture does not impress the comic, and the action does not offer anything roof over the top and giving delight. This, by the way, has always amazed me about comics - why does the fantasy of the creators of 'Fast and Furious' work ten, hundred times better than the fantasy of Marvel/DC writers, who write about god-like and all-powerful creatures?

Lucy Liew and Helen Mirren, who play one-line empty villains, stand out in the cast with their big names. It was nice to watch the lovely Grace Fulton, it would be better if the sequel was entirely devoted to her, not to Levi the clown. The heroine Grace and the storyline could be more interesting, something on the level of Raimi's 'Spider-Man 2', when Parker was trying to combine superheroism and everyday life.

The cherry on top of a very modest cupcake of good things in the sequel to 'Shazam' is a cameo by Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. This is someone who is always relevant and who is always nice to see in modern DC comics.