I’m just going to come out and say it: The superhero movies made by DC Studios and Warner Brothers have been awful. Officially beginning with Suicide Squad in 2016, the 12 films have ranged from tedious to unwatchable. The only decent one is 2017’s Wonder Woman, which succeeds on the strength of the pitch-perfect performance by Gal Gadot in the leading role. Now, with the release of Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the DC franchise machine finds itself in a strange position: Its down-market product is better than its marquee product.
Shazam has always been a fascinating also-ran in comic book history. The character was created by Fawcett Comics in early 1939, only months after Superman made his debut. Captain Marvel, as he was originally called, was the star of best-selling superhero comic books of the 1940s. Then, National Comics sued for copyright infringement, and by the mid-’50s, they owned Captain Marvel and rebranded as DC Comics — which became a real sticking point between them and their rival, Marvel comics, who had their own Captain Marvel. Long story and many billable legal hours later, the original Captain Marvel is now known by his catchphrase Shazam and played by Zachary Levi, and the Marvel Captain Marvel is a billion-dollar character played by Brie Larson.
While WB was bleeding money in two unsuccessful attempts to make Justice League watchable, the first Shazam felt like an afterthought — and was all the better for it. The sequel, Fury of the Gods, also seems to have benefited from benign neglect at the studio executive level. (That seems to be the key to successfully making a film in the Hollywood system right now: Get enough money to make the movie, but don’t let the budget get big enough that the money guys actually feel threatened by it.)
Why do I call Shazam “down-market”? Well, in Justice League, the A-team superheroes are trying to stop the A-team super villains from destroying the world. In Fury of the Gods, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) is trying to save Philadelphia. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Philly is a fine city, full of history and cheesesteak. If I were in Philly, I would certainly hope a civically focused superhero would save us when two magical beings named Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu) reclaim the magic staff that the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) used to bestow the power of the gods on Shazam. But Batson is still a kid at heart (and also physically, when he’s not Shazam-ed up), so all this pressure is really getting to him. He’s trying to lead the super-team he created when he bestowed magical powers on his fellow foster kids, but they’re increasingly put off by his leadership style. Billy’s facing some major imposter syndrome when a new girl shows up at school. Anne (Rachel Zegler) takes an interest in Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), one of the Shazam fam who walks with a cane when in kid form. She baits and charms Freddy into revealing his super-form (“Captain Everypower”) before revealing that she is actually the goddess Anthea, third sister to Hespera and Kalypso. With his super-team fractured and Philadelphia trapped under a Simpsons Movie-like dome, Shazam must save the day.
Lucy Liu understands how much mustard to put on lines like “Ladon, World-Eater, rise from the pit!” Helen Mirren phones it in while munching on cheesesteaks, and she’s perfect. When Jack Dylan Glazer is following Rachel Zegler around like a puppy, it feels accurate because what high school geek wouldn’t react that way? In fact, the film only runs into big problems when it dwells on Levi as Shazam. Imagine Tim Allen trying to play Superman.
My beef with superhero blockbusters isn’t that they’re trash — I love well-made trash. It’s that they’re badly executed, ruinously expensive trash. Batman v. Superman thinks it’s Shakespeare. The Joker thinks it’s Scorsese. Shazam! Fury of the Gods knows it’s trash and just tries to be entertaining.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
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