“Shazam: Fury of the Gods” was released on March 17, 2023, and it’s been receiving mixed opinions since. From raving statements to overwhelming disappointments, here’s my review of the newly released DCEU movie. Warning: spoilers are included in the review.

“Shazam: Fury of the Gods” is a continuation of the first “Shazam!” movie released in 2019. The movie franchise continues its theme revolving around family, but unfortunately, the movie doesn’t have much focus on character development. From lack of elaboration to artificial portrayals, the characters don’t get to show their more complex emotions and everything feels surface level. Also, the resolution at the end felt rushed and was sloppily put together; it wasn’t the most satisfying end to the conflict. Overall, the poor character development is something that I personally am disappointed in. The first “Shazam!,” after all, was focused on the development of Billy and his relationship with his new foster family, which was a large factor in why fans enjoyed that movie so much. Unfortunately, the writers instead decided to exchange character development time for an extended amount of on-screen combat. 

The main combat is created when the three new supervillains from Greek mythology, daughters of Atlas Hespera, Kalypso, and Anthea, decide to attack the super family to regain the powers granted to the kids. With the sisters’ powers regained from the Wizard’s staff, they’re on the classic supervillain rampage to take revenge. The action was pretty packed, with spectacular CGI and tons of moments to cheer on the heroes. However, most of the sequences have been done before and nothing about the combat was particularly unique. Even the resurrection of Billy was a classic sike move, although Wonder Woman with the rock music was a nice touch. Also with the extended amount of action on screen, the entire movie felt dragged, leaving me wanting more. 

One positive about the movie was its very classic feel with a touch of humor. Although the plot is simple and repetitive and there wasn’t as much character development, the movie still had a sense of nostalgia that I loved. Everything was easy to follow and wasn’t too tied into the lore. It was a simple, action-packed, feel-good superhero movie that anybody could watch, even if they had never watched DC before. There were many scenes with some laughs that added to the whole nostalgic feel and helped give the film some extra oomph.

Overall, “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” is a solid 7/10. It was a pretty entertaining movie to watch for fun, but I wouldn’t call it the best of the franchise. Hopefully, we will get to see Billy Batson and his family again with a more accurate portrayal if DC Studios decides to make another installment.