SHAZAM! 2: Lightning Boogaloo
Is it too late to change the title of SHAZAM! Fury Of The Gods to SHAZAM 2: Lightning Boogaloo or SHA2AM? It was among the DC movies originally scheduled to premiere last year before the WBD merger shuffled or cancelled projects. David Zaslav still having the top job at Warner Bros. only makes sense in Bizarro World. This sequel is the first of four DC films scheduled to release in 2023, but I still worry Blue Beetle & Aquaman 2 aren’t safe. Speak “SHAZAM!” to see sequel SPOILERS! You don’t even need to be reading this at .
Captain Cheesesteak has to settle for Skittles since Babybel funded the wrong Captain Marvel!
If you enjoyed the first flick, you’ll dig this too. It’s not a grimdark slog! Director David F. Sandberg once again makes it feel like a loving throwback to 80’s family adventure movies that sporadically featured horrific murders. The script by Henry Gayden & Chris Morgan keeps the same adventurous spirit. The humor is consistently amusing in that it highlights how goofy the property can be without being insulting or embarrassed.
Jokes about codenames may be played out in the MCU, but here they’re about making lemonade from lemons. Due to complicated legal shenanigans, DC no longer has the Captain Marvel trademark. (Meanwhile nerds debate about whether introducing himself as SHAZAM automatically transforms him or if there must be transformative intent when uttered. Should all the Shazamily share the same supranym? Why not Shaz-Man & Shaz-Ma’am?) The character formerly known as Captain Marvel Jr. refers to the lead as his sidekick, Captain Everypower Jr. The media calls the team “The Philly Fiascos” because they’re much better at saving lives than infrastructure like the fragile Ben Franklin Bridge. There is one time where they didn’t save either, but they get a pass on not evacuating that building.
With origins out of the way, the movie devotes its runtime to set piece spectacle & teen angst. It’s literally self-contained, which handily explains why other characters from the shared universe are only on the periphery of its apocalyptic plot. WB frustratingly spoiled Diana’s guest appearance in TV commercials. The Rock reportedly turned down an offer to cameo because he thinks he’s too cool for Teth-Adam’s archnemesis besides Uncle Dudley. (If Shazadam was truly an anti-hero, he would’ve been in Taylor Swift’s music video instead of Giganta!) Don’t worry about watching Black Adam first or at all.
There’s been controversy over whether S:FOTG matters if The Flash is going to reset the DC movieverse. (I thought the discourse over whether the first one was canon since it forgot to include the introductory DC vanity plate was bad!) Of course this concern may be irrelevant if the movie is set after the events of The Flash regardless of their release order. (Is Black Adam attempting to retcon a key part of SHAZAM! to make its lead less villainous also The Flash’s fault?) It was completed in October, so nothing has been adjusted for the “Gods & Monsters” phase of DC Studios. The movie is a blast regardless of how it fits into continuity.
This is the real reason the Shazamily’s suits changed. The texturing is more Hellenic rather than lightning bolts, & the tigers on the cape clasps have been replaced by lions. Give Pedro back the vibrant green! He dresses too much like Shazadam now. Mary looks like Wonder Woman & Supergirl (good edit, bad take) fused. Overall, the changes are a lateral move aside from superfluous silver staples.
Billy Batson becomes the world’s mightiest mortal when he says the magic name TJMAXX! Zachary Levi remains enjoyable as the character formerly known as Captain Marvel. (Apparently Levi is also an anti-vaxxer like the stars of Wakanda Forever & Quantumania. I haven’t actually read whatever nonsense they’ve posted so it’s easier to separate them from their characters.) Levi is very intense as a stressed out superhero. This arguably doesn’t mesh with Asher Angel as his mortal alter ego, who isn’t in the movie as much as you’d expect. (.) So either Levi needs to take it down a notch to match, or Billy is just more emotionally expressive in champion mode because people can shift their behavior for different contexts.
Despite having gained catharsis to his childhood trauma, Billy now has impostor syndrome & feels responsible for keeping his foster family unified. His siblings point out Billy remains foolish despite Solomon being the first of his acronym. The story doesn’t explain the outlier inclusion of the Israelite king, of whom Billy is shockingly ignorant. How did he fail at eating matter?
Aged of of the foster system, Mary sacrificed her college aspirations to help supplement her loving yet cash-stapped family. Instead of transforming into Michelle Borth, Mary Batson Bromfeld now remains Grace Fulton Caroline Currey when she Shazamifies. (Young Justice: Phantoms did her dirty.) It’s possible that champion selves no longer changes appearance once “adulthood” is reached, which Black Adam supports. Billy & Freddie are supposed to turn eighteen in a few months, so will Levi & Adam Brody be out of jobs in a potential threequel? Making the kids high schoolers may’ve been a mistake, although they couldn’t have foreseen COVID delays. (It’s been four years since the first, although half the time has passed in universe.) Or did Mary simply no longer want to appear that distinct when powered up?
#ReleaseTheTawkyTawnyCut
Is Rachel Zegler playing Tawky Tawny as promised? Why doesn’t she have striped fur & a green tweed outfit? Why are they calling her Anthea? A harpy kills David Sandberg for lying about her role. I haven’t been this disappointed since Kevin Feige told me the third Captain America flick would be about the Serpent Society! I saw the movie’s subtitle misspelled as Furry Of The Gods; we’d have definitely gotten in that movie! Darla calls an orange kitten Tawny, but I’m not counting it since it doesn’t speak English.
If Ares killed all Olympians prior to WWI according to Wonder Woman, how are they antagonists here? Are Titans not Gods, in which case the title doesn’t compute? Is this another thing The Flash movie somehow butterfly affected? The Daughters Of Atlas sound more like Wonder Woman villains. I associate SHAZAM more with fighting kooky Silver Age foes like The Monster Society Of Evil. Of course Wonder Woman doesn’t solely battle mythological beings either. The Hesperides are a sensible addition to his mythos given his powers & origin. On the other paw, hardcore fans are disappointed his classic rogues gallery has been eschewed in favor of what are essentially original characters.
The Hesperides were sealed away in a decrepit interdimensional realm. By breaking the staff, Billy inadvertently freed them. Their names & number vary drastically, but the movie goes with Hespera (Dame Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), & Tawky Tawny Anthea (Rachel Zegler). They are very angry that The Wizard stole the power of their father & his kin. (It’s not explained why he stopped being dead, but it’s keen that Djimon Hounsou gets the expanded role he deserves. He & Jacob Dyan Grazer’s Freddy Freeman are a fun double act.) So not do they want to reclaim their power, they also want to restore their realm’s health with one of their golden apples. While they don’t care about pitiful humans, their grievances are justified. Their antics seem like something Circe could’ve done in Wonder Woman 3, which may be another factor in it getting scrapped. It’s a superhero sequel, so it’s obligatory they depower the heroes.
Elemental Hespera has Granny Goodness vibes. The Dynamo Dame secretly broke a finger by insisting on doing her own stunts. Kalypso is the chaos-inducing middle child you need to watch out for. It’s refreshing to watch Lucy Liu cut loose again. Although she’s not a talking tigress as promised, Rachel Zegler is still enchanting as Atlas’s youngest daughter, Anthea, armed with the amazing ability to rearrange geography. (She seems like a genuinely lovely person, so it’s a bummer a surfeit of haters are out to rain on her parade.)
There are a lot of characters in this movie, yet it’s surprisingly deft at incorporating them in a coherent story. One shortcoming is that they give each other emotional speeches whilst carnage is happening around them. The cast is talented enough that these pep talks still feel genuine even if the connective tissue has been trimmed to the bone. Realistically you’d expect the heroes & villains to dispense with the dialogue until after the dust clears, but then the action would be heartless. The pacing being a bit off is a necessary evil. The movie runs two hours & ten minutes, & it needs to be that long to give everyone a little something to do.
The movie looks great in IMAX, as attested by my yet to smudged new spectacles. Gyula Pados’s cinematography for the high production values is crisp. Seeing Philadelphia get wrecked instead of the typical disaster cities is refreshing. The monsters have Ray Harryhausen on steroids vibes. Ladon the literal tree dragon has a great design in addition to inducing great fear without gas or a yellow ring. Eugene catalogs the floating doors at The Rock Of Eternity, which even contains an intriguing burning violin!
Michael Gray of the SHAZAM! TV series cameos in distinctive Billy Batson attire. PJ Byrne (Firestorm in the underrated Justice League Action!) & Diedrich Bader represent DC voice actors in bit parts. (Cooper Andrews also previously voiced Aquaman.) It’s unclear if Lotta Losten & Rizwan Manji are reprising their prior DC roles, although Natalia Safran is surely someone else as per usual. Sinbad doesn’t appear despite FanDome 2020.
Mr. Mind was originally going to bring The Daughters Of Atlas into this world, but it was decided it’d overcomplicate the movie. He returns in the best stinger lampshading patience since the third first Spider-Man. Dr. Thad Sivana becomes an audience surrogate. With DC Studios rejiggering the board, I’m worried it’ll be dangling forever. Hopefully there will be a third movie for him to spread his hyperfly wings! If there isn’t, however, this is a fittingly meta note for him to go out on.
For once I’m glad the distracting staples on Billy’s suit aren’t painted on his McFarlane Toys figure. Its only other toy is a retooled Wonder Woman without hot dog thighs. Why did they make a removable tiara if they weren’t going to engineer it to slot under the hair of her new head? Way to Mattel that up, Todd! She never throws it like a boomerang in this movie, so it’s another WW84 toy that’s not Cheetah. The Shazamily & Daughters Of Atlas got snubbed! Compared to Black Adam & The Flash, the studio is doing the bare minimum to support this.
The opening box office is not sensational, which disappoints fans of quality films about less popular superheroes. The self-perpetuating narrative that it’s tanking is extra frustrating since it started before the box office weekend ended. What’s your rush, news cycle? Now Snyder Bros & people who are weirdly obsessed with comic book adaptations dying off (Where are all the cinephiles rooting for an end to murder mysteries & biopics?) are going to be extra smug. It’s disheartening that this interview with Sandberg implies it’s a forgone conclusion there he won’t return.
Regardless of the the buzz & box office, this is a worthy successor with minimal shortcomings. (Not having more talking caterpillar or any talking tiger are arguably big flaw, but sometimes you have to review the movie as it exists rather than how you want it to be.) Even if we never get a third movie showcasing Mr. Mind, I appreciate the two movies exceeding my expectations.
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So after my surprise rage over Willow being axed, showrunner Jon Kasdan says this isn’t necessarily accurate. It’s just not going into production in the near future. His three-part explanation is quite thorough & upbeat. If a lengthy Writer’s Guild strike is on the horizon, it may make sense to not to put pricey series back into production until after that’s settled. Hopefully when Disney figures out its streaming priorities, they’ll commit to making the last two volumes of Willow. If needs be, could the next two volumes be animated with the original cast doing voice work ala “What If…?”? We’ve lost too many good series to cancellations lately. Although I like Marvel & Star Wars too, Disney+ ought to recognize it can afford to diversify its egg-holding baskets.
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Return for my review of Riverdale’s final season premiere next week! Maybe the third D&D movie will follow?
