By Laura BennettMonday 20 Mar 2023Hope AfternoonsMoviesReading Time: 3 minutes
When a movie doesn’t do well, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why at the moment: is it the general disinterest we have in cinema releases? Was the story sub-par? Are the woes of our real-world enough without picking up those of an imagined one?
Shazam: Fury of the Gods is the follow up to the 2019 release that introduced us to Billy Batson (Zachary Levi/Asher Angel), a teenager who inherits superhuman abilities from a powerful wizard when he utters the word “shazam”.
At the end of the last movie Billy shared his powers with his fellow foster kids, and now they’re all juggling their superhero lives with their teenage commitments. The only problem is, a trio of ancient gods (Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Rachel Zegler) aren’t too happy about humans sharing in their gifts, so they seek out Billy and his family to get them back.
With a budget of $US100 million, on its opening weekend in America Shazam: Fury of the Gods made just $US11.7 million – compared to $US53 million for the first film in 2019.
So, are cost-of-living pressures holding us back? Is it “superhero film fatigue”? Or is the movie just bad?
Unfortunately for Shazam: Fury of the Gods, it could be that the very thing the film’s anchored on is its greatest challenge.
Unfortunately for Shazam: Fury of the Gods, it could be that the very thing the film’s anchored on is its greatest challenge.
Billy Batson becoming an adult with powers on command frames this corner of the DC extended universe. However, what results is a hero who’s dopey, juvenile and comparatively immature against figures like Superman or Batman purely because you’ve got a man trying to play a teen.
You can’t erase what makes Shazam distinct from other DC heroes, but there’s a disconnect between Asher Angel’s portrayal of Billy vs. Zachary Levi’s that could’ve been overcome if when Billy got his powers, he also grew up a bit too. Instead, the reverse happens because the adult version of Billy seems far less grounded and leader-like than his adolescent counterpart.
For instance, it’s adult-Billy who awkwardly swoons over Wonder Woman and makes bad pun jokes, whereas teen-Billy is more concerned about his family and what’ll happen when he ages out of the foster care system.
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Young teens – who are admittedly the target market – may accept this stumbling block if they see themselves in the character of Billy, but there’s little in Shazam: Fury of the Gods to make you think any of the stakes are very high.
With such a big budget, Shazam: Fury of the Gods might win you over with the scale of the effects and the intergalactic threats it introduces but while those have ramped up since the first movie, it gets more bang for buck with something far simpler.
In an early scene adult-Billy lays on a doctor’s lounge talking about how inadequate he feels to have the responsibility he does. He’s got a severe case of imposter syndrome, and although he may look like an adult on the outside, inside, he’s still just a boy dealing with being abandoned as a child and the way his family’s changing as everyone gets older.
Billy’s dilemma speaks to the reality we all face: how do our experiences as a kid define and affect us later in life? Are we valued for what we can do, or who we are?
There’s a repeated theme throughout that it’s not the powers that make the person but the character of the person wielding them that matters most.
Shazam: Fury of the Gods is an expensive way to consider these questions, but if we’re willing to think on them it’s the best thing the movie’s got to offer.