SPOILERS ALERT!!!
Hello everyone! 🙂
Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!
Last year, I did a quick review on ‘Black Adam’, which happened to be a spin-off film from the 2019 movie ‘Shazam!’ Since ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ came out recently at cinemas, it’s only fair I check out what these ‘Shazam!’ films are like compared to the other films in the ‘DC Extended Universe’. 🙂
‘Shazam!’ tells the story about a teenager named Billy Batson who gets chosen by the ancient wizard named Shazam to become his new champion. Billy has to say the name ‘Shazam’ in order to transform into an adult superhero with various superpowers. And he transforms into Zachary Levi! 😀
I wonder what would have happened if the Tom Hanks film ‘Big’ was like ‘Shazam!’ where the boy in that became a superhero. Actually, ‘Shazam!’ is based on the DC superhero character Shazam, who is also called Captain Marvel in the DC Comics. Yeah. DC Comics had their Captain Marvel superhero.
I imagine the film was called ‘Shazam!’ instead of ‘Captain Marvel’ to avoid confusion with the ‘MCU’s film ‘Captain Marvel’ released in 2019. Marvel superheroes and DC superheroes called the same name can be confusing. 🙂 Mind you, I don’t know what Shazam refers to himself as in this film.
When Billy says “Shazam!” to be a superhero, he also says it in order to go back to being a boy again. I can imagine it’d be a challenge to keep his identity secret when he accidentally says “Shazam!” to news reporters. Then again, he could call himself ‘Captain Marvellous’ to save plenty of confusion. 😀
As for ‘Shazam!’ the movie itself, it’s a pretty fun-filled action-packed flick. I like the idea of a boy becoming an adult superhero from meeting a wizard. The film’s villain in Mark Strong as Dr. Thaddeus Sivana is very good. I also like that ‘Shazam!’ takes place at Christmas time, even if it was released at Easter. 🙂
The second film ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ is equally enjoyable. It sees Billy Batson as Shazam joined by his foster siblings, who get superpowers from the first film (of course they do), as they get to tackle the Daughters of Atlas who wish to end ‘humanity and their world’ with their god-like powers.
I was quite surprised by who the film’s villain turned out to be. Initially, I thought it would be Helen Mirren as the big bad villain in ‘Fury of the Gods’. It turns out the villain is more dangerous than Helen Mirren, especially when she is hell-bent on wanting to destroy humans in a desire for revenge.
Whilst the ‘Shazam!’ movies are enjoyable to watch, there are times when the growth for Billy’s character is uneven. This isn’t helped when more emphasis is made on the comedic aspects of the film, particularly when Zachary Levi is playing a teenage boy instead a grown-up man as a superhero.
I enjoyed the Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman cameo towards the end of ‘Fury of the Gods’. I expected her to be in the film’s post-credits scene like Superman at the end of ‘Black Adam’ (I’m disappointed Henry Cavill didn’t cameo at the end of the first ‘Shazam!’ movie). It’s sad this might be Gal Gadot’s last appearance as Wonder Woman, as the DC movie universe is getting a makeover.
There’s no denying the ‘effects shows’ featured in both ‘Shazam!’ movies are very impressive, especially when it comes to the films’ dramatic climaxes. I liked the romance subplot between Freddy, one of Billy’s foster brothers, and Anne, one of the Daughters of Atlas in ‘Fury of the Gods’. 🙂
The ‘Shazam!’ movies have been great to check out. I’m glad I’ve seen them at last, particularly with checking out ‘Fury of the Gods’ at the cinema recently. I don’t know what the future of the DC superhero movies will be like, but it will never be the same should the ‘DC Extended Universe’ finish.
Thanks for reading!
Bye for now!
Tim 🙂
Bradley's Basement 