REVIEW

Shazam Fury of the Gods movie review: Zachary Levi returns in a plodding, convoluted misadventure

REVIEW

Shazam Fury of the Gods movie review: In this sequel, the joy, exuberance and sheer frothiness of the first Shazam! -- which made it float -- is missing.

REVIEW

Fury of the Gods, in contrast, is a plodding, convoluted, much-too-talkative-without-saying-much venture, a lot of it staged in unattractive wastelands.

REVIEW

There is so much more one could have done with Mirren, who has shown before her devilishly wicked side.

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However, an oddly shaped crown and some mumbo-jumbo that she spouts with stretched hands aside, she doesn’t get much to do

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Liu is similarly wasted as her younger sister with more evil designs. The third sister – they are all “daughters of Atlas” — is played hopelessly ineffectually by Rachel Zegler

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The few times Fury of the Gods touches a chord is when it focuses on the six foster children when not in their spandex suits.

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They have their usual concerns about finding a job, navigating organic chemistry, surviving bullying at school, and so on and so forth.

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The six are also as unlike as they come and hence more interesting to watch than their cut-from-the-same-cloth superhero selves,

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with Asher Angel as the younger Billy Batson and Grazer as Freddy, again leading from the front.

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However, with intent to impress this time – unlike to express, like he did in 2019 – director Sandberg packs Fury of the Gods with dragons (hordes and hordes of them),

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domes, a powerful staff, magic seeds, unicorns, a wonder pen called Steve, several disasters in which countless lives may or may not have been lost, and a plot that tries desperately to tie it all together.