Dog’s Movie House: “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” Is A Fun, Heartfelt Superhero Film With Nods To The Great Ray Harryhausen!

Boy, does that sound generic or what? While it’s true that the plot of “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” travels the same road as many other adventure films, Sandberg”s effort deserves a lot of credit for throwing in details and imaginative character beats to make this familiar journey well worth taking. Zachary Levi is in fine form as Billy Batson’s alter-ego, combining earnestness and immaturity all with equeal measure. Grazer is terrific as young Freddy Freeman: in a way, this film belongs to him as much as Billy. The scenes early in the film in which Freddy tries to impress new girl Ann (a fetching Rachel Zegler) are some of the best in the movie. Helen Mirren is terrific as always as Hespera, the eldest of the Daughters of Atlas and Lucy Liu gets to flex her villain muscles as Kalypso, whose reasons for wanting to take on Shazam and his family differ from Hespera’s.

One of the things Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan’s script does well is set up the connection between Shazam and Greek Mythology. This includes the introduction of several classic monsters to the scene, beast such as the Minotaur, Cyclops, and Harpies, all of which would do Ray Harryhausen proud. In fact, most of the creatures in “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” seem like the ingredients in a love letter to the great stop-motion animator. The CGI is first rate, but the designs could have come out of the classic works of SInbad or Jason And The Argonauts.

The only real debit in “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” is the fact that the humor doesn’t always land as consistently as in the first film. Levy, who is pretty solid throughout, has moments where the immature kid stuck in a man’s body shtick kind of grates rather than amuses. Still those moments are few and far in between, and the worst of them takes place in the film’s post credit scene. The film gets pretty emotional at the end and there’s something really special about the way Billy’s foster family comes together, especially the love of the parents (Marta Milans and Cooper Andrews). The combination of emotion, comedy and action really makes “Shazam! Fury Of The Gods” a highly entertaining superhero romp. 4 Out Of 5 On Kendog’s Barkometer! So Sayeth THe Kendog!

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