“Shazam! Fury of the Gods”: Another superhero movie

“Shazam!” The 2019 superhero film based on the DC Comics character was a $367 million box office success, centered around teenager Billy Batson (Asher Angel) who can transform into an adult, alter-ego hero Shazam (Zachary Levi) by the shout of his name.

However, its sequel, “Shazam! Fury of the Gods,” failed to rise up to the original’s former glory. Released on March 17, the film grossed $11.7 million during opening weekend, shooting below its projected $35-40 million box office and becoming the third-worst performing film of the DC Extended Universe. Though “Fury of the Gods” shares a similar premise to the first, it loses its original charm by defaulting to typical and overdone superhero tropes — resulting in its mediocre performance.

One of the most distinct aspects of the film’s premise is that “Fury of the Gods” is not about a singular champion bearing the burden of keeping their city safe. After Billy uses a powerful staff in the previous film to share his powers with his siblings, they begin the sequel working as a team, known as the “Shazamily.” As the leader, Shazam constantly struggles not only to unite them and save people from the gods who plan to destroy Earth, but also with his fear of growing apart from his foster family and his insecurity as a superhero.

Unfortunately, the movie ultimately loses its heartfelt qualities to a grand-scale hero-versus-villain showdown. Scenes are spent switching between the Shazamily and the vengeful gods, with convoluted expositions to explain why some local superheroes are suddenly tasked to save the whole world. Before the final battle, the god Kalypso (Lucy Liu) manages to take away nearly all of the Shazamily’s powers except for Shazam’s. Unsurprisingly, he is left to heroically save the world on his own, losing semblance to the originally family-driven plot and leaving his siblings’ characters feeling underdeveloped.

Despite granting Shazam a disproportionate amount of the spotlight, “Fury of the Gods” also fails to fully establish their protagonist. The most grounding facet of the character is his teenager self, who struggles with the idea that he and his siblings are growing up. However, most of his screen time is spent as the adult superhero, carrying out generic action sequences with an awkwardly cheerful persona. The split between Billy and Shazam becomes so disjointed that they feel like separate characters — depriving “Fury of the Gods” of most of its emotional substance.

By elevating its villains to god-hood, the film raises the plot stakes at the cost of personal stakes.

The larger-than-life conflict renders Billy’s character arc insignificant — when the world is ending, it doesn’t matter who saves it, whether it’s Shazam or Superman. While the gods’ lofty goals of world destruction make for an impressive final fight and an inflated CGI budget, it’s clear that the villains were written only to be impressive, and their collective role as the antagonists become muddled as they fail to reconcile their independent goals. In contrast, the conflict of “Fury of the Gods’” predecessor is driven by a power-hungry mad scientist, who provides a foil to the altruistic Billy and challenges him to overcome his insecurities — Billy’s growth is not only significant but necessary to the resolution of the film.

While the golden days of Hollywood’s superhero obsession established a cookie-cutter plot that worked – a villain with evil and disastrous machinations needs to acquire some powerful object to carry out said plans, but an unlikely hero rises to the challenge, culminating in an epic showdown where the hero emerges victorious no matter the cost – it’s gotten old. Attempts to aggrandize it have only contributed to audience burnout, “superhero fatigue,” and “Fury of the Gods” is no exception.

“Fury of the Gods” is not an entirely bad film, but its story has been contorted to the point of losing its most valuable qualities to an archetypal superhero formula. Hollywood is in no shortage of sequels that fulfill the need to go “bigger,” but what the industry really needs is to go “bolder” and offer a fresh, unique take on heroism — before the superhero genre itself falls out of step with the big screen.

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About the Contributors

Laura Liu, Editor in Chief

Laura Liu is the current Editor-in-Chief and A&E editor of the Gamut, and if she was an object, she’d be a clock on her wall that’s always 10 minutes late. Her love of writing began in first grade after writing a story about a mermaid who threw up a person, and when recommended to join Gamut by then advisor and her English teacher, Mrs. Galván, Laura seized the opportunity. Due to being its editor, it’s no surprise that A&E is her favorite section, where you can fangirl or vent for 500 words. On top of writing and editing it, Laura also just loves it, often reading historical genres and watching TV shows, in particular, Gilmore Girls, which she often recommends. On campus, you can find her at SkillsUSA, Chinese Culture and Language Club, and GEC, as president. Although she boasts many extracurriculars, you couldn’t catch her dead at a sport due to a burning detestation of physical activity. With her characteristic handwriting and notes, love of elbow macaroni (which she could eat with any pasta dish), and the color pink (a great color and the color version of herself), Laura is equipped for any type of situation. Perhaps most importantly though, if she were to be stranded on an island and bring 3 things, she’d bring a journal, her phone, and a swiss army knife set, since surely there will be something in there that can help her.

Christine Nguyen, Managing Editor

Christine Nguyen is many things: an Oxford Academy senior, the co-president of Creative Writing Club, an enthusiast of naming things after cars, and most importantly, the Gamut’s copy editor and co-A&E editor. Because freshman Christine decided to join the Gamut, today she is able to offer a detail-oriented mindset to push the quality of the newspaper. Not only does Christine hope to boost the standard of work being published, but also her closeness with Gamut staff. With an approachable, “big sister” demeanor, Christine looks forward to getting to know her peers better by checking in with them personally as she looks over their work. Outside of the Gamut, Christine is a connoisseur of the arts. She loves to compose poetry, craft creative prose, sketch, and create visual art. Outside of being human, Christine akins herself to a snail, admiring its resilient nature and cool-looking shell. This year, while Christine may not fulfill her dream of getting a dog named 2021 Cherokee Jeep, she hopes to achieve her other goal of making this year in Gamut a great one.