Shazam 2 Has A Lot Of DC Fans Shaking Their Head In Disappointment
Sequels can be a tricky thing to manage. Inevitably, the success of a particular movie will almost always guarantee a continuation of the story, and this rings especially true when comes to superhero films. "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is the latest offering from DC and director David F. Sandberg, and it picks up with a greatly expanded family of friends for Billy Batson (Asher Angel). The original "Shazam!" movie proved to be a big hit with both critics and fans alike, with the movie still maintaining a 90% critic score and 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
This means that the bar has been set pretty high for "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" in the minds of some fans, and unfortunately it looks like there's a group of moviegoers taking major umbrage with this freshly released film. Starting the conversation on Reddit, u/teachforgold wrote, "I loved the first movie because it felt different and fresh – especially with the focus on Billy and the rest of the family. This sequel is so disappointing because it went in the opposite direction and focused almost entirely on the superheroes and villains. It lost everything charming and fun about the first movie and just became another run-of-the-mill superhero movie with very questionable acting and visual effects (especially some of the dragon riding shots)."
They weren't alone in their feelings.
Some fans are unhappy that Shazam 2 fails to live up to the original
As the Reddit thread continued, the user added that they had seen the movie with their 10-year-old child, who had said that they thought the movie was fine, but they had liked the first one better. The original poster then stated that they aren't even sure if the movie is reaching its target audience if even their kid wasn't exactly over the moon with "Shazam! Fury of the Gods."
This post caused another Redditor to reply, "Agreed. This was what I thought was lacking the most in this movie. I needed more of the kids and how they coped with the events of what was happening to them and growing up and doing their own thing. Instead, it was mainly the superheroes and the quest to defeat the villains. Nothing bad, but certainly not reinventing the wheel. Movie is just meh."
Meanwhile, u/Pandafy had a slightly different complaint with the sequel, writing that although the first movie had the superhero Shazam (Zachary Levi) acting like the young kid he was inside, this new movie had amplified that up to a much more noticeable degree. This confused them because they figured that Billy Batson would be 18 during the events of this new movie, so it makes little sense for Levi to act even more childlike.
Other fans felt like Shazam! Fury of the Gods lacked consistency
Others had their own issues with "Shazam! Fury of the Gods," like u/SimonBRUH8217, who wrote, "As someone who loves the first movie with all my heart ... This was just awful. Unfunny, packed with soulless CGI action sequences and has no consequences. Horrible case of sequelitis, it's unbelievable that Sandberg was behind this one as well. Very, VERY disappointing." u/peter095837 was also disappointed in the sequel to "Shazam!," and they stated that they loved the first film because of the humor and characters, but that consistency has been throw out in "Shazam! Fury of the Gods."
They continued that they think the movie doesn't really have much of a narrative, the dialogue was kind of bad at parts, there was a tragic lack of development for either the heroes or villains, and they felt like Helen Mirren was wasted. These early responses to "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" definitely highlight that there is a group of fans who aren't exactly happy with the movie, and considering that "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" is currently sitting at a pretty middling critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems like this new DC movie isn't quite as good as its predecessor.