Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

Plot of Shazam: Fury of the Gods: In Philadelphia Billy Batson who is Shazam, and his five fellow foster children, all have alternative superhero personae. In the Acropolis Museum in Athens two women in what look like Roman armour approach a glass case and take away a wizard’s staff, broken in two, and with it return to their environment and force the wizard, who is imprisoned, to restore it. The women are the gods Hespera and Kalypso, their younger sister Anthea is masquerading as a student and attracts Freddy, one of the Shamily. The goddesses kidnap Freddy and place a immovable dome over Philadelphia. The restored staff allows Kalypso to conjure up a dragon with whose help she steals the Golden Apple, the seed of the Tree of Life. All the foster children except for Billy lose their powers leaving him to fight the evil Kalypso, but the apple has been planted and the city is being overcome by the roots of the tree, which is spawning  mythical beasts. How will it all end?

Content: There is one kiss, but no sex and no actual drinking. The superheroes are faced with a collapsing suspension bridge, and save a few people from falling into the river. Anthea and Freddy interact in college, Freddy often being bullied, despite using a crutch. The goddesses inhabit a gloomy realm, where the wizard is imprisoned. At one point the young people reveal the fact that they are superheroes to their foster parents. They also seem to have a realm where they sit about and argue. Once Kalypso and the dragon get together things liven up. The dragon lays waste to some of the city. When the transparent dome is put in place cars crash into it. There are superhero battles involving death rays. Anthea has the ability to alter reality which she sometimes does.

A View: This film did not make money due to its production budget, and it shows that just by spending more money, greater profit is not guaranteed. I enjoyed the first film which was quite humorous, the very thing this one was not. If anything the first act is just too tedious and if watched on TV I would have thought that lots of people would have just switched off, although it did liven up a bit later, when it became easier to follow. Probably a whole family of superheroes is just super overload. I did not completely pan it because some of the CGI is quite impressive, so if you really must watch it keep an alternative activity handy.

Fun Fact: Helen Mirren is the oldest actor to have played a superhero at the age of 77.