Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Ok, let’s cut straight to the chase; for its first two thirds Shazam! Fury of the Gods is well in the running to be the DCEU’s best film.

That’s definitely something not many saw coming, with the first a cloying, infuriatingly old fashioned CGI mess with no tangible links to the rest of its ‘dark and serious’ brethren.

That this also comes with more questions than answers as to the standing of this character in James Gunn’s new refreshed slate (with key characters confirmed to be recast and the upcoming Flash movie supposedly opening a ‘new universe’ for this) is far from certain.

It's bad timing as it appears that DC are finally turning a corner with their recent sequels with, most notably, The Suicide Squad seemingly learning the lessons fans had hit them with and this Shazam follows that path too (at least initially.)

An excellent opening half gives us a believable portion of character growth for Billy Batson and his new superhero family, good screen time for all the characters, an imposing set of villains with decent motivation (even the fair waft of exposition you need to get through is bearable with the ancient Greece link being reminiscent of Wonder Woman) and, most importantly, a plot intent on just having fun with what’s onscreen rather than the obligatory ‘item chasing’ DC usually lumbers us with.

And, despite being plot hole city, it is immense fun hanging with these characters. The jokes are decent and it all just simply works (which is more than can be said for much of the DCEU).

We peak with Helen Mirren (yes, Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu chewing scenery as the titular Gods is the best thing about the film) deadpan reading a silly letter before, somewhat inevitably, DC resort to a CGI hellhole of a closing third involving tree roots destroying a city, a wooden dragon who I think ends with a death count of zero and some random mythical creatures which are eye rolling at best.

DC almost redeem this by throwing what could, and really should, be a monumentally brave curveball only to undo it a fraction of a second later and we leave the film no further along than we were at the start.

What happens now? Who the hell knows but Fury of the Gods is at least a step forward, and halfway to what would have been the best film in the franchise so far. Stick the landing next time with The Flash and Marvel might finally have some competition.

3 stars ***