The film continues the story of teenage Billy Batson who, upon reciting the magic word “SHAZAM!” is transformed into his adult Super Hero alter ego, Shazam.

As Marvel hits perhaps their first difficult period since the MCU was established 15 or so years ago, an opportunity is perhaps presented to DC to finally step up after a bit of a muddled period where there’s been more mediocre (or bad) than good. ‘Shazam!’ was one of the bright sparks in the last batch of DC movies, perhaps as the superhero was relatively unknown (at least to non-comic book fans), but perhaps moreso because it was genuinely fun and didn’t feel overly bogged down in servicing the larger purpose of developing a ‘cinematic universe’. The inevitable sequel has now arrived in ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’, so how does this one stack up?

Taking place two years after the events of ‘Shazam!’, Billy Batson (Asher Angel) and his friends are getting older and developing different interests, although they still find time to come together to save people as their superhero alter egos when the situation warrants it. As Billy worries about them all drifting apart, he receives a warning from Djimon Hounsou’s wizard in a dream about the daughters of Atlas (Lucy Liu & Helen Mirren), who are seeking revenge on the Wizard, and by extension Billy’s alter ego Shazam (Zachary Levi) and his friends. I felt this sequel started fairly well with a focus on the coming of age elements of the story – drifting apart from friends, falling for someone at school (played by Rachel Zegler of ‘West Side Story’), but then it descended into generic superhero stuff about half way through, and lost sight of the personal elements that were what had taken my interest to begin with.

‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ is a solid enough sequel with fun performances from its core cast and its latest villains (Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu kicking ass will never not be fun), but as it unfolded it became a little less focused, a little less personal, and altogether a little superhero movie #101 and to be frank, we’ve seen this all before by now.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: David F. Sandberg

Starring: Zachery Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody, Rachel Zegler, Grace Caroline Currey, Ross Butler, Ian Chen, D. J. Cotrona, Jovan Armand, Meagan Good, Faithe Herman, Lucy Liu, Djimon Hounsou and Helen Mirren

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt10151854/