The Sunday Mail
Tinashe Kusema
AFTER the blatant disrespect Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson showed Zachary Levi and the Shazam cannon, it is kind of hard to be harsh on the actual flick “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” that came out back in March.
The DC movie has since had its short and uneventful tour of the theatres and is now available online.
For those not in the know, let me give you a short but juicy history lesson.
Black Adam is to Shazam what the Joker is to Batman, Lex Luther to Superman, Reverse Flash to the Flash et cetera.
In a nutshell, they are mortal enemies.
With their connection deeply rooted in the comics, it stands to reason that Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam and Zachary Levi’s Shazam would cross paths at some point in the future.
However, The Rock had other ideas as the former wrestler-turned-actor decided that Shazam was an unworthy foe for his character.
He arm-wrestled (no pun intended) Warner Brothers and DC Comics to scrap Levi’s post-credit scene in his flop of a movie “Black Adam” and actually sweet-talked Henry Cavil out of retirement, instead.
Unfortunately, the movie tanked and the powers that be at DC have since gone in another direction with many of their characters, films and actors.
The Rock has been blamed for the movie’s flop with his stoic performance and undeserved paycheque.
It is against this background that everyone, myself included, seems to view “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” with an element of sympathy.
The movie is neither exceptional nor atrocious. It was just dealt a bad hand!
It is a sequel to the 2019 Shazam and sees our young hero Billy Baston (played by Asher Angel and Levi) and his foster family trying to embrace the superhero life.
Unfortunately, given that most of them are teenagers at heart (who transform into adult heroes when they scream the word Shazam), their honest intentions often turn into a disaster.
Resultantly, the people of Philadelphia end up nicknaming them the “Philly Fiascos”.
While all this is happening, the three daughters of Atlas — Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Athena (Rachel Zegler) — arrive on the scene eager to avenge their father losing his powers and enslaving mankind.
It is then up to Levi’s Shazam to fight these evil goddesses and protect mankind.
One of the things that made the original Shazam movie back in 2019 very successful was the great casting and the ability of all those involved (from scriptwriters to actors) not to take themselves way too seriously.
The sequel delivers on both accounts.
The script itself is simple enough to follow. One does not necessarily have to watch the original to understand it.
The humour, while inconsistent at times, is well-delivered and much of the credit should go to the writers Henry Gayden and Chris Morgan.
They poke fun at their own premise, some of the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) franchise flicks and characters, and even find a little material to throw at rivals Marvel Comics.
Levi is no slouch in the action-comedy genre.
However, the real stars of the film have to be the trio of Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Djimon Hounsou.
I have always been of the belief that the cast does its best work when they are having fun.
It is for this very reason that I hold the late Raul Julia’s take as M. Bison in the 1994 “Street Fighter” movie in high regard.
He wrote the blueprint for serious actors taking up silly roles and just running with it.
Julia opened the doors for actors and actresses like Adam Sandler, the late Robin Williams, Tom Cruise (Tropic Thunder), Robert De Niro (Meet the Fockers), Morgan Freeman (Bruce Almighty), Meryl Streep (Devil Wears Prada) and George Clooney (Burn After Reading).
We can now add the trio to that ever-growing list as Mirren and Liu are clearly miscast but visibly enjoy themselves.
One cannot help but smile at Hounsou embracing his Shazam wizard character and clearly having the time of his life.
