#darkleyscomics

I know we have all brought this up a million times but I will never get over it.

Atlas is a Titan (which is still a God, just earlier generation).

Zeus is a God!

Heracles was a Demigod who turned into a God later.

Achilles is just a Demigod.

Mercury is a God. But it's a Roman God. I'm assuming they wanted Hermes and just changed it to fit the name better. Fair enough.

(This is copied from DMs)

Shazam!: Fury of the Gods is NOT a bad movie despite common belief. What makes it SEEM bad is that its a very disappointing sequel. Let me explain.

The second Shazam has everything that *should* qualify a good superhero movie. Same good characters from the first written accurately to their 3 and a half years later setting, interesting villains, great cast, its very funny, high but understandable stakes, cool visual effects and worldbuilding, etc etc etc.

So why don't I care?

Thinking back to the first movie, what made it so loveable was the family portion. Billy, with his tragic backstory, is struggling to learn to love himself and have a family. The superhero portions build off this base. Billy doesn't even get his powers until like 30 minutes in.

Now the second movie is 3 and a half years later. Billy is a couple months out from turning 18. He's worried that once he ages out of the foster system, he will age out of his foster home too. While dealing with his abandonment issues and stuff, The daughters of Atlas show up and are mad because the powers of SHAZAM are taking from certain figures (including Atlas). This is an interesting idea that builds off the first. And it ALMOST worked. It worked in the script. So what went wrong?

They made the movie too long 💀 There are 40 minutes of deleted scenes for both movies. If you watch all of them for both, you notice the majority for the first movie are alternate scenes. A changed actor, setting, important line, something of the sort. A couple are just short and silly and you can tell why they were cut. Only two do I think would've actually improved the movie. However I do not think the movie is worse without them. For the second movie.. the ratio is the opposite. The majority of cut scenes for the second movie were family scenes. Fully original scenes that weren't switched for an equivalent and could've added value. This happened because they were really determined to flesh out the daughters of Atlas. They achieved this really well. But when the movie showed up 3 hours and stuff had to be cut. Was it a scene with the villains that if cut would've made the plot not make sense.. or a scene of the kids talking about their issues that do bear on their characters, but not the movies overall plot? Well, they had to decide to keep in the stuff towards the main plot. But what the movie was missing was those scenes just of the kids. The problems the kids are facing became very tell and not show because they didn't have space to put them in. Billy's issues are kinda there.. but would have definitely been there if a deleted scene or two made it in. Freddy, Pedro, and Mary all hint at issues they're having but we never see them fully realized. But we do if you watch the deleted scenes! If they were given the allowance for even 10 more minutes of movie... I think the 2nd movie would've killed. The characters starting as superheros made it a superhero movie from the beginning. Prioritizing them being heroes over being people discovering stuff about themselves. Which was the aspect that made the first one so good.

The other issue people tend to have is a real issue too. Zachary Levi.. He so overplays his part 💀 Asher Angel plays Billy as pretty snarky and flat. Which is how you'd imagine his delivery if you just read the script. As Shazam I do not think he needs to be as guarded. Billy is a scared 14 year old kid who has been living on the streets when he wasn't being passed through his 23 foster homes. So ofc hes guarded normally. But when he's gifted being perceived as an adult and being virtually invulnerable? He's obviously going to be a lot less guarded. He doesn't have to worry about being shoved around or treated as lesser when he's Shazam. He can let his guard down and allow himself to act like a kid a lot more. Some people have an issue with this in the first movie, in regards of the actors playing Billy differently, but I never think its without reason. Anything Shazam says I can imagine Billy saying at his most comfortable. Not in the 2nd movie tho. Asher Angel plays a Billy who is more comfortable, but still has his guarded moments. He's less quiet, but still flat and snarky at times. He's noticeably overprotective of the people he cares about. But as Shazam he's super carefree and goofy and pretty incompetent. I notice this as the biggest criticism of this movie and I agree. I feel like Zachary Levi plays every role of his the exact same. In this movie, if anything, he acts more like a child than he does in the first and hes playing a 17 and a half year old.. like???

And then you listen to the lines and the lines aren't bad. The lines make sense for Billy. The delivery is just completely wrong. He just really needed to deliver stuff flat instead of over the top goofy all the time. It just doesn't make sense for someone that age or for the character. Zachary Levi just tries wayyy too hard to try and make his lines funny when they would've been funnier and more in character if he just like.. said them.