Shazam! Fury of the Gods

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) is a movie that my wife and I saw in theatres last night. The storyline picks up where we left off from the first film with Billy and his orphaned friends being super heroes and secretly, regularly saving people from unfortunate events. When three sisters retrieve the broken staff from the first film and look to open a portal from Olympus to Earth to take over civilization, Billy and friends are the only ones that can stop them.

This movie is directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) and stars Zachary Levi (The Mauritanian), Grace Caroline Currey (Fall), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Lucy Liu (Kill Bill), Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) and Meagan Good (Think Like A Man).

This movie kicks up the action scenes and special effects but the storyline lacks the heart and charm of the first film. I did love the incorporation of the mythological creatures, especially the villain's creatures and the unicorns. I will say the dragon was uneven with some sequences that were awesome and some that were too much. Once again Djimon Hounsou was excellent as the wizard and Liu and Mirren were great villains. The comedy was hit or miss with some good laughs here and there and some cheese also. Meagan Good looked amazing as always and I loved the cameo at the end. The ending credits sequence wasn't good.

Overall, this is an average addition to the super hero genre that's worth seeing once. I would score this a 5/10.