Photosensitivity warning: The climatic fight involves a great deal of lightning which may trigger issues within viewers who suffer from migraines or other ocular issues.

One of the bigger surprises of 2019 was director David F. Sandberg’s Shazam!. After so many super serious DC Comics cinematic adaptations, here was a film that’s silly in all the right ways without losing its heart, a difficult task when it centers on an all-powerful superhero who’s just a teenager amplified by magic. Exploring issues of abandonment and found family, Shazam! is the rare WB-produced DC Extended Universe film that actually feels like one of the comics (Wonder Woman (2017) and Aquaman (2018) also fall into this list), inspiring hope from start to finish. It makes sense, then, to go on a second ride with the new-founded Shazamily, but, this time, the enemies are less of an inverted mirror and more of a direct connection to the scarlet hero, requiring the narrative to take the time to explore what the true value of holding the power of the gods means. Though the film didn’t do as well in theaters as expected, those who enjoyed this second outing can do so at their leisure as Shazam! Fury of the Gods comes home with a bevy of bonus features.

Though this is a first-time review for Fury of the Gods and we try to keep those spoiler-free, in order to explore certain aspects of the film fully, please consider this your spoiler-warning.

L-R: Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy Freeman, Asher Angel as Billy Batson, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield, and Ian Chen as Eugene Choi in New Line Cinema’s action adventure SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. © 2023 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

Since transferring the power of Shazam into his foster siblings in order to defeat Dr. Sivana (Mark Strong), Billy (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) and the rest of self-titled Shazamily spend their days either relaxing in the Rock of Eternity (their new lair) or trying to maintain their cover as the Vasquez kids. As the original superhero, Billy does his best to lead his siblings, but it’s a job that grows tougher when (a) they each want something different and (b) Philadelphia hasn’t exactly welcomed this sextuplet with open arms. But the Vasquez kids are going to have to figure things out and do it fast as the children of Atlas — Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalpyso (Lucy Liu), and Anthea (Rachel Zegler) — have come to the mortal plane to recover their father’s stolen power and exact vengeance for what the wizards of our realm did to theirs.

L-R: Director David Sandberg and Helen Mirren on the set of New Line Cinema’s action adventure SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio. © 2021 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

The first film is a more engaging and fun film on a first watch than the second. Perhaps it’s the larger budget and the increased stakes of the second, but the first film feels tighter and more focused than the new one. However, I’d argue that Fury of the Gods suffers from middle child syndrome where it’s so beholden to the prior film to tie up some loose threads that it has to do that before it goes on to do something else. The script from Henry Gayden (Shazam!) and Chris Morgan (Fast & Furious 6) has Fury explore what happens to a kid like Billy — not the superhero, but the kid — when he finally finds the family he’s always wanted, but he’s about to age out of the foster system. The first film made it clear that he’s run from or been kicked out of multiple families as he’s tried to find his mother. Now, though, he’s got a family he wants to remain in and feels as though he’s on the verge of losing it because his life experience tells him that he’s only wanted while he’s of use to someone. Neither Victor nor Rosa Vasquez (played with heart and hilarity by Cooper Andrews and Marta Milans, respectively) do anything on-screen to convey to Billy that he’s going to be gone soon, yet that festers in his subconscious constantly. Even when he sees evidence every day in their house that he wouldn’t just be kicked to the curb in the form of Mary (Grace Caroline Currey), who has already aged out, he still can’t shake that feeling. This concern and worry permeates every aspect of Billy’s decisions, a crucial problem when Hespera and company arrive and start to destroy Philly. Whereas the first film seamlessly set up the characters while maintaining narrative momentum, Fury of the Gods does struggle to achieve balance between the emotional moments and the bombastic beats. There’re a lot of characters who must be included with six on the hero side and three on the villain, each needing their own satisfying arcs. PLUS the Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) returns and has his own arc to focus on! Throw in the usual juvenile jokes to remind us that Billy is a teenager and you’ve got a film that feels a little bloated where the first one did not.

L-R: Ross Butler as Super Hero Eugene, Adam Brody as Super Hero Freddy, Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield, Zachary Levi as Shazam, Meagan Good as Super Hero Darla, and D.J. Cotrona as Super Hero Pedro in New Line Cinema’s action adventure SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. © 2023 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

One big issue Fury of the Gods has going against it is that it’s not the family film the first one is. To be clear, it’s a fun film and contains important messages of found family. It’s that even more than the first film, Fury of the Gods is violent and doesn’t shy away from making that clear. If the opening sequence in which Hespera and Kalypso send an entire museum section of guests into a wild frenzy before turning them into statues didn’t make it clear what the stakes were, when Kalypso has the Fawcett Central School’s principal, Mr. Geckle (Diedrich Bader), wrong-place-wrong-time himself into a walk off the school’s roof with accompanying sounds of him exploding on the ground drives home the point that the stakes are high and that PG-13 really does mean what it says. With the exception of the first Sins sequence in Shazam!, the first film is fairly tame, but Fury of the Gods doesn’t hold back. Something great for older audiences who want a film with teeth and the stakes to go along with it, but when the star of the film is on social media telling people it’s a family film, a different and incorrect image forms.

L-R: Jack Dylan Grazer and Rachel Zegler on the set of New Line Cinema’s action adventure SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio. © 2021 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

One thing I absolutely do feel the need to address (like a multimillion-dollar film needs defending) is that the whole Skittles thing is totally earned. The product gets three significant references, and each one is connected to a narrative need and speaks to the authenticity of a character (Darla Dudley). She’s always had a thing for candy and, smartly, the use of Skittles in the first two instances enables the gag with the unicorns. It’s not like Power Rangers (2017), which was *actually* sponsored by Krispy Kreme, or the Transformers films which are often sponsored by Mountain Dew, Xbox, and other consumables. Or James Bond with his high quality watches, clothes, and cars. So, picking on a kids’ film for including candy is a bit of a stretch for a complaint. But then, my eldest brother always loved Skittles to the point that he’d take naps to and from a wrestling match in high school using a 3lbs bag as a pillow. Just makes me wonder at which point snark became criticism.

L-R: Jovan Armand as Pedro Peña, Ian Chen as Eugene Choi, Faithe Herman as Darla Dudley, and Grace Caroline Currey as Mary Bromfield in New Line Cinema’s action adventure SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. © 2023 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

If you are a fan of Fury of the Gods, I do have excellent news for you. The home release includes roughly 94 minutes of featurettes and deleted/extended/alt-takes, plus feature-length commentary from Sandberg. With these bonus features, they really leave no stone unturned whether you want to know about general things like cameos, why they made changes to the costume, how they shot the film in 2021, or what it was like on set with the new characters OR if you want something more specific like a dive into the mythology of the characters themselves. You get guided tours of the sets, the costumes, and all the things it took to make this film. It’s not as highly polished as Black Adam’s home release, but the vibe of that home release was one of a missed opportunity whereas Fury of the Gods just feels like a physical media fan’s dream where you actually get to learn about the making of the film. It may not feel like a big deal, but Michael B. Jordan’s directorial debut, Creed III (2023), only included about 24 minutes of materials, and the contrast feels enormous.

L-R: Zachary Levi and Director David Sandberg on the set of New Line Cinema’s action adventure SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Jessica Miglio. © 2021 Warner Bros. Ent. All Rights Reserved. TM & © DC.

The truly frustrating thing about Fury of the Gods is all the potential it contains, not just its own standalone story, but how unhinged a third film could be now that so much of the setup and emotional baggage has been explored. With the upcoming The Flash (2023) set to serve as a reboot for the whole DC Cinematic Universe under the guidance of James Gunn and Peter Safran (Safran did produce Fury), there’s already talk of keeping a few of the characters/actors and I hope that this crew gets another shot, if only to maybe find out what Mister Mind has been doing all this time (he’s small and undulating his body from place to place takes a really long time).

Shazam! Fury of the Gods Special Features:

4K UHD

• Director’s Audio Commentary with David F. Sandberg (2:10:13)

Premium Digital Ownership and Blu-ray:

• Director’s Audio Commentary with David F. Sandberg (2:10:13)
• SHAZAM! Let’s Make a Sequel (24:50)
• The Rock of Eternity: Decked Out (5:43)
• The Shazamily Reunion (5:02)
• SHAZAM! The Zac Effect (4:21)
• Sisterhood of Villains (7:55)
• The Mythology of Shazam! (5:00)
• Deleted Scenes, Alternate & Extended Scenes (31:07)
• SHAZAM! Scene Deconstruction (10:07)

Available on digital April 7^th, 2023.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD May 23^rd, 2023.

For more information, head to the official DC Shazam! Fury of the Gods webpage.

Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.

Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming

Tags: Adam Brody, Asher Angel, Bill Parker, C.C. Beck, Captain Marvel, Carson MacCormac, Chris Morgan, Comics, Cooper Andrews, David F. Sandberg, DC Comics, DCEU, Djimon Hounsou, Evan Marsh, Faithe Herman, Grace Fulton, Henry Gayden, home release, home video, Ian Chen, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jovan Armand, Lovina Yavari, Mark Strong, Marta Milans, Meagan Good, New Line Cinema, Ross Butler, Shazam!, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, Warner Bros. Pictures, Zachary Levi