The Reel Rejects - Just Watched SHAZAM FURY OF THE GODS! Instant Reaction & Review!

Episode Date: March 15, 2023

THE DCU Kicks Off / DCEU Continues With SHAZAM 2! Our Right Out of Theater Movie Review For Shazam Fury Of The Gods W/ A LOT Of Pros & Cons featuring Zachary Levi, Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu, Justice League Connections, Wonder Woman Cameo That Has Been Spoiled By Warner Bros Trailer, Shazamily, No Black Adam, Rachel Zegler, But A Whole Lot More! Can't wait for The Flash Movie With Batman next. The movie does have to Two Post Credits Scenes but since this is a Non-Spoiler Review we will not be doing a breakdown or ending explained. #shazam #shazamfuryofthegods #dcu #DCEU #ZacharyLevi #JamesGunn #Superman #Batman #WonderWoman #TheFlash #JusticeLeague - Become A Super Sexy Reject For Full-Length T.V. & Movie Reactions! https://www.patreon.com/thereelrejects - Support The Channel By Checking Out Our Bomb A** Merch: http://shopzeroedition.com/collections/reel-rejects-merch - POWERED BY @GFUEL Visit https://gfuel.ly/3wD5Ygo and use code REJECTNATION for 20% off select tubs!! --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Yeah, we were going to shoot this at the theater, but they were closing up shop because it is pouring rain right now. But Greg and John, we are committed to doing this standing and outside like a normal just-watched video. So we're in the backyard, standing in the wet, risking this mic being destroyed because we love you guys that much. First things first, leave a like for our resilience to this format for a just-watched video. We saw the movie 20 minutes ago, and we were going to rock these thoughts like nobody's business today. Also, I wanted to give a quick mention. Coy, John, and I, we are going to be having a panel at WonderCon Sunday, March 26th, 11 o'clock a.m.

If you're going to WonderCon, please come attend. If you were on the fence about going, I don't know if I want to go, but now I do want to go. Then come, please, come say hi. We'd love to have you. Anyway, let's talk about Shazam Fury of the God. Plot of the movie, John, Spitball, something quick. Hey, the Shazam Mali, they're fighting crimes around Philly, but ooh, they're all experiencing personal issues. They want to go off in their own directions, but then, ooh, these ancient Greek daughters of Atlas,

they're coming to Earth because they got a score to settle. They want to find the staff and restore the greatness of their old land, and you know who's standing in the way? It's old Shazam and the team, and they got to throw down against them and vanquish them and all that stuff. I think that was cohesive. I think you got it. I think you did a pretty good job.

Well, guys, here's the first thing I'll tell you. It's better than A-Man in the Wasquantamomime. Sure, yeah. That's the bar to clear. Yeah, yeah. But is it better than the first Shazam? I don't personally think so. What do you think?

No, it certainly is not without its charms, but the first movie just breathes so much better. Yeah, I like this movie overall. I do have a pretty good amount of qualms with the film though and so let's try to balance this review out a tiny bit though okay uh let's start off with the pros the pros are every pro i think kind of comes with a bit of a caveat all right it's probably the best way for me to put it right now because the firm that is really right it is really it's heavier the more we speak we're doing this we're doing this we're even like we could

just be inside but we're stupid let's keep going do you love us now you like validate us it's a sequel so you know they go you want to go like twice as big twice as epic for something that wasn't that epic to begin with and that was part of the charm of the first one and i will say that like i think there's a pretty great action scenes in here one thing that i really like um that they did differently this time was they truly enhanced the fantastical wizarding side the wizarding world if you will to see the gods and mythology yeah yeah as much as i think the second trailer does show you a little too much honestly Because the movie was very predictable, and the second trailer doesn't help with that at all. Nope.

They do have a lot of things in here that they still don't show in the trailer, though. There's a lot of different creatures, character types that I would say was really well done and surprising. And, you know, David F. Sandberg, who has a pretty big horror background, he does bring some of that charm periodically. More ingrained in the first movie with the Seven Deadly Sins. I would have to agree with you there. The cast thing is an interesting thing because, like I said, there's a caveat with almost every part. but the cast overall. Yeah, overall, everybody shows up.

Who is your standout? Everybody does a fine job. My standout would have to be... Mine is Helen Mirren, Josh. Helen Mirren. I'll go Jamon Honsu. He's having a blast. I'm kind of back and forth with what they do at Jiaman Hanzu on this.

Helen Mirren, I was the most pleasant surprise. Like, she really brings the level of Shakespearean, you know, classicism that you want and Greek mythological bombast and pomp that you want. We're going to catch a cold. We are. But yeah, the cast overall, everybody shows up. Everybody is fun and pleasant and, you know, has a good note. But it's not always serving them as a whole or as an ensemble, necessarily, the movie in general.

And an attempt to balance this review, we're saving some of the criticisms for a little bit later. But yeah, there's everybody does fine work. I think everybody showed up. I don't think anyone half-assed this. And then, like, there's a lot of humor. A lot of humor. A lot of humor. And then some of it's pretty funny.

There's some pretty big laugh-out moments that I had in this film. Other pros, John? You know, the action is pretty... I said that. Overall, it's fun. It's fun, yeah. Yeah, no, I mean, overall, it's fun. Like, it is fun.

It's fun and enjoyable, and if you like the first Shazam movie, especially, it certainly has a lot of the things you enjoyed and the people and the dynamics and the imagination, and everything they attempt, at least, I think, is a worthy and an interesting idea. Whether or not they hit the nail on those heads is a different story. Yeah, because now to go into the cons, which would be like from mid to con, is kind of where I'm,

I would sort of brief it at. Because here's what I'll say. A lot of you guys might know that on my rewatch of Thor Love and Thunder, it significantly went down for me. And what I said with Thor Love and Thunder was I really felt like there was an overloaded jokes, especially in the first half. And it clicks better in the second half of the movie. My opinion of my rewatch of Thor Love and Thunder is my opinion of my first watch

of Shazamperia of the Gods. I was like, there's a lot of jokes in this movie. and it's often at the times of undercutting tension because the first one's funny like that's a thing that a lot of people have with it same thing I might say with Thor Ragnarok that's a funny movie and this one though

it really felt like there's a lot of very overt kind of sketch comedy humor and a lot of the characters are given jokes including the wizard and it is a jokier movie not just a movie with a lot of humor and it got to the point where I was like

you got real in these jokes man and it just doesn't stop And it really doesn't stop until like the last 20 minutes of the movie. And it creates an odd contrast because you have such a greater abundance of jokes, but then you also have like even more world-rending, you know, universe-shattering stakes. Yes. And so that can make some of the big stuff feel small and some of the small stuff feel like it's just lost in the sea of chaos. Yeah, yeah.

Also, oh, one thing, another pro, you know, I liked Helen Mirren. I thought she brought a lot to the role, even though the character, all the characters, I think, are pretty much underwritten, except for a couple of characters. enough time. There's not enough time. The film's over stuff. There's a lot of, there's a lot of characters in here, and there's a lot of different plot. And a lot of the plots lines that they set up kind of just get dropped. A lot of arcs that they set up kind of get dropped. But one character, I thought, uh, they introduced a bunch of powers with her. They revealed a comic on who her character really is. So I feel like I can say it. Rachel Ziegler's character.

Yeah. And her her character had some really awesome powers in this film. Like, what they did visually with hers was great. That being said, this movie's budget I felt for the visual effects was really reserved for the last 20 minutes of this film because a lot of the visual effects, they're really going big here, but at times it reminded me of Jostis League. You guys remember what Jostis League was like. There was a lot of times where the visual effects were reminding me of that, like the look and the vibe and the fact that it just didn't have enough money or time to really do it, that it really just didn't support a lot of the, because they go so much bigger in this film that at times

the visual effects's weakness was kind of distracting to me whereas in the first movie I was like it's not really about the big stuff here so you know whatever we can forgive that yeah I think the quantum mania comparison does hold here because this is clearly a budgeting you know step up

from the previous movie as was quantum and I think it's not quite ready to balance the weight of all that extra bombast no no not really yeah and some of the VFX some look great and some don't so much. The Shazamaly. I mean, if you guys remember the first movie with, okay, it's so cool. If you guys remember the first movie with the Shazam Ali, they got a bunch of, like, semi-celebrity people

to be the adult Shazam people, right? And here, you get, they get a lot more screen time, as you would expect when you see the trailers. That being said, I really felt like I didn't get to know any of them better because they have a rather complicated lore here where they were like, we got to spread out the exposition here, which they do. They spread out the exposition, but they're kind of just given exposition. They do a little bit with Pedro, who's like the DJ Cichrona character. They do some interesting stuff with Freddie in the beginning, like Adam Brody gets some interesting stuff to do, where he's struggling with his ego. And I think there's a character arc there, because it really seems like they're setting up a character

arc there. They hold onto the theme. I think it's there, but it kind of gets lost in the in the jumble of all the chaos that's going on in this film. The Shazami in general, both in kid form and in adult form, while they certainly appear on screen, often feel like they were just here for a second and now they're gone again. Like, Zach Levi still leads a lot of the action and a lot of the main parts of the story. But the thing with Zach Levi, which I really feel is Thor Love and Thunder joke, like too much, is they like made him exceptionally dumber this time around. I was like, what happened here? Why is he so much dumber? And the personality gap between regular Billy Batson and Shazam

Billy Batson is pretty wide as the Asher Angel and Zach Levi. Yeah, yeah. It's like the youngest sister is the one who matches her character the most between Megha. Darla? Yeah, Darla. And I'll give Jorge a bit of that between DJ Katrana and the younger actor. He has that sort of sulky thing. But, you know,

the rest of them, the congruity just isn't as on point as you would hope it would be. Yeah, yeah. I feel like this movie really clicks together in like the last half hour of the film where there's like It's got a good balance of humor and intensity, and there's some emotional heft. There's one scene where I think I looked over, and I saw John tearing up a little bit. Was that happening? It happened.

Yeah, I saw John tearing up. This is a sign that it was working for someone. The first Shazam movie was like, it's doing. Like, D.C. was known for being darker and shit. And this one is like doing all the thing. It's learning all these good things that Marvel's doing. And that's what the first Shazam movie did. And this movie did all the bad things that Marvel's been doing at the same time.

It felt like they tried to make Black Adam a Marvel movie. This credit to me. Which cut from similar. But at the same time, with, like, the Thor Love and Thunder shit was like, it was really, I think this is better than Thor Love and Thunder. It's a more smooth experience, and I will give David F. Sandberg credit, because for a movie that I feel like probably was compacted and had a lot of stuff it needed to jam in, like, it could be a lot more disarrayed. Yes. You know, like he's good at pulling these things together. So props for that, but you can tell.

Kind of like Jossesley. Sure. It's way better than Jossesley. Way better than Jossesley. A thousand times. But it would have in the same way of like, this good. have been messier. Yeah, it's not as much of a letdown as I imagine a lot of people experience

with like a Thorlove and Thunder because, you know, there isn't that quite level of like stakes to satisfy, but coming off a pretty pleasant hit with the first movie, it just doesn't quite leave you as inspired and feeling as fresh as that movie did. Yeah, that first movie has a real like personal, simple, intimate touch to it and

a lot of that really does get lost in this film with trying to go bigger. But I appreciated the small doses when we did get those moments with the family, with the parents, even though I feel like there are character arc moments that certainly got dropped, or like, they have this whole thing in the beginning of the movie about Shazamly is not really working as a unit right now.

Guys, all of us or none of us. But it doesn't really go anywhere with that. The main adventure just kind of takes control of the whole plot and that kind of falls into the back seat and then out the door. Lucy Lou is kind of really exceptionally one note in this film, even though the dragon's really cool. She's got good presence, but she's just here to be angry. And then Rachel Zegler is so charming and is also a god, I guess, but mostly she's just here to be super charming.

They made the wizard a goofball. He's funny in this movie. He's really funny. Yeah, he's pretty sad. This movie dips into silliness and weirdness in a more overt way than the previous one to mixed results. But I'm how happy they decided to try it. And Zach Levi, despite being much dumber, he's still very, very charming.

I'll say that. And Jack Dylan Crazer, he's resorted a lot to being very, very, loud in this movie. He's just very loud, but he also has some of the best moments at the same time. Yeah. MVP Freeman. Anyway, yeah, I was a 7 out of 6.8 out of 10. I'll give it a 6.8. I would say 68%. Yeah, 3.79 stars. 3.82, something like that. Something like that. It's 3.5, 6. Just enjoyable enough for me to give it a fresh rating. Yeah, I feel pleasant at the moment. Anyway, you guys, catch us at WonderCon. We got to go shoot Mandalorian in a half hour now,

but we wanted to make sure we did it just watched. Thank you so much for being here to leave your thoughts down below for Shazam, for the Gods. There's two post-credit scenes. One of them is really funny as usual. And the other ones, like, okay, we didn't need it. Swing for the fences, and maybe they'll give you a green light. Who knows.

All righty guys. We'll see you later. Thanks for me, here, Reject Nation. Shazam! Thank you.