Team FC
Following the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ philosophy, this sequel to 2019 DCEU film Shazam reaches for the scale and sweep of a Gods and Monsters epic, but still roots it in the intimacy of a family drama.
Director David F. Sandberg keeps the film light, with the peppered-in quips still managing to feel fresh because they’re delivered by snarky teens using humour as a defence mechanism.
The film is pleasant enough, but the consistency of this pleasantness sometimes chafes — it never truly feels tense, even when the stakes are raised, increment by increment.
The sequel, which sticks to all of these beats, is still an enjoyable enough time at the movies and one of the few sunny spots in a muddled DCEU and an increasingly grim, confounding superhero landscape at large.
At a time when the DC universe is being restructured and there’s no word on whether a third Shazam film fits into its larger ambitions, it’s one superhero franchise that could stand saving.