YMMV / SHAZAM! Fury of the Gods

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Is Kalypso really overtaken by Revenge Before Reason so as to do right by Atlas or is her revolting interest in enacting the vicious torment and murder of all humans stemmed only in pure Fantastic Racism? If she truly wanted to fulfill Atlas's wishes, why not agree with Hespera and Anthea—rather than go against and try to kill either of them—and plant the seed to save their own dying realm instead? Would that not be counterproductive and instead indicate Kalypso's only true interest is in her own sadistic desire to inflict pain?
• Angst? What Angst?:
  • In the scene where Freddy first meets Anne, the Breyers bully him, but then a teacher, Mr. Greckle (played by Diedrich Bader), steps in and breaks it up. During Freddy's later confrontation with the Daughters of Atlas on the roof of the school, right after he's been Brought Down to Normal, Mr. G happens to arrive on the roof to see what the commotion is, only for Kalypso to make him commit Psychic-Assisted Suicide via Mind Control in front of a horrified Freddy... and then he's never brought up or alluded to again in any way for the rest of the movie. While it makes sense given the heroes have a lot on their minds and things start happening very quickly after this, he still pretty much only exists just to die in a Kick the Dog moment for Kalypso considering his short amount of screentime and how little fanfare his death gets.
  • Anthea says literally nothing about the destruction (thanks to Kalypso planting it on Earth instead) of the only known golden apple remaining, her realm’s apparent last hope, or the death of her sisters, the last family she has left, and instead seems much more concerned about Freddy and Billy, whom she’s known a couple days, tops. While this is fair enough for Kalypso, whom Anne seems to basically disown as a sister after the latter fatally wounds Hespera and then de-powers and tries to kill her as well, Anne's lack of angst includes even Hespera, who dies from trying to assist her against Kalypso; though Anthea is quite upset after Kalypso first stabs her, once she flees to attempt to escape the latter's De-power, she never brings up Hespera again.
• Ass Pull: One-Scene Wonder they might be, Wonder Woman shows up to bring Billy back to life and restore magic to the gods, with almost no foreshadowing. Billy asks earlier if he could send a letter to Wonder Woman, but this is treated as a throwaway joke about his Precocious Crush on her, so her showing up is still poorly foreshadowed. Even with that, she still also shows up in the Godsphere with no indication of how she knew to come there, to fix a problem she had no idea existed until she got there, and does so with zero effort on her part before leaving, all just so the film could have a fake-out death.
• Audience-Alienating Premise: A SHAZAM movie that didn't feature any members of his rogues' gallery (like Mr. Mind or Black Adam) or introduce any supporting characters from the pre-New 52 stories (like Tawky Tawny) left fans of the comics with little to get invested in. It doesn't help that the original villains created for Fury of the Gods were taken out of Greek mythology, a pantheon that's been overexposed in the DCEU and wider American blockbusters at the expense of many other unexplored cultures.
• Fandom Rivalry: With Black Adam (2022), although ironically this is largely for reasons removed from the traditional antagonistic relationship that exists between Shazam and Black Adam. In the light of both films' underperformance it was gradually revealed that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson interfered heavily in the production of both films in order to reposition himself and Henry Cavill's Superman as the centerpiece of the DCEU; despite the fact that both characters have had very little history together in the comics. As such, Dwayne refused to support or appear in Fury of the Gods and reportedly vetoed the appearances of notable cameos from the Justice Society. As such Shazam fans resent Dwayne Johnson as his interference ensured that Shazam will never be able to face off against his most iconic nemesis.
• The Firefly Effect: One of the reasons for the film's disappointing box office is the fact that new DC Studios head James Gunn officially announced a wide reboot of the film continuity prior to its release, and so audiences that are aware of this felt this film and the other DCEU entries releasing in 2023 (including The Flash) might not be worth their time as there won't be follow-ups.
• Franchise Original Sin: A few fans were overly critical about Zachary Levi's performance as Shazam, feeling that he generally acts more childish than he should, even by the standards of a kid in an adult body with superpowers. In truth, Levi's performance isn't actually too different from the first movie, and in fact was considered one of the highlights of the movie at the time due to his contrasting personality with Asher Angel's more moody teenage self. However, it’s also worth noting that Billy was only 14 years old in the first film, meaning his personality after being empowered lined up with a kid that age becoming someone like Shazam. Here, Billy is nearing the age 18 with Angel portraying him as such, while Levi still acts like the character is still in his early teens. As such, the two actors' very different performances of the same character felt much more disconnected for viewers.
• Genius Bonus: The Daughters of Atlas come from Greek mythology and are all children of Atlas (one of the gods who gives Shazam his power):
  • Hespera is named after the Hesperides, the spirits of the sunset, who tended a garden of golden apples. Hespera is also the female form of Hesperus, Atlas's brother and the god of the Evening Star Venus.
  • Kalypso is named after the enchantress who tended to Odysseus on his way home. There is also a member of the Hesperides named Calypso.
  • Anthea is the goddess of gardens, swamps, flowers, and human love, so it's fitting that she ends up falling in love with a human.
  • Ladon the dragon served as the guard to the Garden of Hesperides.
• Iron Woobie: In spite of his godly power, Billy suffers from impostor syndrome. It's a rather effective deconstruction of heroes whose powers are handed to them rather than earned and also drives a further contrast between himself and the entitled Dr Sivana.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Did you really think one of the most kid-friendly movies of the DC Extended Universe would end with its teenager protagonist's actual death?
• Magnificent Bitch: Hespera is the eldest daughter of Atlas, seeking to bring him to life and return their collective magic from humans. Her plans start out flawlessly, collecting the necessary staff, getting it repaired, allowing Kalypso to use torture, and killing those in the way. After kidnapping Freddy on threat of his life, she Out-Gambits the heroes' plot to take her in a hostage exchange by breaking the lock on her prison and leaving with the Apple of Discord to revive Atlas. In Contrast to Kalypso's Revenge Before Reason against humans, Hespera pushes to plant the apple in their own realm, and though killed by Kalypso for this reason, when revived, she shows respect for Shazam and plays a key role in saving Earth before a dignified death.
• Nausea Fuel:
  • After Kalypso manipulates Freddy's teacher into jumping off a high building to his death, she remarks callously, "I forgot how easily they [humans] burst... like grapes."
  • A character is remarked to smell like a porta-potty after she is transported by a public porta-potty in Philadelphia. Kalypso also opens the porta-potty door only to find an overweight man with his pants pulled down, taking a dump.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • In the scene where the Daughters of Atlas find their staff in a museum, the security systems activate and the tourists become unable to escape from the room. They end up falling victim to the non-existent mercy of the Fates as they are Taken for Granite, complete with Kalypso shattering one of them just For the Evulz.
    • A deleted scene shows the Daughters outright impaling two security guards who attempt to apprehend them during the commotion.
  • Billy's teacher being mind-controlled into committing suicide by jumping off a tall building.
  • The scene where the random female civilian manages to narrowly avoid being impaled by the Tree of Life's spikes, only to be stabbed in the back by the manticore that hatches from it and flung into a shop window.
• One-Scene Wonder: Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman! Especially considering that she uses her powers as a demigod and daughter of Zeus to re-ignite the staff of Shazam, which not only rebirths life in the dead realm and gives Anthea her magic back, but also brings Billy back to life. Talk about making the absolute most of a brief appearance!
• Salvaged Story:
  • Though generally well received, the first film got criticism from sections of the comics fanbase because of Billy and Freddy's Adaptational Jerkass treatment, which undermined the point of Billy's character earning the power of Shazam through being an unfailingly kind person despite the hardship he had gone through. During this film, both boys are much more outwardly kind, with Billy specifically being much more open and friendly with his adopted family and treats his heroics and uses of his powers much more seriously (and doesn't exploit them for money or selfish gain, or use them to enter strip clubs; in fact, his crush on Wonder Woman shows him fantasizing about taking her on romantic dinner dates, rather than anything vulgar or perverse), and Freddy being able to win the heart of the goddess Anthea through his genuinely heroic qualities, even if still a glory hound.
  • Likewise, while still not as much as people would like as they all get depowered by the climax, this film gives the rest of the siblings more to do in the film, after the first film largely left them to the wayside with little development in favor of focusing on Billy and Freddy. Billy is also shown spending far more time with his other siblings, establishing how much he's bonded with them (arguably at the expense of barely getting any screentime with just Freddy this time around), and they all share a decent amount of sibling banter together.
• Sequelitis: Generally regarded to be a weaker movie than the original, with flaws that were seen as tolerable in the original movie now overstaying their welcome (such as Billy's persistent immaturity to the point of acting like a Kiddie Kid at almost eighteen years old, as well as rehashing the first film's stinger with zero development or even any indication the Sequel Hook will be followed up on) and overall weaker characters, humor, and writing. While it's far from reviled, you'd be hard-pressed to find any fans calling this anything more than So Okay, It's Average compared to its predecessor.
• Squick: The relationship between Anne and Freddy becomes this for some with the revelation that she is over six thousand years old, with the great wealth of life experience one would expect from that age. Especially egregious as, even in-universe, it's questioned if this makes things inappropriate, but everyone seems to let it slide in the end because Anne looks like a teenager (and maybe also because Freddy didn't know they're not the same age when he fell for her), while Wonder Woman, who is in fact younger than Anthea, is very correctly held as much too old for the kid crushing on her since she happens to actually look like a fully-adult woman (though this could also be because, in Billy's case, he's fully aware that she's far older and it's always treated like a Precocious Crush).
• Strangled by the Red String: Putting the Squick factor aside, the romance between Freddy and Anne suffered from poor development. Anne's willingness to betray her own sisters for a guy she knew for only a few days raised serious concerns about the depth of their connection and the believability of their romance. Additionally, the lack of exploration into Anne's character and motivations left audiences questioning her sudden change of heart, ultimately resulting in a poorly executed romance plotline.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • An unusual case where this applies to the main character of the movie. Billy spends almost all of his screentime as Shazam, so while we see plenty of sibling banter between him and the others in their respective superhero forms, we get only a little of it with all of them as teenagers. Considering that Billy spent most of the first movie being rather distant from his new foster siblings and only warmed up to them by the end, it would have been nice to see them spend a little more time together as "themselves". Ironically, this applies the most to Billy and Freddy, who spent by far the most amount of time together in the first film but only have a couple of short scenes together where they're both teenagers in this one, and spend most of that time bickering lightly.
  • The only mission that the whole Shazamily does together onscreen is the bridge collapse, which has no bad guys to fight and is focused on rescuing civilians. They never battle the villains of the movie as a full group, since, every time they face off, there's always at least one member of the team who's been de-powered.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The growing friendship and brotherhood between Billy and Freddy was one of, if not the central relationship of SHAZAM! In Fury of the Gods, most of the screentime they share is relatively early in the movie and involves them bickering, and as mentioned above, is fairly lacking in time they spend together where they're both teenagers. Then Freddy is kidnapped and they spend pretty much the whole second act separated. In general, their friendship takes a backseat to focus on Billy's relationships with his other siblings, and Freddy's romance with Anne and new friendship with the Wizard. That being said, Freddy's main focus at the climax of the movie does shift back to Billy after the latter's Heroic Sacrifice.
  • The fact that the sequel would not have Mister Mind involved at all during the movie's plot is kinda sad, given he was anticipated moreso than the Daughters of Atlas that were announced to be the actual villains of the sequel instead. The post-credits scene of the sequel even makes fun of this wasted idea as Mister Mind really just left Doctor Sivana to rot alone in jail some more before the latter could get to hear the worm's ultimate plan. For two years. And Mister Mind does this again after returning to check up on him, to Sivana's frustration. Oof.

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