An evil Helen Mirren helps put the fun back into this CGI superhero spectacle

Shazam! Fury of the Gods ★★★½
(M) 131 minutes

The DC Comics superhero Shazam has come a long way since his screen debut four years ago. Back then, he was getting a kick of out of being able to charge a mobile phone with his finger. Now, in his second film, he’s up against Helen Mirren in a battle to save the world.

It’s all part of DC’s attempt to match their rivals Marvel in putting some fun back into the genre. For a long time, DC superheroes seemed at risk of sinking under the weight of their own self-importance while their Marvel counterparts, under the leadership of the studio boss Kevin Feige, grew more buoyant, funnier and more profitable.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods stars (from left) Ross Butler, Adam Brody, Grace Caroline Currey, Zachary Levi, Meagan Good and D.J. Cotrona.

Shazam (Zachary Levi) could never be accused of self-importance. The alter ego of Billy Batson (Asher Angel), a guileless teenager living in a foster home with five other adolescents, has not really grown up. He may look like an adult but the heart beneath the lightning bolt on his costume still thrills to the possibility of finally getting a handle on the superpowers in his possession. And he has a crush on Wonder Woman.

Mirren’s Hespera, one of the so-called Daughters of Atlas, harbours no doubts about her capabilities. With her siblings Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and Anthea (Rachel Zegler), she’s arrived on Earth on a mission. These three Olympian goddesses are out to retrieve certain magical powers stolen from them in aeons gone by, and they have Shazam and friends in their sights.

The Daughters of Atlas are (from left) Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren and Rachel Zegler.

Classical mythology has a big influence on DC and Marvel and their ever-expanding universes, but Shazam, who communicates exclusively in teen speak, can’t get used to the elevated tone that goes with it. Mirren comes encased in an elaborately decorated suit of bronze armour. When she fixes him with a basilisk stare and delivers a lethal threat in her best Shakespearean, he responds with a look of mild curiosity as if suddenly confronted with a talking statue.

In the first film, he learnt he could confer superpowers on the other kids in his foster family by merely saying “Shazam”, and they join him again once he’s Googled the Daughters of Atlas to see just what he’s dealing with. Billy’s chief sidekick is Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), the de facto star of the show. Smarter than Billy but suffering from a disability requiring him to walk with a stick, he finds freedom in his transformation into a superhero.

The film’s climactic battle is a CGI extravaganza with Liu leading the charge. Even tougher than Mirren, she pilots a very bad-tempered dragon while unleashing a menagerie of CGI monsters on Philadelphia.

All up, the film does the job as an engaging send-up of superheros and their affectations. It plays like a junior variation on Marvel’s comic hit Deadpool, with goofiness standing in for the f— word and gallows humour.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in cinemas from March 16.

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