what's going on there citizens of the reject Nation we just saw Shazam Fury of the Gods
um yeah we were gonna shoot this at the theater but uh they were closing up shop and 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 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 we saw the movie 20 minutes ago and we're gonna rock
these thoughts like nobody's business today also um I wanted to give a quick mention koi 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 and 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 this is Emily
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 and restore the
greatness of their old land and and you know who's standing in the way it's old Shazam and the team
and they Gotta Throw Down against them and and Vanquish them and and all that stuff I think that
was cohesive I think you got it yeah I think you did a pretty good job well guys um here's
the first thing I'll tell you it's better than Ant-Man and the WASP Quantum me sure yeah yeah
that's uh that's that's the particle ride 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 we 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 that's probably the best way for me to put it right now because the format
it is really raining today it is heavier the more we speak we are doing this we're doing this all
right even like we could just be inside but we're stupid let's keep it going oh do you love us now
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 it something that was like that was part of the
charm of the first one and I will say that like I think there's some 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 in mythology yeah
yeah as much as I think the second trailer does show you a little too much honestly uh because
the movie was very predictable and the second trailer doesn't help with that at all they do
have a lot of things in here 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 casting is an interesting thing because like I said there's a caveat with almost every part but
the cast overall yeah overall everybody shows us understand it does a fine job my standout
uh would have to be mine is Helen Mirren Joshua he's having a blast I'm kind of back and forth
with what they doing 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 pump
that you want we're gonna catch a cold we are but yeah the cast overall everybody shows up everybody
is is fun and pleasant and 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 in an attempt to balance this review we're saving
some of the criticisms for a little bit later but yeah there's 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 loud moments that I that I had in this film other Pros Sean you know the the action is pretty
uh so I said that in the world it's fun it's fun yeah yeah I know 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 they're going to the cons which
would be like from mid to cons is kind of where 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 I I significantly
went down for me and what I said with Thor love and thunder was I really felt like there was an
overload of jokes especially in the first half and it get 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 Shazam
area of the Gods I was like there's a lot 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 the thing that a lot of people
have with it same thing I might say with Thor Ragnarok that's a funny movie uh 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 yes which is a jokier movie it's 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
yeah a lot of jokes happen 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 uh 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 I I you know I like Helen
mirrenal 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 there's not enough time the film's over
stuff there's a lot of there's a lot of characters in here and uh there's a lot of different plow and
a lot of the plots lines that they set up kind of just get dropped a lot of arcs that they said
kind of get dropped but one character I thought uh they introduced a bunch of powers with her
they revealed a Comic-Con 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 that
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 Justice League you guys remember
what Justice 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 it really just didn't support a lot of the they go so much bigger in this film that at
times the visual effects is we weakness was kind of distracting to me whereas in the first movie I
was like yeah it's not really about the big stuff here so you know whatever we can forgive that yeah
I think the quantumania comparison does hold here because this is clearly a budgeting you know step
up from the previous movie as was quantumania 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 shazamilee I mean if you guys remember the first movie without being so cool
if you guys remember the first movie with this is Emily they got a bunch of like semi-celebrity
people to be the 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 was like the DJ Katrina character
they do some interesting stuff with Freddy 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 and hold on to the theme I think it's
there but it kind of gets lost in in the jumble of all the chaos that's going on in this film
because there's a lot of family 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 I
which I really feel is for love and thunder jokey 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 at 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 Mexico yeah Darla and a bit I'll give uh Jorge a bit of that with between DJ katrona
and the younger actor like because 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 uh where there's like it's got a good
balance of humor and intensity and there's some emotional half there's one scene where I think I
looked over and I saw John tearing up a little bit was that happening that happened yeah I saw John
it was a sign that it was working for someone the first shazam movie was like it's too like
DC was known for being darker and [ __ ] and this one is like doing all the thing it's learning all
these good things that Marvel's doing that's what the first shazam movie did and this movie did all
the bad things that Marvel's been doing and they felt like they tried to make Black Adam a Marvel
movie this who read it to me it's cut from a similar cloth but at the same time with like
the Thor love and thunder [ __ ] was like yeah it was really I think this is better than Thor love
and thunder it's a more smooth experience and I will give Dave 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 you know like he's good at pulling these things together so Props
for that but you can tell kind of like Justice League sure it's way better than Josh way better
than John way better than the job I put it in the same way of like this could have been messenger
yeah it's not as much of a letdown as I imagine a lot of people experience with like a Thor love 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 and a lot of that really does get lost in this film with with trying to go bigger but but I
I appreciated the the small doses when we did get those moments with the family with the parents uh
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 uh working
as a unit right now guys all of us are not of us but it doesn't really uh go anywhere with
that one it's just the main Adventure just kind of takes control of the whole plot yeah kind of falls
into the back seat and then out the door Lucy Liu 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's is is so Charming yeah and is also a God I guess but mostly she's just
here to be super Charming they made the wizard a goofball um he's funny in this movie yeah it's
really funny yeah he's pretty this movie dips into silliness and weirdness in a more overt way
than the previous one uh two mixed results but I mean I'm happy they decided to try it exactly why
despite being much Dumber he's still very very Charming I'll say that and Jack Dylan Crazer uh
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 uh I was a seven out of this
six point eight out of 10. give it a 6.8 I would say 68 yeah three point seven Nine Stars 3.82
some something like that something like that it's three plus five six just enjoyable enough for me
to give it a fresh rating yeah I feel Pleasant at the moment anyway you guys catch us at one
Recon we gotta go shoot Mandalorian in a half hour now but we wanted to make sure we did her
just watched thank you so much for being here leave your thoughts down below for Shazam for
you're the gods there's two post credit scenes one of them is really funny as usual and uh the
other ones like okay we didn't need to swing swing for the fences and maybe they'll give you a green
light who knows alrighty guys we'll we'll see you later thanks for being here reject Nation Shazam
foreign