Shazam! Fury Of The Gods Reactions Are In, See What People Are Saying About The DC Blockbuster

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So how are things looking critically for the Shazam! sequel?

Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania kicked off 2023’s run of superhero movies, but now it’s time for DC to shine. The first of this year’s four upcoming DC movies is Shazam! Fury of the Gods, arriving four years after moviegoers watched Asher Angel’s Billy Batson gained the ability to turn into his superpowered Shazam form, played by Zachary Levi. Billy passed this ability to his foster siblings towards the end of Shazam!, and Fury of the Gods will see the Shazamily taking on the Daughters of Atlas, played by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Zegler. While the public still has a few weeks to go until the Shazam! sequel’s release, the first early reactions about this DC blockbuster are trickling in.

So what’s the early buzz on Shazam! Fury of the Gods? To kicks us off, CinemaBlend’s own Eric Eisenberg was largely positive towards the 2023 new movie release, saying that while it’s not exceptional, it’s a fun watch overall.

Black Girl News founder Jamie Broadnax pointed out in her reaction that the trademark style of humor from the first Shazam! movie is retained in Fury of the Gods, while also praising the action, characters and (in a later tweet) the design of the dragon that Lucy Liu’s Kalypso rides.

Brandon Davis from Comicbook.com was also among Shazam! Fury of the Gods supporters, and along with highlighting how its theme of found family shines, mentioned how the movie does a good job of including some horror elements among the lightheartedness.

But not everyone liked Shazam! Fury of the Gods as a whole. While Digital Spy’s Gabriella Geisinger liked Jack Dylan Grazer and Djimon Hounsou’s respective performances as Freddy Freeman and the Wizard Shazam, she ultimately found the movie a chore to get through.

Back to more positive territory, Variety and The AV Club writer Courtney Howard praised Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ action and humor, and was particularly impressed by Helen Mirren, Lucy Liu and Rachel Ziegler’s performances as the sequel’s antagonists.

Finally, while James Gunn is in a more privileged position compared to the masses as co-head of DC Studios, he threw in his own complimentary words about Shazam! Fury of the Gods, which included mentioning director David F. Sandberg.

So overall, it sounds like while Shazam! Fury of the Gods won’t necessarily go down as one of the best superhero movies of all time, it’s still worth watching for a fun time, especially if you liked the previous Shazam! movie. Maybe the positive reactions on social media and the soon-to-arrive reviews will improve the sequel’s chances of succeeding at the box office. In late February, some estimates placed Fury of the Gods at making between $35-40 million on opening weekend, while others were more optimistic at $43-52 million.

Before Shazam! Fury of the Gods opens in theaters on March 17, rewatch the first movie with your HBO Max subscription, or at least read about the things you need to remember from Shazam! beforehand. Despite DC putting together a new shared universe, David F. Sandberg has said the Shazam! film series could continue into this new era, but only if enough people check out this second entry while it’s on the big screen.

Adam Holmes
Adam Holmes
Senior Content Producer

Connoisseur of Marvel, DC, Star Wars, John Wick, MonsterVerse and Doctor Who lore, Adam is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend. He started working for the site back in late 2014 writing exclusively comic book movie and TV-related articles, and along with branching out into other genres, he also made the jump to editing. Along with his writing and editing duties, as well as interviewing creative talent from time to time, he also oversees the assignment of movie-related features. He graduated from the University of Oregon with a degree in Journalism, and he’s been sourced numerous times on Wikipedia. He's aware he looks like Harry Potter and Clark Kent.