Sillier than the first: Shazam!: Fury of The Gods (2023)

 Over the last 35 years, Billy Batson and the "original" Captain Marvel have had their shared origin revamped and rebooted multiple times. Now might be a good time to do another tweak, so that the next time Billy appears in a movie, he's not such a naive twit any longer when in costume.

"Shazam!: Fury of The Gods" is another campy family comedy, much more so than the first film. Shazam (Zachary Levi) confuses a pediatrician with a therapist when trying to discuss his feelings about his foster family. The daughters of the Titan Atlas have entered our realm, bent on revenge. The youngest of the three falls for Freddy Freeman, and, well, you could've seen it coming a mile away.

Helen Mirren & Lucy Liu are the big ticket villains here. Diedrich Bader (currently heard on Harley Quinn) cameos as a high school teacher. As everyone knows by now, Gal Gadot appears briefly as Wonder Woman, whom, it seems, Billy/Shazam has a crush on.

Check the trailer:

If you look quick, TV's original Billy Batson, Michael Gray, also makes an appearance, attired in a certain red shirt with a yellow collar, one that appears to be nearly 50 years old.

There are some awkward moments, unsurprisingly, including some product placement in a key moment. A certain candy company should be well compensated.

This was actually goofier than the first film, but if/when there is a 3rd film, Shazam needs to be more serious and assertive. Yes, the original concept by CC Beck more than 80 years ago allowed for some light comedy, and, ultimately, today's audience is going to want Shazam to be taken more seriously on the order of his greatest contemporary, Superman.

Rating: B-.