Shazam! Fury of the Gods Reviews Score Is Rotten

The magic word “Shazam” transforms teen Billy Batson (Asher Angel) into an adult superhero (Zachary Levi) in Shazam! Fury of the Gods, but critics have one word for the sequel: “rotten.” The first Shazam! 2 reviews that hit the internet Wednesday drew mixed reactions from critics, with 68% of professional critic reviews giving the DC and New Line Cinema sequel a thumbs up —still a “fresh” score on the Tomatometer, but a less thunderous reception than the original. “Certified fresh” with 90% positive reviews from critics, 2019’s Shazam! is tied with James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad as the second-best rated DCEU movie behind Wonder Woman‘s 93%. 

But with more reviewers adding their reactions to the review aggregator on Thursday, the Shazam! 2 score currently sits at 57% “rotten” on the Tomatometer at the time of publishing. That marks DC’s second splat in a row after October’s Black Adam, which starred Dwayne Johnson as Shazam’s comic book archenemy, matched 2017’s Justice League at 39% rotten.

What Does Rotten Tomatoes Mean in Movies?

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Tomatometer score represents the percentage of professional critic reviewsthat are positive for a given movie. A Tomatometer score iscalculated for a movie after it receives at least five reviews: when at least 60% of reviews are positive, a red tomato indicates “fresh”; when less than 60% of reviews are positive, a green splat indicates “rotten.”

Shazam 2 Rotten Tomatoes Score vs. the DCEU

1. Wonder Woman (2017) – 93% (Certified Fresh)
2. The Suicide Squad (2021) – 90% (Certified Fresh)
3. Shazam! (2019) – 90% (Certified Fresh)
4. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey (2020) – 78% (Certified Fresh)
5. Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) – 71% (Fresh)
6. Aquaman (2018) – 65% (Fresh)
7. Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) – 58% (Rotten)
8. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) – 57% (Rotten)
9. Man of Steel (2013) – 57% (Rotten)
10. Black Adam (2022) – 39% (Rotten)
11. Justice League (2017) – 39% (Rotten)
12. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) – 29% (Rotten)
13. Suicide Squad (2016) – 26% (Rotten)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods Reviews

See a sampling of Shazam! Fury of the Gods reviews below.

ComicBook.com: “Shazam! Fury of the Gods isn’tthe most unique or action-packed comic book movie out there. Youcertainly won’t leave the theater a changed DC fan, but you will leavewith a smile on your face. If you can look past the uncertainty of theShazamily’s future, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a delightful ride and a worthy follow-up to the first film.”

The Hollywood Reporter:“Like some children who aren’t so cute anymore after they’ve grown up alittle, this follow-up lacks much of the appeal of its predecessor.While the film provides the elaborate action set pieces, colorfulvillains and save-the-world plot mechanics expected of the comic bookmovie genre, some of the magic is missing … the Shazam films are geared to a younger comic book movie audience, but this seems more like Saturday morning cartoon territory.” 

IndieWire: “While Shazam! Fury of the Godsdoesn’t entirely recapture the giddy fun of the first film, its humor,sweetness, and delightfully human heroes remaining bright spots in agenre too often obsessed with the dark and the gritty.”

Variety: “The origin story was the charm, but the sequel is hobbled by a less buoyant hero and bland villains …  [Shazam!]had a breezy screw-loose charm that felt not so much superhuman as goodold human. It somehow sidestepped the digitally tooled blockbustercynicism, but Fury of the Gods falls right into it. The film isn’t terrible, but it’s busy, formulaic and rather joyless.”

The Los Angeles Times: “One whiff of the Shazam! sequel Shazam! Fury of the Godsand you’ll find that this overly jokey approach is well past itsexpiration date. The DC movie is exceedingly grating, labored andannoying, and that’s in large part due to star Zachary Levi‘sutterly confounding performance as Shazam … It may be a shoddily madeSkittles ad masquerading as a superhero riff, but it’s Levi’sperformance that sends it into the stratosphere of cringe. Here’s hopingthis is not only Shazam’s last outing but the nail in the coffin of thesmarmy superhero as well.”

USA Today: “A fun, kid-friendly follow-up to director David F. Sandberg’s 2019 charmer, the Shazam sequel … piles on the mythos, monsters and magic, a smidge too heavily at times, but stays grounded, thanks to its earnestly goofy main man.”

The Daily Beast: “On the basis of Shazam! Fury of the Gods,that [DC Universe] reboot can’t come soon enough. A sequel whosegoofiness extends not only to its lame humor but its convoluted andsenseless plot, David F. Sandberg’s film is something like thelight-side equal to last fall’s Black Adam—fitting, given thatthe antihero of that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson vehicle is a classicShazam villain. Messy and mirthless, it resounds as the death knell forthis interconnected cinematic enterprise’s current iteration.”

Newsday: “Shazam! Fury of the Godsfairly panders to the under-13 set. But Levi still works his chatterboxcharm, and the movie maintains an appealingly easy-breezy tone (asidefrom the occasional impaling).” 

TheWrap: “[2019’s] Shazam!still stands out as something special: an emotional, character-drivenfilm with good humor and an actual point to make that never let flashyspectacle get in the way of telling a wonderful, personal story. Itwould be nice to report that the sequel follows in that tradition.Instead, the best parts of this new movie are drowned out by pointlessCGI monsters and tedious action sequences. What worked before stillworks now, it’s just that now it’s got a whole lot of bland blockbusterpabulum to compete with.”

Starring Zachary Levi, Asher Angel, Jack Dylan Grazer, Adam Brody, Ross Butler, Meagan Good, D.J. Cotrona, Grace Caroline Currey, Faithe Herman, Ian Chen, Jovan Armand, Marta Milans, Cooper Andrews, Djimon Hounsou, Rachel Zegler, Lucy Liu, and Helen Mirren, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters March 17th.