Parent reviews for Shazam! Fury of the Gods

The movie isn't as good as the first, but it's still pretty amazing. Positive messages include "The most powerful thing about you is you," says the hero within each of us. The movie also shows the significance of having a strong family foundation, whether biological or foster (movie's example of a loving, caring foster home is a refreshing break from typical representations). Of course there are clear elements of collaboration, bravery, and compassion.  Surprisingly, the movie also includes diversity: The main character Asher Angel/Zachary Levi plays Billy/Shazam, a White boy/man. The Shazam superhero team is made up of a varied collection of children who live with loving foster parents Rosa and Victor Vasquez (Spanish actress Marta Milans and Samoan/Jewish actor Cooper Andrews, respectively) (and their corresponding adult versions). Freddy (non-disabled White actor Jack Dylan Grazer) is crippled, using an arm crutch but confidently confronting bullies. Jewish (Asher Angel), Irish (Caroline Grace-Cassidy), Taiwanese American (Ian Chen), Black (Faithe Herman), and Salvadorian/Mexican (Jovan Armand) actors play other team members. Gender, bodily size, and sexuality are also diverse. Female villains are fierce; They are played by White British actress Helen Mirren, Chinese American actress Lucy Liu, and Colombian American actress Rachel Zegler, who span in age from a teenager to over 70. OK SO THE MOVIE HAS GREAT MESSAGES BUT ALSO SOME VIOLENCE AS WELL.: There is a lot of hazard, action violence, and damage in the style of a comic book, such as a falling bridge and monsters taking over the city and attacking humanity. A quick look at a first-person shooter video game. Humans are being impaled, but those scenes are very brief. Humans are enslaved by gods who transform them into zombie-like creatures. A sympathetic figure is killed off.  Vehicle accidents occur. People in real distress, screaming. The dragon is terrifying. A huge wood splinter is carefully dragged out from under a fingernail, causing an uneasy moment.  Words like "ass," "a-hole," "s—t," "sucks balls," "d—k," "oh my God," and "what the hell" are frequently used. A child says, "motherfu...," which is cut off before the vulgar ending, but viewers will understand what is being said.

It was disappointing to see what could have been a great family movie ruined by needless swearing. The terms a**hole and mother****** make appearances. Also, there was over the top commercial plus for skittles that were distracting. The plot was weak and annoying in several places.

The movie says it’s about family and it delivers on that message.

It’s a great movie with just one scary scene (with monsters summoned, scaring and hurting people in the city).

I feel like more attention should be brought to the incredibly disturbing scene of a teacher (who in a previous scene helps one of the characters ward off bullies), gets hypnotized into jumping off a building to his (audible) death with one of the villains saying “exploding like a grape”. An unnecessary scene in a movie that’s supposed to be family friendly. This was disturbing to my husband and I as adults and should not be something any adolescent or child sees portrayed AS NO BIG DEAL. Other than one of the characters being upset for 30 seconds, they move on happily to other scenes and end the movie without ever readdressing such an unbelievably terrible death. Why not bring HIM back at the end at least. We have so much violence these days including in schools including highest suicide rates to date and kids being convinced by others to kill themselves. Killing a teacher like it’s no big deal (likely whispering “kill yourself” to him) is not something to sit lightly in a child or adolescent’s subconscious as no big deal (as portrayed in the movie). This ruined the movie for my husband and I. Thankfully we saw it first without our son. I wouldn’t recommend this movie for any age.