Billy Batson (Angel Asher) is leaning into his life as the superhero Shazam (Zachery Levi) so he can avoid thinking of his problems as a foster kid about to age out of the system. Which doesn't have anything to do with the Daughters of Atlas, goddesses who are searching for a seed of the tree of life so they can rejuvenate their blighted world. Meanwhile, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer), is shocked and delighted to learn that the new girl in school, Anne (Rachel Zegler), is interested in him.
Do those seem like three separate storylines that are somehow ham-handed into one? Because that's what I got out of it. Nothing in this film made sense. The heroes' motivations were unknown, the villains were underbaked, the actions scenes didn't feel grounded, and the story was somehow both overstretched and cluttered. Ensemble films are hard to pull off. None of the Shazam-family seemed to have much of a personality in either of their forms except Billy and Freddy. That worked okay in the first one, because it focused primarily on Billy/Shazam. This one tried to broaden out but there wasn't enough there to build on.
Shazam is supposed to be a kid dealing with adult problems, forced to grow up too soon, given an absurd amount of power but no instructions on how to use it. A metaphor for adulthood. There is a lot to be mined from that but this movie is completely uninterested. It doesn't even seem interested in the parallels between the Daughters of Atlas, unmoored by their grief with no clear way forward, and Billy's fears of abandonment.
It's a regression, filled with childish one-note jokes about unicorns and Billy's teenaged crush on Wonder Woman.
Skip it and watch Black Adam instead. Seriously.
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