Zachary Levi speaks out against ‘Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ criticism
Following the recent arrival of Shazam! Fear of the Gods, the sequel to 2019’s DC Studios comic adaption Shazam!, the central star Zachary Levi has taken to social media to defend the movie against wide criticism. On Rotten Tomatoes, critics have given an average score of 51 per cent. While many would deem this score only mildly disappointing, Levi feels the movie has been unfairly judged.
“It’s a throwback to all the movies that we knew and loved growing up in the ‘80s and ‘90s,” Levi wrote on Instagram after comparing it to The Goonies. “You’ll thoroughly enjoy it.”
“It’s disappointing to not be doing as well as I think we deserve to be, because I think we made a really great movie. But shit happens,” he added, saying he trusted his DC bosses to be doing “everything” in their power. It is a fantastic, fun for the whole family movie. Just like the first one, it’s got the heart, the humour, the charm, the adventure, the spookiness. I don’t know how you can go to a movie like this and not feel joy, or fun like some people have said. I don’t know how that’s even possible.”
“Is it a perfect film? No,” he continued. “But I’m hardpressed to think of any perfect films. But we are a far better film than some of these critics have given us credit for. For those of you that haven’t seen the movie, it’s going to blow your mind.”
“I would love our audience score [on Rotten Tomatoes] to get so dang high, that people are like ‘this doesn’t make any sense’ because it doesn’t make any sense. It doesn’t make any sense that we got shook down the way we got shook down.”
“Again, all you haters are going to be, ‘your movie suck’ but it doesn’t. It legitimately doesn’t. If any of you saw the movie, you’d recognise it doesn’t suck. It’s a really entertaining, really fun movie. We’re not the first movie this has happened to by the way. I think this would be a really good opportunity to show the world that this isn’t the best way to evaluate movies.”
On a more encouraging note, Shazam! Fury of the Gods has been given an average audience score of 81 per cent. “It’s so disproportionately better, obviously people got some shit wrong.”
Last week, director David F. Sandberg also reacted to the poor reviews for Shazam! Fury of the Gods saying he’s “done with superhero” films.
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