WORD UP

SAY MY NAME! THE WORLD'S MIGHTIEST MORTAL FACES MYTHIC VENGEANCE IN SHAZAM! FURY OF THE GODS

- NICK SETCHFIELD

FOR ONCE THE hoariest of Hollywood soundbites is absolutely true: it's all about family. That's the operative word behind Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, a DC blockbuster that not only makes a compelling case for the superiority of exclamation marks over colons in movie titles but which also pits Billy Batson and his superpowered clan against a sisterhood of goddesses. And you thought Christmas was a crossfire of family dynamics...

"In a lot of movies the whole character journey is like, 'Oh, they're missing this thing in their life' and then at the end of the movie they get what they're missing," says director David F Sandberg, returning to the realm of capes after 2019's Shazam!. "So then in a sequel you often have to take that away and start from scratch again.

"In this one it's pretty interesting because in the first film what Billy really wants in life is a family and he gets a family at the end. Now they're getting older, and they're getting older very quickly, so they're not going to be able to live in a foster home forever. So Billy is very concerned about losing this family that he's just found. He's trying to keep them all together."

Based on the true, original Captain Marvel, who burst into four-colour life in 1940, the first movie had the power of wish-fulfilment at its heart. When Asher Angel's teenage Billy utters the enchanted word "Shazam!" he's transformed into the World's Mightiest Mortal in the form of Zachary Levi. The sequel doubles down on this quintessential kid fantasy as Billy's equally supersized foster siblings the Shazam Family of the comics - are presented in their full spandexy pomp.