The creators of Shazam! Fury of the Gods faced a conceptual dilemma they never quite solved. The point and pleasure of the first Shazam! was watching a dumb teenager figure out how to be a superhero: Testing the limits of his powers, tentatively trying (and often failing) to do good. But by the end of movie, the kid had gotten the hang of the superhero game. He defeated a super-villain, saved Philadelphia, found the birth mother who’d abandoned him as a child, and gave a piece of his powers to his five foster siblings. So what’s left to do in the sequel?

Not much, it seems. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is just sort of there, coasting on the residual good vibes and talented cast of its much-superior predecessor.

Full review at ScreenCrush.