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Reviews
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
An excellent follow-up to its predecessor
If you enjoyed the first Shazam! You will most likely get a hoot out of this one too. Fury of the Gods builds on the characters from the first film in a way that is internally consistent and helps to maintain a sense of continuity while introducing a reasonably scaled nemesis. There's enough action throughout to keep most viewers entertained and it maintains the lighter feel of the first film while never actually making a mockery of the source material.
DC fans who like their superheroes gritty, dark and humourless will find this to be unpalatable. The more family-friendly angle will hopefully encourage a wider range of viewers and provide solid entertainment for every age group.
Where Fury of the Gods is weakest is the same affliction that affects nearly all superhero fare - a bloated runtime. If some of the action sequences had been kept a bit shorter it wouldn't have negatively impacted the story, but when the style of the time is to make every obstacle raise the stakes to astronomical levels then it's hard to get away from. At a touch over 2 hours it might be hard to keep some viewers checked in.
Overall it's a solid bit of cinema with some great humour, fun performances, great CGI and effects and a neat story about the importance of family.
The Cost (2022)
Revenge is not so sweet.
Matthew Holmes delivers a truly powerful examination of the psychology of revenge in this tense thriller. It begs the viewer to question their own moral fortitude and whether or not they believe in an eye for an eye.
Holmes has yet again assembled a team of artists around him that seem to know exactly how to achieve his vision and do it justice. The performances are gut wrenching, the cinematography is slick and superb, the soundtrack is haunting, and the screenplay is en pointe. This is a film that shows that you don't need hundreds of millions of dollars to make something that looks it.
What makes The Cost especially powerful is that, unlike so many other revenge films, it doesn't glorify violence, nor does it lionise those who use violence in retribution. It questions how far is too far? When our characters find themselves questioning their choices it rings true, and we even find ourselves bouncing back and forth over what we would do in that situation.
The squeamish might find this one a difficult watch, but The Cost rewards the perseverance of the viewer with a deeply moving exploration of the human psyche.