Shazam! viewers point out flaw with Zachary Levi’s claim Fury of the Gods is a ‘perfect family movie’
‘It’s certainly not for kids,’ one person argued
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Shazam! viewers are pointing out a flaw in Zachary Levi’s claim about the film’s poor box office takings.
Sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods may have debuted at number one at the US box office, but it made just $30.5m, which was $20m below the first film’s opening weekend gross.
The takings were also short of its $35m projection, and Levi has suggested he knows the reason for this.
In response to a fan who said “there is no denying that at the moment there are many Snyder fans who are happy for the failure of your film”, Levi said: “Sad, but true.”
He added: “How much that actually affects the box office is anyone’s guess. But I think the biggest issue we’re having is marketing. This is a perfect family movie, and yet a lot of families aren’t aware of that. Which is just a shame.”
However, many people who have seen the film are stepping in to highlight an issue with Levi’s claim that Fury of the Gods is “a perfect family movie”.
In the film, directed by David F Sandberg, one scene sees a teacher (Diedrich Bader) stumble upon a showdown between his student, Freddy (Jack Dylan Grazer) and powerful god Kalypso (Lucy Liu) on the school roof. When he asks her not to hurt him, she replies: “I won’t touch him. You have my word.”
She then whispers a spell in his ear, which posseses him to walk off the roof, traumatising Freddy. Liu’s character describes the noise of his body hitting the ground as “popping like grapes”.
@azalben wrote on Twitter: “There's a scene in Shazam 2 where a teacher is forced to walk off a roof, you hear his body crunch as it hits the ground, and a sobbing teenager screams in horror about how the man popped like a balloon.”
@Hey_KayKay added: “Shazam 2 *IS NOT* a family movie (not fully, at least). A very sweet teacher is thrown off a roof to his death where you can hear his bones crush and the villains proceed to make fun of it. And, that’s one of MULTIPLE *brutal* deaths scenes. It’s certainly not for kids.”
Meanwhile, @Louie4711 called it “a super heartwarming family friendly” film, but said there are “a few horrific scenes that were anachronistic to the rest of the movie”.
They added: “There’s still the teacher scene which I haaaated while I was watching it.”
Levi has also appeared to endorse an article claiming that Dwayne Johnson scrapped his character’s cameo appearance in recent DC film Black Adam.
Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in cinemas now. Find The Independent’s review here.
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