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Review of Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Christophe Beck)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you appreciate competent orchestral superhero music that takes no chances and predictably serves all the film's basic needs.

Avoid it... if you have no interest in hearing the kind of ultra-generic music an artificial intelligence would likely generate for this genre.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Shazam! Fury of the Gods: (Christophe Beck) Superhero fatigue became a factor by the release of 2023's Shazam! Fury of the Gods, the maligned sequel of 2019's surprisingly hearty Shazam! A bizarrely poor script featuring dragons and unicorns stole the thunder from the core story of Billy Batson and his fellow foster kids, the "Shazamily" enlisted to battle the Daughters of Atlas, who cannot even agree amongst themselves about how to restore their glory and punish humanity. Superpowers are lost, regained, and lost again as the battle over original wizard's staff is joined by fuss over a magic apple. Everyday people suffer inconveniences, and Wonder Woman has to emerge to save the day for this DC Comics property. It's a muddled and pointless narrative that loses all the charm and much of the humor of the prior film, and after a poor critical response, audiences showered disappointment upon the studio with unexpectedly low box office performance. Sometimes, a movie just isn't very good, and such is the case with Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Not helping the situation is a shift in the soundtrack for the sequel. The score for Shazam! by Benjamin Wallfisch was a surprising success in its year, its main theme one of the most exhilarating throwbacks to classic 1980's adventure heard in a generation. With Wallfisch reportedly unavailable to score the sequel because of this scheduled commitment to The Flash, the filmmakers turned to Christophe Beck as a replacement. With the Ant-Man scores and a series of television assignments in the genre as preparation, Beck was well-positioned to bring his lighter but still heroic flair to this franchise. In the process, the only existing Wallfisch cue credited is "Check Out These Guns," Beck opting to write all-new themes where they were not necessary. The story of Shazam! did not allow Wallfisch's superb title theme to flourish in full because the main character and his associates were just discovering their powers. The sequel score is where fuller, more comprehensive development of that theme was meant to be heard. Beck does not oblige, however, and this loss of identity is a critical point of failure in the score. There was no compelling reason for the main character's theme to change, especially with Beck providing an inferior alternative.

While Beck is certainly a capable composer in this genre, graduating to the kind of status that allows him to pass off some of the workload to an army of assistants and ghostwriters, his technique with Shazam! Fury of the Gods is frightfully generic. If you were to ask an artificial intelligence to write orchestral music for a superhero film, this score could result. Every usual rhythmic and instrumental tactic is employed, all of them faint echoes of John Williams' ideas of the past, and the performances fail to inspire. At least the players of Shazam! sounded as though they had consumed an energy drink (or eaten a bowl of chili) prior to recording. Here, everyone sounds as though they were just earning their pay. The orchestrations are fine; in fact, there are few synthetics muddying the waters. The brass section does its usual heroic representation while strings offer a rhythmic base. Piano and solo woodwinds present character sensitivity, as expected. A choir is supplied, but its contributions are anonymous until some puffed male chants in "Unicorn Act." Structurally, an excess of massive crescendos of stereotypical thematic material closes out several cues in tired fashion. Thematically, Beck relies very heavily on "call and answer" phrasing, almost to a fault. There are hints of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner in these ideas at times, but never do you receive any of the heart or resonance that resulted from those composers' equivalent execution. The only distracting emulation comes from some oddly cheap resurrection of Trevor Rabin's anthemic stance from Armageddon at the starts of "A True God After All" and "Restoration," such usage highly distracting for the learned film score collector. Hans Zimmer's Wonder Woman theme is dropped in as source, as is Abel Korzeniowski's "Abdication" from W.E. Some listeners may find the themes from Beck's sequel score to be more memorable than those by Wallfisch, and that's no surprise. Wallfisch was establishing his material in an origin posture. Beck simply blares his themes repeatedly throughout much of the score without any such hindrance. For most people, Shazam! Fury of the Gods will sound like a two-theme score, and that observation is largely correct. But Beck potentially frustrates by saving his most engaging melodic ideas for secondary themes that never gain enough traction in the work to satisfy. The general musical narrative of the two major themes is fine, but their intermingling is not as adept as one might hope during scenes of direct conflict.

Becks' replacement main theme for Shazam! Fury of the Gods is completely standard, built upon a seven-note first phrase followed by a six-note answer. The first four notes are sometimes applied as a quick reference throughout. Heard immediately on horns in "Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Main Title Theme)," this idea builds from chugging string rhythms to a full statement at 0:29 and brackets the suite with a large rendition featuring plenty of crashing cymbals at 2:22. The theme actually opens the score in "Introduction - Fright at the Museum" with anticipatory horn nobility, culminating in a choral and triangle-rattling triumph in the first minute of that cue. Thereafter, it is fragmented in the first minute of "Dome and Gloom," reduced to humorous guises throughout "Freddy Sneaks In," opens "Act of Violins" with a single burst, and starts "A Family Affair" in single phrases while those pieces litter "Dragon Drop." The new main theme is made tender at the outset of "Before You Go" with genuine solos passed around the ensemble (beware the Williams-imitation crescendo at the end) but shifts to full bravado mode at the start of "Dragon Chase," culminating in a melodramatic finale with choir. An underlying rhythm builds to a full, crashing performance in "Taste the Rainbow" as well. After becoming solitary on piano at 0:36 into "All or None", Beck goes full superhero mode again at 1:37. The theme is challenged to dramatic lengths early in "We End This Now," extends out of 1990's anthemic tones in "A True God After All," guides the emotional height of "Restoration" in underlying chords only, and previews somewhat limp resolution variants following a solo string rendition in "Hero." This main theme has an interlude sequence that affords wholesome accompaniment for the superhero fanfare. Its most significant development, not surprisingly, comes in the middle of "Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Main Title Theme)." Here, the interlude sequence emerges at 0:52 on strings, elongating the main theme's phrasing for romanticism. It is shortened at 1:20 to five-note phrases from its latter sections for wonderment. As a character-centric tool, perhaps for the "Shazamily," this idea recurs at 0:13 into "Steve" on charming strings (shifting to solo clarinet at 0:45), offers sensitivity to the latter half of "Unicorn Act," and provides inspiration to the end of "Freddy Resists." An offshoot of this interlude has more Horner-like mannerisms, light on harp and flute at the start of "Freddy over Heels" and peeking through in the middle of "The Guardian." Don't expect any of these brief moments of interest to last in your memory.

The other primary theme of Shazam! Fury of the Gods belongs to the Daughters of Atlas; like the main theme, this idea also contains a seven-note first phrase followed by a six-note answer. In its vaguely Middle-Eastern tones, there are some Goldsmith-like feelings here when performed on brass. Heard first at 2:15 into "Introduction - Fright at the Museum," the theme is more obvious on choir at 2:32 and large on brass and slamming percussion at 3:29. It offers intrigue early in "Daughters of Atlas," stewing repeatedly later in the cue, and it is menacing on brass and choir at 1:38 into "Dome and Gloom," where the main theme battles a full ensemble version in second half. The villains' theme is deconstructed at 0:31 into "Act of Violins," twisted to a more manic version in the first minute of "The Guardian" (dwindling to sinister shades at the close of the cue), and forced to stomp at 0:12 into "A Family Affair" before becoming mystical with choir. Fragments inform the action of "Dragon Drop," and they resolve to major brass moments in "Philly Tree's Take" and turn agonized on strings at 0:18 into "I Chose Right," where the idea is reduced to somber choral shades. It's barely recognizable in the first minute of "You Disobeyed Me" prior to really obnoxious, pounded fragments thereafter. At the climax, the villains' theme fends off the main theme in "Lightning in a Bottle," enjoying a huge brass moment, and it builds to a pounding series of notes in "Garage Showdown." Per a character's change of heart, the theme shifts to an impressive major-key rendition of fantasy in "Crack of Dome" before reverting to its negative origins. Associated with this theme is a descending or ascending pitch slur for the Kalypso daughter, heard at 1:59 into "Introduction - Fright at the Museum," 1:57 into "Dome and Gloom" on exotic and conventional horns, with malice starting "Philly Tree's Take," and at the end of "Unicorn Act" in ascending form. The best theme in the score is the exotic identity for the daughter Anthea and associated plot elements, once again using a call and answer format. At first, it's a bit nebulous in progression and doesn't stand out immediately. It opens the score at 0:52 into "Introduction - Fright at the Museum" on exotic woodwind and at 1:18 on strings over rambling chimes. Redemptive hints remind us of this material in two soothing performances at 2:24 into "I Chose Right." The payoff comes in the beautiful flourishes of the idea in "Changing of the Garden." This competent melodic handling isn't enough to generate more than a generic "good guy theme versus bad guy theme" environment for Shazam! Fury of the Gods, however. The music has plenty of power but an absence of heart and convincing enthusiasm. Behold, the future generic artificial intelligence superhero score!  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 60:10

• 1. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (Main Title Theme) (3:06) • 2. Introduction - Fright at the Museum (4:31) • 3. Daughters of Atlas (3:19) • 4. Steve (1:13) • 5. Freddy over Heels (1:50) • 6. Dome and Gloom (4:16) • 7. Freddy Sneaks In (1:20) • 8. Act of Violins (1:04) • 9. The Guardian (2:56) • 10. A Family Affair (2:41) • 11. Dragon Drop (2:09) • 12. Philly Tree's Take (2:08) • 13. I Chose Right (3:22) • 14. Before You Go (1:41)

• 15. Dragon Chase (0:57) • 16. You Disobeyed Me (2:30) • 17. Lightning in a Bottle (1:48) • 18. Unicorn Act (2:20) • 19. Taste the Rainbow (1:18) • 20. Garage Showdown (1:31) • 21. Freddy Resists (1:14) • 22. Crack of Dome (1:59) • 23. All or None (2:24) • 24. We End This Now (2:12) • 25. A True God After All (1:18) • 26. Restoration (1:12) • 27. Hero (2:36) • 28. Changing of the Garden (1:15)

NOTES & QUOTES:

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