No superhero blockbuster is complete without at least one scene of wanton destruction that reduces a large are of a city to nothing but smoldering rubble, and there are bonus points available if a sky beam of some description ends up getting involved. Shazam! Fury of the Gods definitely ticks the former box, but director David F. Sandberg has an entirely fitting justification.
The most recent trailer has been splitting opinion down the middle for some inconsistencies and subpar CGI, but fortunately for the effects team, it was all quickly forgotten about when Zachary Levi’s controversial comments on Pfizer seized the online imagination instead, launching several conspiracy theories about his short and long-term DCU future.
Either way, Sandberg took a moment out of his day to respond to concerns that Fury of the Gods doesn’t have a care in the world for the helpless civilians trapped inside the various buildings poised to be pulverized into dust by an epic showdown between heroes and villains, and the filmmaker’s strong Twitter game was once more brought to the surface.
That’s one institution we’d happily see razed to the ground, because there are few things worse than being almost blinded in a theater by the screen of some inconsiderate idiot’s cellphone, so we thank Sandberg for being so considerate in this delicate matter.
People pay tickets to enjoy the experience, and anyone who’ll happily scroll through their device instead of watching what’s unfolding on the big screen deserves to be launched through a skyscraper by Helen Mirren.