Everyone involved in the DCU likes to reiterate that they’re not trying to play the Marvel Cinematic Universe at its own game, but Shazam! Fury of the Gods has nonetheless taken a page right out of the Phase Four playbook in the worst possible way.
It remains up for debate whether it’s quite as egregiously offensive as the infamous floating head that somehow ended up with Thor: Love and Thunder being shortlisted for an Academy Award nomination in the Best Visual Effects category, but concerns are already being raised about some of the CGI displayed in the most recent trailer.
The usual excuse that gets trotted out for these sort of things is that “the movie isn’t finished yet,” but Fury of the Gods is only weeks away from coming to theaters, and history has shown that comic book fans like few things more than bashing anything they can about a particular project, whether they appreciate it overall or not.
We’re not going to lie, some of those visual effects do look mighty iffy, but it might be forgivable in context when nobody’s going to be freeze-framing and screengrabbing Fury of the Gods when they catch it on the big screen. Well, the pirates might, but casual audiences are more inclined to simply strap in and go along for the ride.
Effects artists are among the most overworked and underpaid folks in the industry, though, so we’ll always be willing to cut them some slack.