After some early struggles, the DC Extended Universe is finally starting to make sense. Well, it would make even more sense if they changed that awful brand name, but you have to crawl before walking. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice bombing at the box office swiftly truncated any chance that DC had at overtaking Marvel on the cinematic front.
Instead of cutting ties with Zack Synder and starting fresh, DC doubled down and put themselves at a further disadvantage by continuing the ailing "Synderverse." Even though Synder's vision of the DCEU effectively crippled the brand at the offset, a few films produced under his abysmal reign as the brand's central creative voice were sort of okayish. One of those films was 2019's Shazam!
Shazam!'s success could be attributed to a host of factors, but the core element that gave the film buoyancy was its effusive tone. In the trailer linked above, Shazam, and its optimistic vision of superheroes, is back in Shazam: Fury of the gods.
