Directed by David F. Sandberg said he was “done with superhero movies” after bad reviews of Shazam! Rage of the Gods.
The DC sequel, in which Zachary Levy returns as the main character, as well as Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu as villains, currently has a 53% negative critical rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The film, however, was much better liked by the audience, with a current score of 87 percent.
Reacting to the ratings, Sandberg tweeted on Monday (March 20), explaining that he would temporarily abandon superhero films to focus instead on horror projects and other new ideas.
“On Rotten Tomatoes, I just got the lowest critics rating and the highest audience rating for the same movie,” he tweeted along with a shrug emoji.
“I didn’t expect a critical repeat of the first film, but I was still a little surprised, because I think it’s a good film. Well, then. As I said before, I really want to go back to horror movies (and also try something new). After six years of Shazam, I’m definitely done with superheroes.”
https://twitter.com/ponysmasher/status/1637856216226619392
He continued: “To be clear, I don’t regret for a second that I starred in Shazam films. I’ve learned so much and worked with really great people. I will be eternally grateful that I had the chance to shoot two of them!
“It was a very difficult but valuable experience. One thing I was really looking forward to was disconnecting from the superhero discourse on the internet. A lot of this is bothering me so much, and it would be nice not to think about it anymore.”
In a two-star review of Shazam! Fury Of The Gods, NME wrote: “Everything seems cheap and clumsy — the superhero sequel is made in the same vague form as a dozen others. Nodding and winking towards a place in the shared universe throughout the final credits, all eyes are clearly glued to the larger super ensembles with even more tones, characters and moving parts to juggle.”
