Shazam! Fury of the Gods is now playing in theaters, though its disappointing reviews isn't at all what many fans expected. The movie's mixed reception has been matched with incredibly tepid box office intake, with even many DC fans being let down by the sequel. This mostly stems from the abundance of humor, the likes of which feel like poor versions of the jokes from another superhero movie franchise.

Fox's Deadpool movies were appropriately irreverent and comedic, especially considering the already well-worn tropes of the superhero movie genre. That was somewhat imitated in the Shazam! flicks, though to a much less successful extent. This all stems from how the characters were already known, with one set of funny films being far more organic than the other.

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Deadpool and Shazam! Both Parodied Superhero Movies

The Deadpool films were outright takedowns of other superhero movies, with the film mocking many of the archetypes that the genre had become known for. This included all manner of raunchy and salacious gags that turned the films into hilarious comedies that were utterly inappropriate for young viewers. Audiences who watched both Deadpool and its sequel enjoyed the change of pace in what was already an overstuffed superhero film market. Sadly, that wouldn't quite be replicated when the DC Extended Universe tried to take a different path.

The initial films in the shared universe from director Zack Snyder were notably criticized for their dark tones, and this only made the comedic 2019 film Shazam! stand out more. Full of gags both lampooning superhero concepts and clearly meant to appeal to social media-using youngsters, the film was as far away from the "Snyderverse" as could be. This saw the film receive good reviews and fan reception, though it didn't earn the highest net profit possible. After overall costs were accounted for, the first Shazam! movie only earned a $74 million net profit on a $100 million production budget.

As of this writing, Shazam! Fury of the Gods failed to meet the first film's box office opening, and its reviews are a good bit lower. The biggest issue is how jokey the new Shazam! movie is and how it ruins the film's tension, with the moments meant to parody epic superhero stories instead just coming off as ill-timed attempts at gaining a laugh. The Deadpool formula didn't work this time around, and it's largely due to the characters involved.

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The Shazam! Films Were Too Funny to Fit the Title Character

Shazam! Furt of the Gods poster with Zachary Levi's title character flanked by the rest of the cast.

Despite being a kid turned into a superhero, DC's Shazam is never portrayed as a particularly jokey and zany character. All the way back to the Captain Marvel days at Fawcett Comics, he was as straight-laced a hero as Superman, Wonder Woman or any other major comic book hero. In fact, the New 52 Shazam! comics that the movies draw from were particularly dark and serious -- far from the more lighthearted and whimsical adventures of old. Said whimsy still wasn't played for laughs, however, explaining part of why the tendency toward comedy in the Shazam! films felt so forced. The character was essentially being forced into a Deadpool-esque mold, with Billy Batson's superpowered form even making mile-a-minute jokes with every utterance of a line.

When it comes to Deadpool himself, he's been a comic relief character for decades, so his movies being the same only made sense. Likewise, the first Deadpool released at a time when more serious and dramatic superhero movies were still the norm. In the midst of the Marvel Cinematic Universe reaching its zenith in the past few years, its brand of jokes have only further dominated the genre. Thus, the once clever routes that the first two Deadpool movies and the original Shazam! took are now cliché and borderline annoying in the case of Fury of the Gods.

Given that the most recent MCU films are already criticized for their humor, it's only fitting that a more serious DC hero would get the same treatment. It doesn't help that there's little in way of the truly subversive adult humor seen in the Deadpool films, with much of the Shazam! flicks' jokes involving youth-oriented slang and terminology. If anything, they were the exact opposite of Deadpool, all while trying to imitate it. DC and Warner Bros. Discovery would have been better off leaving the antics of Wade Wilson over at Marvel and away from their own stable of heroes.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods is in theaters now.