Minor spoilers follow for Shazam! Fury of the Gods.

The DC Extended Universe’s (DCEU) forthcoming evolution into the DC Cinematic Universe (DCU) marks a major turning point for DC Studios. The hard reset of its live-action and animated properties – the first DCU projects were revealed in January – will reshuffle the DC superhero pack now and in the future, leaving the fate of some heroes and villains up in the air.

Shazam, DC’s most popular magic-based superhero, is among that contingent. David F. Sandberg, who directed 2019’s Shazam! and its sequel Shazam! Fury of the Gods, suggests Shazam won’t be part of the DCU if people don’t go and see the latter in theaters. Shazam’s future, then, depends on the success of his latest cinematic adventure.

Thankfully for the character, to paraphrase a well-known saying, lightning has positively struck in the same place twice. Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a magically marvelous follow-up to its predecessor that builds on this horror-imbued, joyful wish fulfillment, and thematically dense corner of the DCEU. It’s clumsy in some of its execution – which I’ll get to – but Shazam! 2, much like its multi-powered protagonist, is greater than the sum of its parts.

It's all about family

Set two years after the character’s first live-action film, Shazam! Fury of the Gods finds Billy Batson (Asher Angel) using his adult superhero alter-ego Shazam (Zachary Levi) – who Batson transforms into when he utters the word "Shazam!" – to fight crime. Billy does so alongside his foster siblings, including Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer), who he gifted with superpowers during Shazam!’s climactic battle.

When the revenge-fuelled Hespera (Helen Mirren), Kalypso (Lucy Liu), and Athena (Rachel Zegler), aka the Daughters of Atlas, show up and vow to destroy the Earth, it’s up to Billy and company to stop them. However, with each team member prioritizing other responsibilities over their superhero commitments – or, in Freddy’s case, wanting to fight crime alone – the Shazamily’s internal struggles could have far wider, world-ending implications than they realize.

If Shazam! – one of the best superhero movies – was about finding a place and family to call home, Fury of the Gods focuses on the foster siblings’ insecurities about growing older and losing everything they hold dear. They’re teenagers now and their superhero-based responsibilities mean they’re growing up faster than the average youngster would. Even so, as adolescents trying to figure life out and find their non-superhero places in the world, they don’t have all the answers. This creates individual and collective frustration in and among our heroes.

It’s here where Shazam! 2 is at its strongest thematically. The aging of its primary cast – and their characters – allows Fury of the Gods to explore more mature subject matter that its predecessor couldn’t, such as finding your true identity and remembering what’s most important to you. In that sense, Shazam! Fury of the Gods is a thematically rich tale about individuality, familial duty, and developing the maturity to realize you don’t have to rank one above the other. As The Fast and Furious’ Dominic Torretto regularly declares: "You don’t turn your back on family."

It’s a pity, then, that Shazam! 2 doesn’t continue to actively lean into its primary motif as its plot progresses. 

Fury of the Gods’ exploration of becoming your own person is threaded through its first act, particularly where Billy and Freddy are concerned. Unlike Shazam!, which positioned the pair as inseparable allies in the battle against evil, their close bond is tested through their opposing views on how and when to tackle the threats they encounter. It’s a subplot that has a soft Captain America: Civil War flavor to it – even more so when other foster siblings, including Mary Bromfield (Grace Caroline Currey), challenge Billy and Freddy’s views and/or take their sides during familial discussions. There’s a fascinating friction at play between the Daughters of Atlas, too. Despite their shared goal of reclaiming their father’s powers from Billy’s team and leveling the Earth, the trio has different views on how to accomplish their objectives – an intriguing internal conflict positioning them as a mirror image of the Shazamily.

As the movie transitions into its action-fuelled second and third acts, it sidelines its overarching theme in favor of the superhero genre’s prerequisite CGI-laced showdowns. Films of this ilk inevitably lean into VFX-heavy set-pieces, especially as their endgame approaches, but I can’t help but feel Shazam! 2’s primary concept could’ve been explored in greater detail. I wouldn’t have minded if one or two of the VFX-laden battles had been dropped – particularly ones where the CGI visuals are sketchy at best – if it meant the film’s main family-focused theme was examined more extensively.  

The dynamic between the Shazamily’s teens and their superpowered aliases inadvertently takes a hit from this narrative shift, too. A large part of what made Shazam! entertaining was the chemistry between the foster siblings in their kid forms. As I mentioned earlier, Angel’s Billy and Freeman’s Freddy were a big reason for that film’s character-rich moments, but the likes of Faithe Herman’s Darla and Ian Chen’s Eugene contributed greatly to the family dynamic.

Some of that is lost in the story Fury of the Gods tells. For reasons I won’t spoil, even though Shazam! Fury of the Gods’ official trailer did somewhat, the Daughters of Atlas come into possession of the Wizard’s (Djimon Hounsou) staff, i.e. the magical artifact that bestows or removes Shazam’s powers to an individual. Unsurprisingly, the trio uses the staff to drain Billy’s siblings of their abilities.

The problem, though, is that the Daughters of Atlas systematically remove the Shazamily’s powers one by one, meaning some younger cast members get more screen time (and, by proxy, their adult actor counterparts get less airtime) than others. For Freddy, that means plenty of scenes for Grazer to chew over Adam Brody, who plays his superpowered adult alter-ego. 

By contrast, as the film’s primary protagonist Levi’s Shazam features more heavily than Asher’s Billy. Admittedly, this discrepancy leads to some fun moments between the movie’s adult and teenage cast members – more on this shortly – but it detracts from the humorous camaraderie that exists between both sets of actors. See the Rock of Eternity family meeting early on in proceedings, or the witty and inventive plan that the depowered kids devise during its final battle – again, I can’t say much more due to spoilers – as evidence of how these dynamics work in practice to satisfying effect.

Different strokes and jokes for different folks 

Disappointing as that is, Fury of the Gods’ cast revel in their individual roles.

Once again, Levi imbues the man-child-like Shazam with a youthful exuberance and naivety that makes it seem like the role was tailor-made for him. Levi’s given more to work with here compared to Shazam!, too, assuming the mantle of responsibility as the Shazamily’s de-facto leader despite the self-doubt and anxiety he’s afflicted with over his superhero worthiness and ability to keep his family together.

Mirren, Liu, and Zegler bring malice, menace, and emotional torment in spades to their respective characters. Mirren and Liu deal out punishment with zestful glee, while Zegler’s Athena brings a delightful touch of split loyalties to the equation that lends further weight to the juxtaposition between the film’s warring factions.

It’s Grazer, though, who delivers Shazam! 2’s greatest performance. The Luca and It alumnus packs humor and heart into his role as Freddy, providing gut punches and awkwardly placed quips aplenty throughout. Like the first movie, Fury of the Gods is stuffed to the rafters with chucklesome and laugh-out-loud moments, and it’s Grazer who provides the biggest laughs. 

The emotional gravitas he lends to Freddy is equally impressive. Whether it’s a drama-fuelled scene shared with Billy or the schlocky romantic subplot between Freddy and Athena, Grazer is easily the film’s standout performer – and that’s saying something when you’re starring alongside legendary actors like Mirren and Liu.

Tonally, Shazam! Fury of the Gods finds a satisfying blend between the genres it co-exists in. Yes, it’s a superhero film at heart but, like Shazam!, it isn’t afraid to dip its toes into horror – Sandberg’s penchant for the terrifying and macabre being used to particularly good effect with the movie’s Greek mythology elements. Taking cues from iconic anime and other Japanese-inspired works like The Legend of Zelda and Akira also help Fury of the Gods pleasingly stand out from its peers, as do the odd visual nods to Game of Thrones and Stranger Things. The movie’s fondness for explicitly 21st-century cultural references, such as TikTok, though, may age Fury of the Gods quicker than expected in the years to come. 

My verdict

Shazam! Fury of the Gods battles against the odds to cook up a storming story filled with humor, heart, and familial heroism. It’s a DC movie that underwhelms in some aspects – its expository lore explanations, derivative finale, and sidelining of its key theme to name three. But, as an enchanting, vibrant, and largely family-friendly spectacle – one with a crowd-pleasing cameo in its final scene, which finally ties Shazam’s film franchise into the wider DCEU – it delivers on its aim.

Equally, Shazam! 2 serves its dual function of being a fitting end to the character’s DCEU journey and a potential jumping-off point for new adventures in the revived DCU. Currently, new DC Studios co-heads James Gunn and Peter Safran haven’t confirmed whether Shazam will cross over into the new-look cinematic universe. If Fury of the Gods’ post-credits scenes are anything to go by, though, there’s the potential for him to do so.

In a franchise full of gritty and grounded movies, Shazam’s film series has provided something colorfully joyful – and, for me, that’s worth celebrating.

Shazam! Fury of the Gods flies into theaters on Friday, March 17. Shazam! is available to stream on HBO Max.

Das Keyboard 6 Professional: Two-minute review

Das Keyboard has a new keyboard on the market and typing afficianados everyone can rejoice: the Das Keyboard 6 Professional is one of the finest products the company has ever produced – not to mention, among the best mechanical keyboards you'll find. 

The Das Keyboard 6 Professional is the latest offering from the renowned keyboard maker, and it has all of the style and build quality we've come to expect from Das Keyboard. And while there have been some changes since the Das Keyboard 4 Professional, they've generally been all for the better.

The layout of the keyboard is nearly identical to the Das Keyboard 4 Professional, including a volume knob, media control keys, and a dedicated sleep button. It's a full-sized keyboard with N-Key rollover and an aluminum top case on a premium plastic chassis (yes, plastic can feel premium).

What's new for this model is the introduction of backlit keys, the lack of which is something that has hampered some of Das Keyboard's other offerings. And since this is a wired keyboard, you can feel free to leave the backlighting on for as long as you like without worrying about it tanking a battery.

The keycaps are also premium to the touch, making this an absolute joy to type on, and if you're really looking for a clacky that isn't too obnoxious, the Cherry MX Brown switches are the way to go, though there is an option for Blue switches as well for those who want the full clickity-clack experience.

The Das Keyboard 6 Professional also switches to a USB Type-C connector rather than USB Type-A, which means that the build in USB hub now supports two USB Type-C pass through ports – great if you're looking to charge your phone or tablet at work.

Of course, this means that there's no USB Type-A pass through as seen 4 Professional, so if you're used to using the built-in USB hub as a quick and easy flash drive connection, you're likely out of luck here.

The more refined look, upgraded tech, and backlighting does raise the price somewhat, as the Das Keyboard 6 Professional now costs in the neighborhood of $199 (about £170 / AU$290), and even though it is easily available in the US, getting it in the UK and Australia might be more of a hassle since you'll have to import it.

The other major change that is sure to be controversial is the switch from the ruler foot bar that tilted the keyboard up in the back to create the proper ergonomic typing angle to two screw in feet.

Personally, I like the feet better, but these new feet still sport the red accents on the keyboard that more or less signal that this is a Das Keyboard product. Like the Das Keyboard MacTigr, this is an almost entirely all-black affair with those screw in feet providing the only accent color you're going to get outside of the white backlighting on the keys. 

Don't even think about looking for gamer RGB here. This is a pro-keyboard, so if you want something that looks like a carnival, you can check out our best gaming keyboard list, which has plenty of twinkly options to choose from.

There's also no software involved to program any macros or change any settings. This is strictly plug-and-play. There aren't even drivers, which is definitely a plus in my opinion. Something that you can plug in and it just works as intended is excellent design, as far as I'm concerned.

Ultimately, the Das Keyboard 6 Professional is everything you love about Das Keyboard's craftsmanship with some more modern accoutrements to bring it up to date for the modern office, so long as you're looking for something that's black and kind of severe-looking. 

If you're looking for something with that Apple white aesthetic, I'd say take a look at the Razer Pro Ultra Type, which is a very high quality keyboard for the office and will look more like it belongs in a startup's common area next to the bean bag chair. Das Keyboard doesn't have time for that. This one's all business, even though it's pure typing pleasure in the process. 

Das Keyboard 6 Professional: Price & availability

• How much does it cost? $199 / £169 / AU$329
• When is it out? It is available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK and Australia

The Das Keyboard 6 Professional is available now in the US for $199 at Das Keyboard's site as well as most major online retailers like Amazon, and for £169 / AU$329 in the UK and Australia at leading online retailers. 

It comes with the option for clicky Cherry MX Blue or soft tactile Cherry MX Brown switches for the same price, but there is no option for linear key switches.

This is a step up from the Das Keyboard 4 Professional, which has an MSRP of $169 / £129.95 / AU$299, but there are some added features that make the price more justifiable. This is definitely a more premium keyboard, so it's really for the more professional and enthusiast users than casual ones.

Das Keyboard 6 Professional: Specs

Should you buy the Das Keyboard 6 Professional?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Das Keyboard 6 Professional: Also consider

How I tested the Das Keyboard 6 Professional

• Used the Das Keyboard 6 Professional daily for more than two months
• Tested the keyboard for work, gaming, and general computer use

In reviewing this keyboard, I spent more than two months with it, using it as my everyday keyboard for both work, gaming, and everything else I've needed to do on my computer at home.

This isn't the best gaming keyboard out there since there aren't any programmable keys, but it has everything you'll need in an office setting, and I used every feature of the keyboard in my daily work.

In addition to being a professional writer, I've also reviewed more keyboards than I can count, from budget offerings to high-end premium offerings from Das Keyboard, Razer, and others.

We pride ourselves on our independence and our rigorous review-testing process, offering up long-term attention to the products we review and making sure our reviews are updated and maintained - regardless of when a device was released, if you can still buy it, it's on our radar.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed March 2023

60 seconds review

Doogee has been busy pushing out rugged smartphones like there’s no tomorrow. The S100 is the fourth in as many months (the V Max, the V30 and the S96 GT), a sign perhaps that the market is expanding in an otherwise morose macroeconomic environment. Doogee’s latest outdoor powerhouse shuns 5G connectivity while sticking to a tried and tested form factor that tends to be more practical and less about aesthetics. All the ingredients of a solid handset are here: a big battery, plenty of memory and storage, a huge camera sensor - but above all, a cracking price if you buy before March 26th.

Doogee S100: Pricing and availability

The phone will be available from Aliexpress for $199.99 from March 20th to March 26th, after which it will revert to £249.99. Customers can choose from three color schemes: Cyber yellow, black and Ice blue. Remember that you may have to pay extra taxes and handling fees depending on where you live.

Doogee S100: Pricing and availability

The S100 is not as heavy or thick as the V Max, the 22000mAh monster that Doogee released earlier this year. It does try its best to appear stylish but in a slightly awkward manner that’s so characteristic of Chinese brands. As one of my colleagues put it succinctly, “the best description of this phone is techno-brutalism, a monolithic block that has some chamfered corners and beveled edges added to make it seem less like a brick.”

The button layout is the now the de facto standard that all rugged handset manufacturers have adopted, where the thumb-print reader/power and volume rocker is located on the right and a custom button with the SIM card slot.

Doogee used what it calls an alloy enamel process (AEP) for part of the outer body of the S100. The side edges use AEP, a high-grade metal texture and a unibody flat edge design to offer a comfortable grip with a fine leather-like (PU leather) texture at the rear. We’d expect a reasonable amount of rubber as well plus a steel frame to protect the internal components and the screen. The phone is certified MIL-STD-810H and IP68 & IP69K.

There’s two speakers located at the top and bottom of the smartphone, an improvement on previous versions. At 372g with a maximum thickness of 18mm, it is a chunky handset that will require a strong grip in order to avoid any accidental falls.

Doogee S100: Hardware

The 4G-only Mediatek Helio G99 is what powers the S100; it’s a capable mid-range processor with a reasonably fast graphics subsystem (ARM Mali-G57 MC2) and the surprising ability to summon up to 20GB of RAM - that’s more than most laptops. 

It turns out, though, that the actual amount of (real) system memory that the S100 has is 12GB, which is still sizable. It can also summon/earmark, as extended RAM, 8GB from the 256GB UFS 2.2 main storage. We don’t know of any mobile application that would require that much memory, so would have preferred to swap the extra memory for 5G capability, perhaps via the Dimensity 700 SoC.

The rest of the specification includes Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, that 10.8Ah battery, a 66W fast charger and NFC connectivity.

The only feature lacking of note was that the dual Nano SIM card tray only takes one SIM if you use a MicroSD card. A better solution might have been to offer e-SIMs on this phone, preventing the MicroSD card from limiting the phone to a single SIM.

But conversely, this phone has a feature we’ve not seen before: it uses a dual-frequency GPS, allowing for even greater positional accuracy even in urban environments.

The Doogee S100 has four cameras, the same used on the V30 and the V Max - with a rim that protects the optics from any bump, two rear flash lights and two infrared night vision lights. It’s a classic example of economies of scale at work; buying in bulk and using an established subsystem is a no-brainer.

We’ve seen the 108MP Samsung S5KHM2 sensor before, and while it has limitations in that the full resolution comes without all the clever features, it is still an excellent image-capture device. If you want special beauty modes, then pictures are limited to 12MP, although these modes operate with shake compensation and other enhancements.

Alongside the headline 108MP Samsung sensor are a 16MP OmniVision OV16B10 Ultra-Wide lens and a 20.2MP Sony IMX350 Night Vision sensor, extending the camera capabilities even further. Like the Doogee V30, which uses the same Samsung S5KHM2 sensor, the S100 can capture video up to 4K in resolution. But like the V30 and the Ulefone Armor 17 Pro, it isn’t possible to have any control over the frame rate.

Not being able to trade resolution for frame rate is possibly one of the few things keeping the likes of GoPro in business, as many of the phone makers don’t exploit the sensor hardware fully.

As for the results, with a sensor this big, they’re generally very good, and it only made a mess either because of focusing issues caused by sunlight refraction or exposure compensation for highlights. The camera has a full PRO manual mode where ISO, EV, WB, manual focus and shutter speed can all be directly controlled. In short, like the V30 that came before it, the S100 has a high-quality camera that could have been incredible with a better camera application.

We should also mention that while you can capture 4K video and play it back scaled down on the 1080 x 2408 resolution screen, you won’t be streaming content in 4K or even 1080p. You can find camera samples taken by our own Mark Pickavance in the V30 review.

Doogee S100: Performance

Unlike the V30, the S100 aims for the more value-sensitive slice of the market, which explains why Doogee opted for the G99. It is still a capable system-on-chip, almost matching its bigger brother, the Dimensity 1080 on compute but falling short when it comes to graphics grunt.

As a side note, it excelled on Javascript benchmarks like Webxpert, Kraken and Octane, perhaps more of a sign of major improvements in the underlying OS used (Android 12) and Chrome’s rendering engine, Blink. 

Its weakness though is its graphics performance and that’s expected given that it has only two cores compared to four in the SoC that powers the V30. No surprise therefore that its overall numbers in tests are about half those of Doogee’s most powerful smartphone to date. You can play games but don’t expect the S100 to excel at those with intensive graphics.

The 6.58" FHD+ IPS waterdrop screen is covered with a Gorilla Glass 5 layer. Doogee claims that it has a refresh rate of 120Hz which, on a phone, means more power consumption (and shorter battery life) but also - in theory - less motion blur and more - in Doogee’s own words - “silky screen sliding”.

Should I buy the Doogee S100

Buy if...

Don’t buy if...