Rachel Zegler is defending her superhero movie, Shazam: Fury of the Gods from the negative reviews that have been compiled at the film review aggregator website, Rotten Tomatoes.
“Hey, our film is actually really good!” Zegler tweeted on Saturday (March 18). “But mostly, I just absolutely loved making it and the people I met whilst doing so. Go see it! Give it a chance. We have an 85% audience score for a reason.”
As of press time Tuesday morning, Shazam: Fury of the Gods boasted an 87 percent rating from audiences who have seen the film, but only a 53 percent rating from film critics.
Zegler added: “Some people out there [are] just being … senselessly mean. And it’s unnecessary. And I know, I know, ‘If you can’t handle the heat…’ and all that nonsense, and you’re right. But our film is actually very good. It’s just cool to hate on fun nowadays. That’s okay. We’re good.”
Shazam director David F. Sandberg also took to Twitter to voice his disappointment with critics’ review of his film. “On Rotten Tomatoes, I just got my lowest critic score and my highest audience score on the same film,” he wrote. “I wasn’t expecting a repeat of the first movie critically, but I was still a little surprised because I think it’s a good film. Oh well.”
Sandberg added that he is “definitely done with superheroes for now.” He followed up by saying that he’s looking forward to “disconnecting from the superhero discourse online” because “a lot of that stresses me out so much.”
During an interview with Remezcla to talk about the film, Zegler said there was a difference between making a sequel like Fury of the Gods and other experiences she’s had in Hollywood with movies like West Side Story and the upcoming Hunger Games prequel and live-action Snow White.
“I think coming into a sequel is a bit different than doing a reimagination or a live-action version or even a prequel,” she said. “DC fans are so intelligent about the lore behind everything, so you just don’t want to disappoint them. It comes with a lot of pressure.”