Rating: ★★½ (2.5/5)

Shiva Super Hero 2 is a victim of its own ambition. It wants to be the Avengers: Endgame of the Shiva Cinematic Universe, but it forgets that spectacle without stakes is just noise.

Wait for the OTT release. Watch the action clips on YouTube. Save your theater money for Shiva Super Hero 3 —which, given the mid-credits scene revealing two new villains, is already inevitable.

Where the film stumbles is its screenplay. The first film was a tight 140 minutes. Shiva Super Hero 2 runs at a punishing 172 minutes, and you feel every one of them. The plot is a convoluted mess involving parallel dimensions, a forgotten prophecy, and a villain (the otherwise brilliant Raveena Joshi) whose motivation changes every scene. One moment she wants to steal Shiva’s trident; the next, she wants to marry him. It’s exhausting.