Released: October 2022
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Run Time: 124 Minutes
Rated PG-13
Distributor: Warner Bros./New Line Cinema
Genre: Action/Sci-Fi
Cast:
Dwayne Johnson: Black Adam
Aldis Hodge: Hawkman
Pierce Brosnan: Doctor Fate
Noah Centineo: Atom Smasher
Sarah Shahi: Adrianna Tomaz
Quintessa Swindell: Cyclone
Marwan Kenzari: Ishmael
Bodhi Sabongui: Amon Tomaz
I’m a huge superhero movie fan. Seriously. Don’t act so surprised. I’ve been a huge fan of this particular genre since I first saw Superman: The Movie. Then Tim Burton’s Batman came along, and eventually we got movies like Blade, X-Men, Iron Man, Aquaman, and Wonder Woman. The list goes on. You should see my Blu-Ray collection. I’ve got most of the DCEU movies and Marvel movies on Blu-Ray. So, yeah, I’m a bit of a fan. But at some point, I’ve started getting burned out on superheroes because a lot of the movies have been almost carbon copies of each other. They tend to follow very similar patterns, so you know what’s coming. Very rarely, does the genre shake things up with films like Logan or Deadpool. These are the exceptions, not the rule. It’s becoming harder and harder to separate one superhero film from another despite different characters and actors. So, where does a movie like Black Adam fit into all of this? Sadly, nothing much more than generic, if it wasn’t for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
The story of Black Adam is centered around a 5,000 year-old demigod named Dwayne Johnson, sorry, Teth Adam. He’s been asleep for 5,000 years after taking revenge for the murder of his family by using magic. He’s awakened and saves the life of one Adrianna Tomez, who has been looking for a specific crown that grants its wearer the ability to command the legions of Hell. But he faces stiff opposition from the Justice Society of America with Hawkman in the lead and Doctor Fate. Dwayne Johnson’s been trying to get this movie made for almost 15 years, and this is the best that Warner Bros. has got for this character? It’s about as generic a story as you can get that’s built around Dwayne Johnson. It’s about as straight-forward as it gets when it comes to comic-book movies, and audiences are generally smarter than film-makers think. All you need to know about the story of Black Adam is that Adam’s pissed and he goes around zapping fools with lightening like he’s Darth Sidious. That’s pretty much the gist of the whole thing. Not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but the genre has evolved since the early 00’s. At least, I thought they did.
I’m going to tell you right now: The only reason that Black Adam works on ANY level at all is because of Dwayne Johnson. This has been a personal project for him for quite some time, and it does show. A lot of the focus of the movie is on his character, who is the most interesting character out of all them. Dwayne’s performance is exactly what you would expect from him. His performance is magnetic. He’s clearly having the time of his life here. Unlike Shazam!, Johnson didn’t need a padded suit. He’s built like a tank. He handles the physicality just as well as the quips. Pierce Brosnan shines as Doctor Fate. This character is a sorcerer who can see people’s fates. Brosnan has always been a fantastic actor, and he’s fantastic here. Most of the actors do pretty well, except for one: Bodhi Sabongui as Amon, the kid. Never before have I wanted to see a kid get obliterated. I was secretly hoping that Adam would zap Amon out of existence. He’s incredibly irritating, and the performance by Bodhi is just as bad. It’s flat and uninteresting. In fact, it was downright cringe-worthy, and I hate using that term. Jar Jar Binks was far more tolerable.
If all you’re looking for is action, this movie’s got it in spades, and a lot of it is actually really cool, especially when Adam’s tearing things up with his lightening bolts. When he’s not vaporing bad guys with lightening. The problem here, is that it’s nothing that you haven’t seen before. It also feels like a 90s action movie at times. If I really wanted a throwback, I would go back and watch a 90s action movie. They’re quite good, and surprisingly a lot smarter than what we’ve got here. Another issue is that the entire movie is strung together by action sequences. There’s very little time to actually breathe and take in what’s happened. When you’re constantly on the move like this movie, it gets exhausting after a while. Even at two hours, it’s a little much. That said, a lot of the visual effects are pretty impressive. Black Adam’s lightening effects are really good. They’re enough to put Emperor Palpatine to shame. Some of the CGI is not great, especially on the main villain. Meh, is all I can say about that. But I do like the looks of Doctor Fate and Hawkman. They look great. The cinematography is also pretty damned good. We can see what’s going on and there’s really no shaky-cam. Any movie that avoids shaky-cam gets bonus points in my book.
It’s not the first time that a movie’s been built around a specific movie star. It happens all the time. In the 80s, it was all about Stallone and Schwarzenegger. During the 90s, it was Bruce Willis and Jean-Claude Van Damme. It’s almost common practice, especially in action movies. A lot of the problems that I have with Black Adam obviously come from a bad script, but the direction is also a huge part of the problem. I happen to like Jaume Collet-Serra as a director. He directed one of my favorite slasher movies, the House of Wax 2005 remake. He’s really good at B-level movies. When it comes to big-budget blockbusters, however, he’s out of his league, especially with someone as intelligent and magnetic as Dwayne Johnson. I don’t think Black Adam is a complete waste of time. Far from it. It moves quickly, while leaving you breathless by the end, but it knows what it is. Obviously, a lot of people are enjoying the hell out of the movie, because the audience rating is currently sitting at 90 percent. People are loving it, and that’s awesome. I just think Black Adam could and should have been so much more. It’s an intriguing character and his relationship to the other characters in the DC universe is crazy. Sometimes he’s a villain, sometimes he’s a hero. You never can tell with this guy. If nothing else, Black Adam points to some really exciting possibilities with the JSA and a certain someone who has been on the sidelines for far too long. I’m not big on the movie as it stands, but where it’s going in the DCEU? Sign me up. Also, Black Adam is a hell of a lot better than Thor: Love and Thunder. That’s right, I said it. No backsies.