Believe or not, Black Adam has been a movie that has been in development for the better part of 15 years. He’s a character based off the DC Comics character know as Captain Marvel, who would later be renamed Shazam! due to legal issues. It was then that Dwyane “The Rock” Johnson had expressed interest in playing either the character of Black Adam or Shazam in a future DC movie staring one of those two! He of course took the role of Black Adam, one of the most successful fan casting in recent memory. Its been reported that Black Adam has been in development since around 2014 after being put on hold on 2009 with Johnson’s casting confirmed around that time time. With all of that time and development that has gone into making Black Adam, it makes me wonder how exactly the whole thing turned out to be so “meh”.
For a superhero movie that has caused such a divide between critics and fans yet again, I would have at least expected the movie itself would be more interesting or worthwhile. Black Adam is by no means terrible and is certainly watchable, but what in the world is with this movie that is causing comic book nerds to bend over backwards yet again and defend it like it’s some misunderstood gem. At least with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I could see some admiring it for it’s ambition and the way it attempts to tackle it’s themes and subject matter, even if I found it came across as mostly aimless. With Black Adam, there’s no ambition to admire, no interesting themes worth addressing, and contains nothing you haven’t seen before in any superhero movie in recent memory. Not exactly bottom tier DC like Suicide Squad or Justice League (2017) but more mid-tier DC.
Premise: In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) was bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Black Adam. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and Black Adam has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swinell).
(I’ll admit I mostly just copy and pasted the premise that appeared on Google but I don’t care for this movie nearly enough to give that much forethought on my own.)
The thing that sticks out the most with Black Adam is just how ridiculously close it sticks to the conventional superhero movie tropes without any attempt to break from it or do something new with it in any way, shape, or form. There’s the all powerful god who needs to learn about Earth and how to live and connect with the people on there, there’s that special McGuffin that both the heroes and villains want, there’s a big battle that takes place in a small town that causes mayhem, there’s a kid or a female character that is in danger and needs to be saved, there’s a bad guy who turns into final boss video game form at the end, there’s some half-assed moral about the importance of superheroes and responsibility, and there’s that special mid-credit scene that you see coming from a mile away. While there are some hints of different ideas and doing a spin on some of those tropes, none of it is fully utilized and comes across as a check list of things that need to be in a superhero movie instead of doing it’s own thing.
The one thing that the movie does try to differ from other superhero movies is the idea of Black Adam himself being an anti-hero and someone that kills. While that’s an idea that might have worked back around the time this movie was first in production, in the year 2022, it comes across as fairly date. Just about nearly every superhero in the DCEU such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman has killed people regardless of the regret or remorse they may have for it. For a cinematic universe that have had no problem with their superheroes killing people good or bad to then start questioning that element of a superhero comes across as very misguided.
It also doesn’t help that Black Adam himself doesn’t really kill anyone worthwhile aside from one-dimensional bad guys. Perhaps if it dive deeper into that aspect such as Black Adam accidentally killing innocent human beings, then it could work. However, not only does the character do nothing like that in the movie but the movie itself never really address anything else that Black Adam could have done to those crooks. He just either zaps them into oblivion or rip them apart like a fighter from Mortal Kombat. That’s not complex, dark, or shows a side of a superhero like we’ve never seen before, it’s all just naïve and neglectful.
To be fair, there are plenty of superhero movies nowadays with tropes that is easy to predict and notice. Most of that could be forgiven as long as the movie is entertaining with enough colorful characters and exciting action scenes to be invested in. Unfortunately, aside from a few occasions, Black Adam doesn’t really offer much of any of that.
Most of the characters are well casted and look cool such as Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone, and Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher (who tbh I thought was played by Ryan Reynolds when I first heard his voice) but they all come across more as action figures than fully realized characters. None of their backstories are very well explored except for an occasional flashback scene or line of dialogue, not nearly enough time is spend with them as superheroes, and about every one of them could be seen as interchangeable to plenty other superhero sidekicks out there. They are fun to watch when they actually get a chance to work together but those scenes are few and far in between.
The main bad guy Sabbac, played by Marwan Kenzari doesn’t appear much on screen until near the tail end of the movie and even when he does arrive, he doesn’t leave much of a impression either and has probably the most hilariously out of place design in the entire movie. Almost as laughable as the way that Ares looked at the end of Wonder Woman. And speaking of not leaving an impression, there’s also Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam himself.
There’s no doubt that Black Adam is a character that Johnson was very passionate about and The Rock has proven plenty of times that he is a man that is just loaded with charm and charisma in everything he is in, either good or bad. Here though, he plays this character completely down, with a very stiff and stotic performance that doesn’t resemble The Rock we all know and love. Even if that is an intentional directing choice with the performance or fits the character, I don’t think it’s one that fits well with Johnson’s talent. It’s like they were trying to do something similar to Dave Bautista’s Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy but Bautista brought more energy and enthusiasm than Johnson is able to do here as Black Adam. You do get a bit more emotion and depth out of him later on with his tragic backstory being revealed and gaining a sense of humor but for the most part, Black Adam himself just isn’t particularly interesting or engaging. He’s also strangely absent for a good portion of the third act, the act in which we are suppose to be the most invest in a superhero movie and he has just as much screen presence as he does even when he’s on the screen.
Funny enough, the best part of the actual movie is the mid credits scene themselves. Not just because that was when the movie was over (Although, that certainly helps!) but it does give a hint to a potential sequel/crossover film in the near future that has a chance to give redemption arcs to two characters at once. However, since I have not seen the movie that the mid credits scene teased so I can only be optimistic about it for the future, at least until a certain toxic group doesn’t shut up about it for the next couple of years.
It might seems like I’m trashing this movie but it’s just that what’s good or at least functional about the movie is the things you all come to expect with a superhero movie. The movie is loaded with action, with the standout being the one at the end of the first act with all of the heroes the movie coming together to take down the villain in a town, and features plenty of courage and violence that is actual quite brutal for these kind of movies. It’s still PG-13 don’t get wrong but they go as far with it as they can.
The special effects are obvious and CGI heavy but at times are pleasant to look at, the score by Lorne Balfe works well enough despite hearing Baby Come Back a few too many times, and checks off all the boxes as something a superhero must have without trying to convince anyone it’s doing something more than that. However, I just can’t get the shaky feeling that there was something more the filmmakers were trying to get across here and either they didn’t want to or weren’t allowed to by the studio.
Black Adam isn’t the worst movie in the DC Extended Universe but that says more about the inconsistent quality of the universe than Black Adam itself. While it does feel quite comforting to see DC going back to cracking out a solid picture every now and then and even their shortcomings are now mostly just an average C- as a oppose to a straight on D or F, it still is worth addressing the shortcomings when they happen so it may help in the near future. I’m sure The Rock will be back once again as Black Adam along with the other characters that were introduced here. I would like to see the Justice Society working together more in future movies, like how Shazam! is mostly likely gonna do with Fury of the Gods next spring. Hopefully then the character themselves will be more interesting. You can certainly do worse but you can also do a whole lot better.
Other comments:
- Sorry this review took so long! I wasn’t able to see the movie until today because of work over last weekend. I also plan to do a ranking of all he movies in the DC Extended Universe! Be on the lookout for that soon.
- I think I would have rather have seen a Doctor Fate movie than a Black Adam movie tbh.
- Let’s be honest, you all thought Atom Smasher was actually Deadpool when he first appeared. Hence why I said I thought it was Ryan Reynolds for a split second when the character first spoke.
- Ironic how just after I got home from seeing the movie and starting the review that it’s been confirmed that James Gunn and Peter Safran are now in charge of DC Comics. That’s awesome but I sure hope David Zaslav doesn’t get in their way. I got a feeling he’s gonna have his fingerprints all over them.
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