DIRECTOR: Jaume Collet-Serra
CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, Pierce Brosnan, Mohammed Amer, Viola Davis, James Cusati-Moyer, Uli Latukefu
RUNNING TIME: 124 mins
CERTIFICATE: 12A
BASICALLY…: The powerful anti-hero Black Adam (Johnson) is awakened after a five thousand year slumber…
NOW FOR THE REVIEW…
If there’s one thing you can say about Dwayne Johnson, he sure is persistent. The former wrestler turned Hollywood superstar first declared interest in playing the popular DC anti-hero Black Adam as far back as 2007, and even as his star power (along with his muscle size) grew and grew over the years, the character never quite left his imagination, until finally he and the powers that be – or used to be, given the latest number of cuts following the Warner Bros Discovery merger – at DC decided to give the character, traditionally an antagonist to the similar powered Captain Marvel Shazam!, his turn in the spotlight.
After all that waiting and hype, it’s nice to see Johnson finally realise his comic-book dream, and he certainly makes the most of it on-screen – it’s a shame that the rest of Black Adam never transcends beyond simply being “okay”.
In the film, Johnson plays Teth-Adam, a slave in the ancient Middle Eastern kingdom of Kahndaq, who is bequeathed incredible powers by a legion of wizards (naturally, the same ones that gave such powers to Billy Batson in 2019’s Shazam!), but after he uses them to brutally wipe out the kingdom’s tyrannical rulers, he is banished to an eternal slumber. Cut to the present day, when Kahndaq is now overrun by ruthless mercenaries known as the Intergang, and as local archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) ventures into the mountains to find a mythical crowd, said to be made by the powerful resource known as Eternium (which, I assume, is on the same movie periodic table that also houses Unobtainium and Pixium). Her search unwittingly awakens Teth-Adam from his slumber, but the powerful being is still thirsty for vengeance and wanton destruction, which draws the attention of the Justice Society of America – whose members include Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), the wind-generating Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) who’s totally not Storm, Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) who can change size at will and definitely isn’t Ant-Man by way of Deadpool, and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) who… there’s no getting around it, he’s basically Doctor Strange – who attempt to subdue Teth-Adam in any way they possibly can. However, and perhaps inevitably, the heroes must team with the anti-hero in order to take down a foe that could prove more destructive than even Teth-Adam.
While there is plenty of mediocrity to talk about with Black Adam, there are some good things that one can take away from it, namely Dwayne Johnson who really nails the ruthlessness and stoic tone of this character, even if it is at the expense of the star’s natural jokey charisma, which he does make up for with a strong and intimidating screen presence. He also nails the sheer brutality that someone like Black Adam is capable of; within minutes of being formally introduced, he straight up murders a whole bunch of people by melting them down to their bones, ripping their arms off, and doing God knows what whenever the camera isn’t on him, which of course never gets as gory as something like The Suicide Squad (this is a 12A at the end of the day) but for the more general audience that it’s aiming for, it can be surprisingly brutal in parts. Beyond him, the movie has some interesting ideas about how certain heroes such as the Justice Society of America are reviled by people in the Middle East, which here has seen endless foreign authorities come in and make an even bigger mess of things than the last invaders, whereas the more brutal and forceful beings like Black Adam – who is seen by the Kahndaq civilians as a legendary martyr figure – are celebrated for doing the more violent and deadly things that the more morally-grounded heroes cannot. It’s certainly a ballsy topic for a major Western Hollywood blockbuster to explore, let alone in a superhero movie, and whenever the movie focuses on this aspect, the movie shows signs of being smarter than it otherwise is.
Sadly, the rest of the film falls into that deeply generic pit of superhero action and storytelling, which some like those at Marvel can still get away with because they do find new and interesting ways to spice up the formula nearly every time, but here it’s as though this script, and certainly these effects, have been circulating for at least twenty years, back when superhero films weren’t quite as refined as they are today. The storyline, characters, action sequences, effects, and nearly everything else is something like you would find in a lesser superhero movie from the mid-2000s to early-2010s like Ghost Rider or even Green Lantern (though between the two, Black Adam is still the more palatable DC choice), only with references and even cameos here and there to other properties within the DC Universe. All the while, though, you find that there is very little emotional investment one can put into this script, because things constantly move from one big set-piece to the next, with barely enough time to know most of these characters in between them, outside of a bunch of stock dialogue. It’s a film that’s clearly more in awe with its CG-filled action, but while there are tiny glimpses of lively inspiration – a Rolling Stones track may suddenly play over events, or Dwayne Johnson will do something that’s brutal but also kind of funny – they’re mostly just a collection of noise, questionable graphics, a never-ending musical score, and so much slow-motion that even Zack Snyder would be anxious to speed things up a bit.
While it isn’t a complete disaster, it’s certainly not going to linger in people’s memories either, like many of the better superhero movies out there have done – and, in a way, it’s a shame when you know how much time and effort that Dwayne Johnson has put in over the years to make this film a reality. The man is an entertainer, and a pretty great one at that, but when the material around him is nowhere near as strong, then it’s going to make that climb to the end an even greater struggle. Luckily, this probably won’t be the last we’ll see of Black Adam – especially with a mid-credits scene that sets up plenty more confrontations in DC’s near future – so there is still a chance that the character, and the actor portraying him, can obtain material that’s worthy of their popularity. For now, though, it just makes you wish that Warner Bros released Batgirl instead.
SO, TO SUM UP…
Black Adam is an overwhelmingly mediocre superhero movie which, despite the efforts of star Dwayne Johnson as well as some occasionally interesting topics, bogs itself down with relentless action and almost zero emotional investment.
