Black Adam Review: A Decent First Step!

Been in development hell since the late 2000s, Black Adam, the 11th film in the DCEU, is a long-time dream project of the former WWE Superstar, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson – a character that allows him to be a heel, a persona that he embraced back in his wrestling days. Jaume Collet-Serra (who also helmed Jungle Cruise) directed the movie, and Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, Marwan Kenzari, Bodhi Sabongui, and Pierce Brosnan play the supporting roles. The storyline begins with Teth Adam, a true champion of Kahndaq, waking up after his 5000-year sleep only to find out that his hometown is not the same as he remembers.

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Beginning with the positives, with a two-hour-four-minute runtime, Black Adam is an easily digestible film. It moves quickly and does not have any dull spots or pacing-related issues. The action and the comedy (that did not land well all the time) supplemented the quick pace, and although it had an October release, I felt this could’ve been a great fit for a Summer release cause the story is not complicated and does not require you to analyze everything happening on-screen.

Moving on to the characters, I quite liked Teth Adam’s character arc and dark persona. His ability to not give a sh*t and wreak havoc fulfills all the anti-hero traits. And it is refreshing to see a different take rather than the usual “happy-go-lucky” or “shake hands and kiss babies” characters. The Justice Society, who I thought will be boring from the get-go, had a good reason for their existence in the movie. I wished that there is some sort of backstory leading up to this, even though the writers did an admirable job developing them in a short amount of time. Also, Lorne Balfe’s score also elevates this movie to a whole another level.

To the negatives, at this point, after two decades of regular superhero film releases, I think it is time to say goodbye to this “bad guy taking over the world” storyline. It is not very thrilling, and we all (by this point) know how it will conclude. That entire story with the villain getting his cursed crown and taking over the throne was seen so many times by now, and the entire thing felt like an obligation. Furthermore, even though I quite understand the criticism of not having a dense narrative, I felt that the movie finished the task of successfully introducing the character.

More on the bright side, having not watched any of the promos of Black Adam, I did not know that it was shot on such a giant scale with a $200 million budget. I was surprised that the makers went all out cause I was expecting something similar to Shazam, which had a low-risk-high-return revenue model. The performances were good across the board. Dwayne Johnson had to tone it down a little bit rather than being himself, which I felt is the appropriate way to go. Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate stole the show and added that surprise emotional depth to the movie. Aldis Hodge as Hawkman was very charismatic and very much believable as the head of the group.

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Overall, Black Adam is (for lack of a better word) a good popcorn film. It had its fair share of problems and is nowhere near perfect. However, the characters, action, humor, and the two-hour runtime made it a more fun movie-watching experience. A decent first step.

‘Black Adam’ Rating – 2.5/5