Whilst Black Adam fails on the promise of a ‘new era for DC’, it manages to find a comfortable balance between the interesting, daring new projects such as The Batman, whilst not being able to let go of dull, formulaic pattern the company has almost rid itself of. With the film torn between these two mindsets, audiences are left with an action-packed, thrilling origin story that feels slightly bogged down by many superhero film stereotypes.
After being bestowed with the ancient power of the gods, Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is reborn into the modern day with a vengeance and a unique, ruthless twist on what justice is. With rage on his mind, The Justice Society, including Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Dr Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), must persuade the anti-hero to take a more peaceful approach to taking down his new nemesis.
Black Adam is really a film in 3 parts. These parts are so distinct and separated from each other that it feels like they were directed by 3 different people. The opening felt extremely rushed and painfully average. The narrated backstory is a troupe far overplayed, and something I was never a fan of within this film. Additionally, there is an apparent link between this and Shazam in the sense that both use vague, meaningless and confusing means to give their protagonists powers, plot, and purpose. The idea that these wizards and gods just exist in this film without context or backstory has always jarred me, as it just feels like a time-saving plot device to get the exposition over with (when in actual fact, the film could’ve used with some more of it). It would have been nice to see more of the Justice Society interacting with one another, and especially a larger introduction to Centineo and Swindell’s characters – who seemingly lacked purpose besides a few quips and one-liners.
However, once the film shifted into the present day, the pacing, my overall engagement and interest increased dramatically. Black Adam and the Justice Society’s powers and abilities made for some visually excellent action sequences that kept the film moving at a perfect pace. The use of slow mo in a few particular sequences really helped to enhance the visual effects. The excellent action and costume design was enough to make up for the poor story, with this second act saving the first’s incapabilities.
Whilst this criticism has been given far too many times to far too many DC films, WB clearly can’t learn their lesson. The third act unfortunately fell into the trap of being your ‘typical superhero climax, boasting more pointless VFX slugfests, sky-beams and faceless armies than you could shake a stick at.
The film does however, boast some great performances that really helped to lift it’s quality. It was evident throughout that Black Adam was a passion project for Johnson, and his performance and dedication really expressed this. The Rock is often labelled as the definition of a movie star and I think this film perfectly demonstrates why. I really hope Black Adam is one of the ‘faces of DC’ moving forward as the character has a lot more space for growth and some really interesting stories that could happen… (no spoilers, but if you’ve seen the film you’ll know exactly who I mean)
Brosnan was also really great in this film. His performance as Dr. Fate felt classy and elegant, which was something perfect for him. I’ve seen a lot of campaign and ask for a Dr. Fate spinoff project, and I honestly wouldn’t oppose the idea of a HBO Max prequel show. I also really enjoyed Noah Centineno as the Atom-Smasher too. Whilst it felt like his and Cyclone’s characters were forced slightly awkwardly into the film, Centineno made his debut a memorable one, and I really hope he can appear in a project that is more tonally appropriate for him soon (Shazam 2?). However, there are some awful performances throughout the film. The worst part is that these come from incredibly minor characters. This means that whilst their presence isn’t remembered or fully necessary, the poor line delivery makes them memorable – and not in the best way.
Overall, Black Adam has some great moments, and provides a great introduction for what I hope is a great new character in the DCEU. However, the film itself felt sloppy, amateur, and generally a step back in what I thought was the revitalisation of DC.
My Rating – 6.5/10
