Black Adam is a 2022 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name. Produced by New Line Cinema, DC Films, Seven Bucks Productions, and FlynnPictureCo., it is a spin-off from Shazam! (2019) and the 11th film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani, the film stars Dwayne Johnson as the titular character alongside Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, and Pierce Brosnan.
Why Black Adam? Because Dwayne Johnson. This film became reality only due to Johnson’s attachment in 2014. But that’s not a good enough reason for its existence. There is no compelling story to appeal to superhero fans as the characters are lacklustre, 2-dimension and stereo-typical. Johnson’s titular protagonist is a humourless one note character spouting inane one-liners that seldom fail to make you cringe. The Justice Society? Even worse. Hawkman is perpetually scowling as well and Doctor Fate wears out his enigmatic posturing very quickly. Atom Smasher and Cyclone? Inconsequential fillers. If you fail to write interesting characters, nobody is going to be interested in your action sequences cuz there’s nobody really for the audience to root for. Fail!
Black Adam comes across like those B-grade martial arts movies when every plot point’s purpose is to set up a fight scene. There’s just too many fight scenes in this movie. Relentlessly so. There’s no time to breathe, no time for any meaningful character development. Only WHAM! BAM! POW! Seriously?! One can only take so much CGI fight sequences cuz after a while it can get pretty boring! Again, if we cannot engage with the characters, we will not care what they do or what is done to them. Think of this movie as Michael Bay’s Transformers but with superheroes. Can you now taste the bile rising up in your throat?
You can literally smell the desperation for this movie (and the DCEU) to work in the post-credit scene. Talk about pandering to your audience. What does that cameo mean anyways? Is it just a cock tease just to get folks to run to the cinema – to watch the cameo? Are people that gullible? Nope. Black Adam is a bad superhero movie – as bad as that Venom sequel and the risible Morbius disaster! Avoid!
Black Adam is now showing in cinemas. Official site.
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