David Zaslav be like…
ON THIS ROCK, I WILL BUILD MY UNIVERSE.
And I’m ok with it. I really liked this one. No spoilers!
Look, man. By now the genre is pretty well known. Big action, big comedy, big visuals, big actors. Everything is big. Lots of slow-motion attempts at heartfelt storytelling. Cliches here and there. Sounds like a marvel movie when they’re just pretty good. Black Adam is a little better than those! It won’t win any awards, but what I appreciate about it the most is that it remembers to have fun in everything it’s doing.
You can just tell with every frame Dwayne Johnson is in that this is a passion project for him. The way he carries himself is more stoic than charismatic, delivering with a deadpan reminiscent of some WWE days (although he noticeably is missing any kind of accent). He’s perfect for the role, and just like Black Adam often skirts the line between good and evil, he plays up the anti-hero equation nicely. While I know the character mostly as a villain, it’s refreshing to get a movie where they’re the focus, sort of flips the expectations on their head in terms of how the plot flows even if it’s still fairly predictable by the end. I don’t mind that when it’s executed well and it mostly is here. There’s a shot at the end that mirrors a famous Black Adam panel that gave me goosebumps. Well done on nailing the title character!
The action is by far another huge standout, with spectacular visual effects that are mostly consistent, hard-hitting superpowers, epic fights, and massive destruction. A nice sense of scale and humor was used effectively throughout the action. In fact, the humor landed a lot of the time for me, with a few moments of actually laughing out loud. Lots of this will be preferential, and not every joke lands well but none of it felt cringe. For example, the catchphrase joke of Thor: Love and Thunder which felt so forced is used much more effectively here. The Rock does really well with it!
A HUGE portion of this film is dedicated to the Justice Society or JSA. I was so happy to see them in live action, although I do have that thought in the back of my head like, “where were they when doomsday or Steppenwolf attacked?” But it’s implied they operate more in secret. They get much more screen time than expected, each one getting their moment to shine and small character moments, some more than others. Atom Smasher is a lovable goofball, Cyclone is a visual marvel with an intriguing backstory, and Hawkman is a cool, tough-as-nails leader whose backstory is strangely ignored. I’m not sure why they chose that route because there are several pieces of dialogue where they could have easily explained the thanagarian/reincarnation story. Perhaps they thought it would be too much, but it felt natural for everyone else. If you don’t know much about the character I could see them not explaining him being confusing. While I wanted that, because I didn’t need it, it was ok. The true standout of the team is the always suave, never cheap Pierce Brosnan as Kent Nelson/Dr. Fate. I love Brosnan, there’s a sincerity about him that lends a gravitas to every line he utters. He’s the true heart of this film, and Dr. Fate looks fantastic. I sadly just wanted more of him, as with all of them, so here’s hoping a JSA movie comes after this. There’s much to explore there!
This sort of plays into one of my criticisms is that Black Adam’s movie can feel, at times, slightly overcrowded. Just as a movie about Batman needs to spend ample time with the villains, a villain movie needs to spend ample time with whatever antagonist is here and that’s primarily the JSA. Cool, fine! But there’s a fallback to created-for-movie human characters that often feel tacked on or uninteresting. At times, and I discussed this with a friend who observed the same, they feel like the protagonists but their motivations are quickly swept aside. Black Adam needed human relationships to ground him with the people of Kahndaq, so on paper, I get it. But the execution of it feels like much was left on the cutting room floor, so for 2 hours there are just too many characters. The mother largely exists to serve the plot, and the son exists solely to service Black Adam’s development. That’s not inherently wrong, but I wish we’d gotten to know them and their struggle more so and that’s hard to do in less than 2 hours. A longer cut could flesh this out. I also feel like the performance from the kid actor in his voiceovers and inspiring speech sections wasn’t as convincing as it should’ve been, and sometimes they just feel like generic characters.
There are several MacGuffins throughout the story and one of them is completely forgotten about even though it’s a potential huge weakness for Black Adam. Weird, but it shifts focus to the other one and leads to a stereotypical CGI villain at the end. He’s got some great visual moments and one particularly chilling scene, but Sabbac largely is forgettable. I at least appreciate that his appearance didn’t overshadow anything, served the character stories, and is built up throughout the entire film. There’s not much depth there but there doesn’t always need to be for pure evil, but I’ll say it’s predictable and resolves fairly quickly so I get the complaint.
REALLY cool to see Intergang, great choice of bad guy fodder for the film. I like the idea of how they’re developing their tech and some visuals that go along with it. Are they using Kryptonian technology too? Could be. For superpowers characters, they make for unusually fun fodder to be disposed of. World-building like this and another key scene drop hints at the future without feeling like an obvious setup for franchises, it feels organic that’s so appreciated. But at the same time, they don’t forget to remember past movies with small characters popping as connective tissue for that shared universe feel. Well done! I like the implications.
The plot is very straightforward, but because of this on the nose, worthwhile themes get lots of time to shine. The typical “I’m not a hero” dialogue can be a bit cheesy, but what they mean in terms of the character is nice. He’s not a hero, never claims to be but he is a protector of sorts with personal motivations that make up a surprisingly engaging portion of the story. An unexpectedly strong family dynamic makes everything believable, with a semi-decent twist that I was able to figure out solely because of the trailers, unfortunately. But for general audiences, I think they’ll love it. I like how it all ties together, it’s not a crazy commentary on the human condition but exploring themes of power, responsibility and the necessity of force is welcome. I mostly dug the concepts of living in shades of gray, where no hero has ever helped Kahndaq, so why should they trust the JSA? Why wouldn’t they turn to someone like Black Adam for protection? The film’s runtime keeps it from exploring these ideas as much as I’d like or that it should, but I’m glad they at least touched on it. Again, feels like an abundance of content was left on the cutting room floor.
Two technical things that bothered me were some editing decisions throughout that felt really choppy, almost like they were editing around extended sequences. It’s mainly with scenes involving solely the human characters. And the sound mixing felt off, with hard-to-hear and/or understanding dialogue with the bass not feeling as punchy as it should. However, I won’t hold this against the film as my local movie theater is known for having issues like this. At least the soundtrack was full of head-bobbing rock music and some music reminiscent of Man of Steel, except slightly more generic. I don’t think I could hum a Black Adam theme, which is a little sad.
It all feels very in line with when Zack Snyder was shepherding the universe, like how the first Wonder Woman felt. I’m a huge Snyder fan so all for it. Please stick around for the mid-credits scenes, one of my favorites in some time, and sets up some exciting things to come.
Lots of these movies get downgraded by the third act, but here it’s the opposite, it actually gets even better with a final fatality that’s so cool. Seeing Black Adam wipe the floor with everyone is a power fantasy we’ve all wanted to see and root for. It’s a fun, flawed time at the movies that just might be what shifts the hierarchy of power in the DC universe. It’s just refreshing to have a villain/anti-hero-focused crowd-pleaser that’s different from the competition, with a lot of the same elements that make it work.
Overall Black Adam is a 4/5 stars