Black Adam – Movie Review
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writer: Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani (Screenplay)
Writer: Otto Binder, C.C Beck (Created By)
Cast
- Dwayne Johnson (Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle)
- Sarah Shahi (Language Arts)
- Viola Davis (Suicide Squad)
- Pierce Brosnan (GoldenEye)
- Noah Centineo
- Aldis Hodge (The Invisible Man)
Plot: Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods-and imprisoned just as quickly-Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.
Runtime: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: Black Adam starts with a brief history lesson about Teth Adam (Johnson) and how he defeated an evil ruler. 5000-years later Khandaq is controlled by the military taking their resources. When Adrianna Tomaz (Shahi) discovers a mysterious crown of evil, she releases Teth Adam from his resting place.
Teth Adam destroys the military catching the eyes of the Justice Society. Carter Hall (Hodge), Kent Nelson (Brosnan), Maxine Hunkel (Swindell) and Al Rothstein (Centineo) come to investigate his destruction. As the two sides clash, they must learn to work together to face a bigger threat the world is facing.
Verdict on Black Adam
Characters
Teth Adam defeated a tyrant ruler of Khandaq before vanishing from the world. He gets woken up to a modern world he has never seen before. Using his powers for destruction to protect his former city. Unlike many superheroes, he doesn’t care about human life, forcing him to make ruthless decisions. He must decide if he wants to help protect the city or be the reason why others try to destroy it.
Carter Hall is assigned to put together a team to stop Teth Adam from his destruction. He has a strict code to not hurt people and is a good leader of the team. Carter is joined by Kent Nelson, who has the ability to see the future, even if it feels more like a curse to him. Maxine Hunkel and Al Rothstein are the younger members of the group, learning to adapt to the new threats in the world.
Adrianna is trying to discover a mysterious crown connected to evil. She operates in secret and ends up unleashing Teth Adam back into the world.
Most of these characters struggle to make a major impact, with the conversation about what they want being more interesting than their actions.
Performances
Dwayne Johnson is fine in his role, you know what you are going to get, only he lacks the charm that makes him so watchable on camera. It is when we dive into the Justice Society things get more interesting in the performances. Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan work very well together. As Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell get more laughs throughout the film.
Story
The story follows the rise of a former champion who defeated a tyrant after he is released into the modern world. He is seen as a threat and must learn the true meaning of being a protector and not a villain.
This story is here to introduce a new DC superhero to us. It brings us one that is more conflicted with his powers and that must fight to protect his people. In the end, this is just like nearly every other superhero origin movie. It has a lot going on without much happening, with everything being more generic, and focused more on the bigger world than just its own.
Themes
Black Adam is the latest action superhero movie for a brand-new hero in the DC world. It has massive action sequences that we have seen plenty of times before. Focusing more on the big destruction moments and big fights. The visual creation behind Cyclone is the most interesting visual in the fights. Even if most motions seem very similar. The biggest problem with the action sequences is that we have seen them so many times before, nothing feels fresh in them.
Final Thoughts – Black Adam is the typical superhero origin movie, where the supporting characters are more interesting than Black Adam himself.
