Black Adam: More of a Spark Than Electrifying

Before I start this review, I wanted to tell you guys a fun fact.  Dwayne Johnson was cast as Black Adam in 2007.  Yes, you read that correctly.  That was before there was even an MCU and even before The Dark Knight! That's crazy.  I was reading that this has been a passion project of the Rock's.  Does the movie, as the actor says, change the hierarchy of power in the DC universe?  That's what I'm here to tell you.

Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and stars Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Sarah Shahi,  Noah Centineo, Quintessa Swindell, and Bodhi Sabongui.  After thousands of years being entombed, Black Adam (Johnson) is awakened, ready to protect his country, Khandaq.  World governments aren't entirely pleased with how he deals justice, so the Justice Society of America is sent to keep him in check.  With all of that out the way, let's dive into the review!

Black Adam is fine.  It doesn't really show us anything we haven't seen before in a superhero movie, nor does it really change the hierarchy of power in the DC universe.  There were a lot of times, particularly in the middle, where I was having fun with it.  I really liked the Justice Society of America, led by Hawkman (Hodge).  They were one of the best parts of the movie, especially Doctor Fate (Brosnan).  He's like a grandfatherly figure that kicks ass.  His power-set is very similar to Doctor Strange's (even though Fate debuted in comics earlier).  I really liked his relationship with Hawkman.  As for Black Adam himself, the Rock does a decent enough job with him.  I'm not really familiar with him in the comics.  It was interesting to see the Rock play a character that's sort of different than his usual roles.   I appreciate that they tried to give him more depth.  Adam really does want what's best for Khandaq, but his methods are just a little rough (at least to the outside world.  I'll get to that more in a bit).  He was a lot funnier than I had anticipated, too.  There were elements of his character that reminded me of Drax from the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.   His backstory was also pretty sad, too.  The back-and-forth between him and the Justice Society was cool to watch as well.  This is where the movie really excelled, in my opinion.  The people of Khandaq see Adam as a savior, the only one who is doing anything to protect the country.  They don't hold the Justice Society to the same regard, however.  In their view, the heroes sat on the sidelines for too long while Khandaq was being occupied and exploited.  It's a very cool concept that is played around with quite a bit, mostly in the middle of the movie.  What I liked is that both sides do have points.  No one was really there to protect Khandaq, but at the same time Black Adam is an extremely powerful individual who does pose a threat.  To the world, it's unclear who's side he's on.  When the two forces fight, it's really fun to watch.  All of the characters fighting have unique abilities and the effects are great, especially with Doctor Fate (I know I keep talking about him, but he kicks ass).

I'm really mixed on this movie because, yes it's fun, but there are elements that I really don't like.  When it comes to characters, there's a kid named Amon (Sabongui) who's the son of Adrianna (Shahi), the woman who awakens Black Adam.  I'm trying to be nice because he's just a kid, but he is extremely annoying.  He has cringey lines and took me out of the movie whenever he was on-screen, which is a lot by the way.  As I've said time and again, unless you're Steven Spielberg or James Cameron, don't make kids a big part of the movie.  It never works out.  There's a scene when Amon is sneaking by soldiers on his skateboard and they notice him.  All of a sudden, he turns into Indiana Jones and starts dodging them.  He's zip-lining down the stairs, knocking guys over, and meanwhile, I'm having a conniption in my seat because it is just so terrible.  That's not even the worst thing he does in this movie, but I can't really get into it because of spoilers.  I also wanted some more time with Cyclone (Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Centineo).  They're in the movie quite a bit, but they don't do a ton.  What really frustrated was the movie itself. Black Adam is supposed to be an anti-hero, but in this movie he doesn't do anything that's necessarily bad.  Yes, he kills people, but they're all bad guys.  We've seen superheroes, in pretty much every superhero movie that's come out the past decade, kill these exact same types of guys.  So when Hawkman says, "Heroes don't kill people," I gotta call BS because a lot of them do.  If this is the movie's idea of being morally grey, I'm a little iffy on it.  However, I will give them that Black Adam can be pretty brutal when killing his enemies, especially in his entrance scene.  If I had to hear him say, "I'm not a hero" one more time, I was going to lose it.  Black Adam is essentially Superhero: The Movie.  What I mean by this is that it's every single comic book movie trope packed into one.  Big CGI villain in the third act? Check.  Snappy one liners? Check.  Giant beam that shoots into the sky? Check.  The big CG villain really bothered me, too.  Again, it's the trope of the enemy having the same powers as the main character and they have to face off.  I think the movie would've been better if it kept the conflict between Black Adam and the Justice Society.  That would've been much more interesting.  Another thing that irritated me was the slow-motion.  It was used obnoxiously and it was the kind that kinda freezes the frame.  I'm 90% sure it added to the runtime by five minutes.  It took me out of the movie a little, especially in one sequence that was already slow as it was.  I'm fine with slow-motion, but I think it needs to be used tastefully.  

To wrap everything up, Black Adam was a mixed bag for me.  I really liked the Justice Society (particularly Doctor Fate), the depth added to Black Adam, the action sequences were well done, and a lot of the ideas were pretty interesting.  What holds this movie back is the main kid, Black Adam not really doing anything that bad (we've seen other heroes do similar things, it is packed to the brim with every comic book cliche known to man, and the slow-motion is extremely overused.  It's a fun movie, don't get me wrong, but I was kind of hoping for a little more.  I'm interested to see where this universe is headed now!  If I were to rate it, I'd give Black Adam a 6.5/10.  Also, be sure to stick around for a mid-credits scene that's just absolutely amazing!