One thing for sure, the Rock is always going to give you everything he’s got.
Black Adam seems to begin in ancient Kahndaq – a fictional mid-eastern country thousands of years ago. The people are enslaved by a cruel king who seems to want to summon a demon? He’s having the people mine rocks to make a demon-summoning crown. A young man decides this is not right and unifies the slaves, becoming empowered by the ancient gods to be the champion of the people. He fights the king and ends up buried for a long time. In present day, a woman and her son, their friend, and their business partner (?) are living in Kahndaq which seems to be under the control of foreign mercenaries. They find the tomb of the champion and set out to release him using the ancient king’s crown. Teth Adam awakens, but has an issue with everyone and begins taking out everyone in his way.
Concerned with the awakening of this super powerful ancient begin the ultra-shady Amanda Waller contacts Carter Hall and strongly suggests he pull together a squad to go handle it. Hall seems to be running the Justice Society, the B team to the Justice League. From what I could tell, it has rotating members and he calls up whoever will be best suited to the current mission - or whoever is not busy? He sets out to Kahndaq with Dr. Fate, Cyclone, and the Atom Smasher. Chaos ensues.
The movie is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who also did
Jungle Cruise. It is over the top, loud, and driving with some great costumes
and fun action set pieces. The score felt
non-stop. A good score should be unnoticeable
and an exceptional score should be one that you notice at the appropriate time. A bad score is one that is too loud and
happening all the time with no moments of silence to appreciate what is
happening. There does not seem to be a
lot of character development, but to be fair – you do not really need it. The story is confusing at best and convoluted
at worst. I still could not tell you the
name of the villain. Black Adam began as a villain in the comics for Shazam
(why their powers are so similar – he even has to say “Shazam” to activate), so
I can’t help but think a stronger move would have been to introduce him as a sympathetic
villain in Shazam 2, and then give him a spin-off anti-hero movie.
As I said, Dwayne Johnson does not disappoint and certainly
is wonderful as Black Adam. With such a large real-life personality, it can be
hard to see him as anything other than “THE ROCK”, but he does a great job here
and is believable as an ancient dude just fed up with everything and everyone,
including himself and his past failures.
Sarah Shahi, Bodhi Sabongui, and Mo Amer play the crew awakening him and both needing him and helping him in his new crusade. Unfortunately, both they and their struggle are a little forgettable.
Aldis Hodge plays Hawkman as wrangler and babysitter to Pierce Brosnan’s Dr. Fate, Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher, and Quintessa Swindell’s Cyclone. They were all cool, with wonderful outfits, banter, and action – Brosnan and Hodge especially. The problem is that they were thrown together so quickly and so rapidly explained, it was difficult to care about any of them enough to get engaged in the battles. Perhaps that makes sense since this is a Black Adam movie and none of these heroes are the center focus.
Overall, the movie was plenty fun and the crowd I saw it with really enjoyed it. As long as you don’t think too much about it, you’ll have a great time – but it may be better off waiting to stream it rather than paying to see it in the theater. I am looking forward to either the second Black Adam movie or him teaming up with whoever else he can find. And if this is the promise of a new DC direction, that's a great idea - put the work ethic and the enthusiasm of the Rock in the lead, let him inspire everyone else involved.
5 out of 10
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