Run Time: 2h 5m
Directed By: Jaume Collet-Serra
IMDb: 6.2/10
Rotten Tomato: 39%
Budget: $190-260 million
Box Office: $393.5 million
Ever since I became a fan of DC, I wanted to see Black Adam’s appearance in the live-action movies and thought my childhood hero, Rock (Dwayne Johnson), would be the perfect fit for that character. Needless to say, the announcement of a Black Adam movie starring The Rock himself made me crazy excited with so much hope. It kept me thinking, perhaps, there’ll be a Superman-Black Adam fight, maybe DC will turn around. Maybe the Snyderverse will be restored (yep, I am something of a Snyderbot myself). I was counting my pandemic days to be over and the movie to come out. And the movie finally got its global release (except China) on October 21, 2022.
I watched the movie a couple of days after the release. Let’s see how good or bad Black Adam (2022) turned out.
The story takes place in Kahndaq, a fictional kingdom in the Middle East. As the story says, long ago, before even the Pyramid, the kingdom was under the oppressive ruler Akh-ton. Later, Teth Adam, a brave boy, is granted god-like power by the wizards to liberate his people from oppression. Teth Adam defeats Akh-ton, frees the people of Kahndaq, and disappears.
In modern days, when Kahndaq is occupied by international mercenaries—Intergang—Teth Adam is incidentally awakened from his tomb that lies in a hill. And then appears a superhero team named Justice Society of America, to contain Teth Adam by the instruction of Amanda Waller.
Why does the Justice Society of America want to imprison Teth Adam? Also, where has he been this whole time? And why did Intergang occupy Kahndaq in the first place? You gotta watch the movie to find out.
What I Liked in This Movie
Overall Enjoyable: Black Adam maybe isn’t as great as I expected it to be. Yet it was pretty fun to watch. The screenplay is quite fast, so I felt kinda hooked from the beginning. And the movie managed to keep the pace the same till the end. Some of the action scenes were dope. It felt really great to see the superhero fighting on the big screen. It was visually stunning, especially the power of Doctor Fate. Call me biased, but I think Doctor Fate was visually way cooler than Doctor Strange. The movie had some cheer-worthy moments. I had a good time watching the movie.
Casting: As I said earlier, I always cherished seeing Dwayne Johnson’s Black Adam. And seeing him on the screen as the character blew my mind. I felt like the guy was born to play Black Adam. Dwayne seems to be a big fan of Black Adam and has wanted to play the character for quite some time. He worked and worked out so hard for this character. And his hard work paid off.
I have heard some complaints about the look not being comic accurate. But I don’t believe that everything has to be completely comic accurate to be good. I think Black Adam looks dope as fork. And so do Doctor Fate and Hawkman.
Comic Relief: I know this is kind of out of DCEU’s character to contain comedy scenes in their movies, and I kinda like that serious vibe. Yet, I liked the comic relief moments of the Black Adam movie. Black Adam, being an ancient warrior and with his seriousness, lacks an understanding of the norms and culture of the modern world. So when he responds to a situation with his straightforwardness and says something literally, things appear as funny, with some deadpan delivery of lines. The movie injects fun moments through some other characters, such as Adriana’s son Amon and uncle Karim, members of the Justice Society of America.
JSA: Finally, someone brought some DC characters that I always wanted to see in live action. Apart from Black Adam, I prayed for Doctor Fate, Booster Gold, Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Green Lantern (I don’t count Ryan Reynolds’s one as a movie), Atom, and some other characters to appear in a live-action movie or series. And this movie brought some of them by bringing the Justice Society of America in. Doctor Fate and Hawkman looked awesome throughout the whole movie. Atom Smasher and Cyclone could also have won my heart if they had enough screen time.
Twist and Reveal: Another thing I liked about Black Adam is its narrative style. The problem with watching too many movies from the same genre is that nothing in a mediocre film feels new anymore. You can spot a twist or some big reveal from a mile away. But I believe Black Adam is somewhat better in that. Some of the plot reveals of the movie really moved me. Some of them appeared as twists that I didn’t see coming, which made the whole experience a lot better.
What I Didn’t Liked in This Movie
The movie is fun to watch without a doubt. But it has some major flaws that I didn’t like. I thought Black Adam would be one of the best movies of the DCEU. This part might have some spoilers in the criticism, so read at your own risk.
Character Development: In Black Adam, some of the prime characters felt underdeveloped. More specifically, SABBAC, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone didn’t even get minimal space in the story. Though SABBAC is the big supervillain of the movie, we didn’t get to know him properly. The movie doesn’t explain what the superpowers of SABBAC are or where his power comes from. The movie doesn’t even tell us that SABBAC is the acronym of six different demons (Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Crateis). The villain appears as nothing but a third-act big CGI villain.
Atom Smasher and Cyclone become some sort of ornaments to make the movie look cool. These two characters don’t have any sort of impact on the whole narrative. If they weren’t brought by the JSA to the fight, the story wouldn’t change even a little bit. What’s the point of introducing two cool superheroes if you cannot write them properly?
Lack of Motivation: You know what makes a hero a great hero and what makes a villain an iconic villain? Their motivation behind their acts. Heroes like Batman, Spider-Man, or villains like Joker or Thanos can be prime examples. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the slightest logical motivation in either Black Adam’s or SABBAC’s character. I mean, the SABBAC guy—why do you want to conquer and rule Kahndaq anyway? What does Black Adam do when there’s no one to fight? Because, as the movie shows, Black Adam does literally nothing unless someone pokes him with a gun or hits him with something. Oh, wait! SABBAC is just the same. The dude was floating around the ocean peacefully until the JSA attacked him.
The reason why Black Adam and SABBAC have their third-act CGI fight, I think, doesn’t make any sense.
Plot Holes: There are a bunch of plot holes in the movie that caught my eye immediately. And they bothered me the whole time. I think the writer should’ve been more careful and spent enough time figuring out these plot holes. I’m not mentioning it due to spoilers (like anyone is ever gonna read this before watching the movie), but one will immediately spot those plot holes that I’m talking about.
Who should Watch it and who shouldn’t
Despite having a ton of action scenes, none of them cut out to be brutal or violent. There isn’t even a single kiss scene. What I mean is, Black Adam is suitable for everyone of every age, including kids. It’s PG-13 rated for a reason, right?
Black Adam is a fun movie to watch. I mean, who doesn’t like The Rock? The movie’s well-paced and doesn’t get boring even for a minute. Those who love superhero action films, I think you’ll have a good time watching it. The same goes for kids or others who like to watch light-concept movies.
If you are a DC fan and haven’t seen this movie yet, you already know that the movie didn’t turn out as good as expected, and it was a box-office bomb. Well, I can tell you Black Adam is a damn good movie for such a flop. So, why waste time? Just watch it.
But hey, if you are one of the cinephiles, this is not a movie for you. Not unless you want to waste some of your time.
