Black Adam
Dwayne Johnson marches into the DC Cinematic Universe with Black Adam.
DC offers your three movies in one with this confusing origin story
In the ancient world, Kahndaq was a city of power and enlightenment. But when an evil ruler enslaved his people and forced them to mine for eternium, an all-powerful element that can be used to forge an evil crown. Luckily, the gods sent a champion to fight this ruler and liberate the people.
Five thousand years later, Kahndaq isn’t the literal gate to hell, but it’s close. Colonizers and mercenaries have invaded the country stripping it of its resources and brutalizing its people. One such group is searching for the evil crown again.
Historian Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) wants to find the crown before a mercenary gets her hands on it. While searching, she finds the tomb of the lost champion of Kahndaq and utters the phrase that will wake him up — Shazam!
Now, the champion, once called Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is back, and he’s perfectly happy to kill anyone oppressing the people of Kahndaq. While the citizens see this as a blessing, the world at large is pretty concerned about the super-powered being with no qualms about killing who’s taken up residence in Kahndaq.
The Justice Society is sent to deal with Teth-Adam, but their initial meeting…doesn’t go well. Can the Justice Society stop Teth Adam? Should it?
If that summary feels truncated, I promise you Black Adam offers less explanation in its 2-hour running time. A movie that crams three movies’ worth of plot into one film, Black Adam succeeds in shortchanging its characters, its plot, and even its action. Director Jaume Collet-Serra seems to have graduated from DC training camp, where everything is sepia-tinted and speed-ramping happens practically whenever a character moves. It’s a style that’s usually associated with Zack Snyder, but clearly, it’s become the default look for these films.
Unfortunately, it’s a bland style that tends to mute both the depth of frame and the action. But aesthetical concerns are the least of this jumbled film’s problems. The tone bounces wildly from jokey dark humor to serious melodrama with no rhyme or reason. One moment a character is screaming about justice and the next we’re supposed to laugh because Teth-Adam crashes through a wall instead of using a door. It’s a bizarre mix and one that always feels frustrating. The film has several big emotional beats built into the plot. And that would be deeply effective if we had any idea who these characters are or why their sacrifices mean anything.
The most egregious part of the film is probably the haphazard inclusion of the Justice Society of America. If you’re not familiar with them, you better hit up Wikipedia before the movie, because Black Adam has absolutely no interest in explaining what the society is, who the members are, or why they do what they do. I’ll give you a quick breakdown. Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) is the leader and is an extremely serious man in an extremely ridiculous helmet. His best friend is Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), who can see the future, except when he can’t and can touch an ancient alien helmet that will drive anyone else insane, unless it doesn’t. Their newest recruits are Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), who can make himself very large and clearly got lost on his way to the latest Shazam sequel. The final member is Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), who can manipulate the wind into a Coachella-like burst of colors as she flings objects around.
Do any of these characters sound interesting? I hope not, because the movie won’t be spending any time on them.
The film spends a slight amount of time developing a character arc for Teth-Adam, but even then sort of fumbles the ball. Teth-Adam is supposed to be viewed as a dangerous threat because he kills people. And that might be dangerous in the comics, but in the DC Cinematic Universe, we’ve got a Superman who killed Zod, Batman who was hellbent on killing Superman, and a Wonder Woman who had no problem killing her nemesis Ares. So, Adam doesn’t seem like an outlier so much as the next in a long list of superheroes who end up killing people.
The most interesting concept brought forth by the film is of course the concept Collet-Serra barely bothers to develop. When the Justice Society of America shows up, the people of Kahndaq aren’t thrilled. They wonder why superheroes stood by through millennia of oppression from western forces, but show up now that a super-powered being has emerged to fight for them. It’s a really interesting concept. Is Clark Kent concerned about what’s happening in Myanmar? Why is regular oppression ignored so blithely?
The film doesn’t care, so it’s not giving you an answer.
Black Adam didn’t screen for mass critics. And after paying my money and sitting through this, I can see why. Let’s hope James Gunn and Peter Safran can add some coherence to these films, to honor the characters as they deserve to be.
Verdict: This movie is a mess, not even The Rock’s charming persona can fix that.
