Black Adam – Film Review

In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam was bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Black Adam. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and Black Adam has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone.

Jaume Collet-Serra and company set out to make Black Adam one of the most memorable and different superhero movies of all-time, and I can wholeheartedly say that they succeeded, even if it’s not always the way in which they intended. Watching the film was honestly one of the most frustrating experiences of the year while also being one of the most wildly entertaining at the same exact time.

Black Adam is not a bad movie by a long shot, but it’s also not an amazing one. It’s simply good. You can definitely tell that lead star Dwayne Johnson was incredibly passionate about bringing this character to life and doing him justice, and it’s always nice to see that kind of passion shine through. It also helps that his performance here is so much fun.

Yes, he does stare for a good portion of the movie and his only real challenge here is to look like a badass, but he definitely succeeds at that. We all know that Johnson is an absurdly muscular man, and so is Black Adam, so it really goes hand-in-hand. Plus, Johnson is one of the most charismatic actors of our time, so it works out in that regard as well.

The truly big problems with Black Adam lie within its script, which was written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani. The story setup is actually kind of amazing and it sort of feels like we’re about to watch a strange sort of Mummy-esque movie and not a humongous superhero blockbuster.

The lore of Black Adam is super interesting and the overarching story as a whole is super strong. The problem here is that the film has no idea what to do story-wise in the middle. It’s easily the stretch of the movie that’s the most uneventful which is unusual because in most superhero movies, the second act is the best and most action-packed. With Black Adam, you’ll find the most juice in the third act.

Is this movie absolutely loaded with CGI? Yes. As a matter of fact, there are so many CGI shots in this film to the point where it can be legitimately headache-inducing from time to time. But at the end of the day, the big gigantic action sequences here are a blast to watch, and they’re remarkably well filmed and choreographed, too.

A lot of the cast seemed to have the time of their lives making this film as well, not just Johnson. The true standout here is definitely Pierce Brosnan in the role of Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate, an experienced and senior member of the Justice Society. He’s the most fascinating character in the whole movie, and I’m praying they make a solo film with him sometime soon.

There’s also Noah Centineo as Albert “Al” Rothstein / Atom Smasher who I thought was going to be terrible. Centineo is not a bad actor or anything, but I just didn’t see how he was going to portray a superhero character. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I can say that he was great. He kind of reminded me of Tom Holland‘s portrayal of Spider-Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

There’s so much to love about Black Adam even if the film is not even close to being the masterpiece that many hoped it was going to be. It’s a wildly entertaining outing that sets up some truly promising stuff for the future of the DC Extended Universe (DCU), and I can’t wait to see more of this character in the near future.

Black Adam is a remarkably entertaining and action-packed superhero blockbuster led by an intimidating Dwayne Johnson, even if the film is loaded with issues.