Black Adam

While Black Adam isn't a groundbreaking top-tier superhero film, it is an entertaining superhero movie that makes it up with the charm from star Dwayne Johnson as an anti-hero and guilty pleasures including non-stop action, irreverent humor and a high kill count.

Dwayne Johnson carves out his own superhero niche with his anti-hero, a concept which the film wholeheartedly commits to. People die in this movie. My mouth dropped at Black Adam's kill count. As the numbers increased, the movie set itself in a tonal sweet spot that Marvel won't go near and Sony hasn't quite achieved with its Spider-Man villain films. What Black Adam does is downright wrong, but it's entertaining as heck to watch it play out.

The current culture has become so comic book literate where the story can just introduce a superhero team, the Justice Society of America, without any introduction. You get to know this team in the midst of the action, wondering about their origin stories or how they got their powers. It works, despite being overly stuffed.

Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate is quite the scene-stealer, providing gravitas that grounds the conflict at hand and adds another level of seriousness. He's a fascinating character. I hope for a Doctor Fate solo movie with Pierce Brosnan.

Aldis Hodge's Hawkman is a great straight man to Dwayne's Black Adam. The heart of the movie comes from the moral argument between them. One character wholeheartedly believes in killing and the other is completely opposed to it. To quote the Dark Knight, this battle of wills is an unstoppable force meeting an unmovable object.

In essence, Hawkman sets up for Dwayne Johnson to be Black Adam. The character doesn't want to back one step from his principles and just doesn't give a rats. It's the best part of the film and often hilarious.

The villain was not memorable and was just a big baddie for The Rock to fight in the climax. That said, this villain is no worse than the standard Marvel villain in an origin story.

In conclusion, Black Adam is a fun movie for a one-time watch. I enjoyed it with my inner Simpsons Comic Book Guy turned off and had a good time.

I suspect I won't have the first time experience on a second watch. The seams would crack. I would see that the young JSA members were cast to appeal to the teen demographic and a boy was placed at the center of the story to appeal to children, and the fact that the same boy does a voice-over in the opening credits is odd. On a second watch, I would realize it was all a bit silly.

Dwayne Johnson claims Black Adam as the mark of a new era for DC. The film does feel like a rechristening of the DC universe in a soft reboot type way. Now, the plan seems to be moving away from the Walter Hamada era. It always seemed weird to me how Hamada diverted from Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman stories and just focused on side characters and Elseworld projects.

I am glad plans are being made to get the DCEU going again. Dwayne Johnson bringing back Henry Cavill's Superman back to the DCEU is a great marketing idea that will guarantee butts in seats, even though it's hard to picture Dwayne Johnson as a star and producer willingly losing the fight.

While Dr Fate may have been introduced first in print, for those of us who aren't followers of the comics, Dr Strange is the sorcerer that we identify more with, simply because we got to see him first and certainly with more depth. Everything about Black Adam felt like a low budget remake of Marvel characters. Hawkman even looked similar to Anthony Mackey. Atom Smasher was far too much like Ant Man. Hawkman's compound might as well been Dr Xavier's home for the X Men, complete with the aircraft rising from the front lawn.

Like so many others have reviewed, the Justice Society was simply thrown at us as if we were to already understand who they were. There was no character building whatsoever, other than a one or two sentence dialog that tried to briefly explain how they came to be superheroes. It was extremely rushed.

As for Black Adam...I usually like Dwayne Johnson's films, but in this one, he was stiff and wooden. The other characters...of course Dr Fate was a standout, but it was as if the writers purposefully wanted us to hate Hawkman. His attitude and cockiness were unbearable, knowing that he would be easily defeated by the likes of Black Adam. Perhaps in my mind, I was comparing him to Marvel's Falcon and his much more personable and likable demeanor. Either way, I just wanted to see him get his ass kicked.

All things considered, I was simply underwhelmed. 2022 was not a good year for the superhero genre.

Black Adam is everything anyone hoped it was really. Its a fun and thrilling action packed superhero movie.

Dwyane Jhonson plays a somewhat stoic antihero and is elevated by his cast mainly the actors for Hawkman and Dr Fate who are the standout in this movie. Though i would have liked to seen more of Atom Smasher and Cyclone because theyre barely in the movie. The mythos of Black Adam is something most people will find interestig as well. And the film does a good job of introducing new characters and places and overall expanding the DCEU.

So did the heiracrchy in DC universe change? Well kinda. This film may be fun and pretty violent at times. And I can see it doing really well in the box office. The critics are most probably not gonna like this movie as it is a bit messy at times and the stoic performance by the ROCK may not be the cup of tea for everyone. But for an average joe who doesnt keep up with their daily cup of critical pretentiousness, and just wants to spend some time watching badass superheroes being badass. This is the film for you.

Its no 'Batman Begins' but it never wants to be. Fun but flawed is the best description i can give it. I really enjoyed it. And most people will certainly do aswell.

And also, stay for the post credits. You wont be disappointed.

Black Adam is the latest film in the DCEU, and boy, it packs a punch. Explosions, flying superheroes, magic, lightning and beautiful armour follows the Justice Society, and of course Black Adam.

The film centers around a god-like ancient human being who was gifted his powers in a time of darkness and enslavement. After being defeated and unseen for over a 5000 years, he returns, his goal being unknown. With the powers he has a group of superheroes, the Justice Society, deems him to be a threat, and performs an attempt to lock him up, unknown of the real danger.

It is better than people say. Although at first glance it seems to be a film simply made for the action and explosions, it does have a story, strong dialogues and character development. The visual effects are astonishing in every single way, and people who have watched Avengers: Endgame will love the visuals in this film.

My personal rating? A 10/10. My rating based on realism, plot and other factors? An 8 or a 9/10. If I'm going to be honest, the worst thing about this film was some unrealism like characters being able to survive a lot more than possible, and some being quite dumb in terms of their actions.

As for my conclusion: Black Adam is a great, visually wonderful film with lots of action violence and lovable characters. Watch it in the cinema for a lifetime experience.

Large budgeted and badly disjointed, "Black Adam" belongs in the poor category with the likes of "Justice League" and "Superman vs Batman". The story is hackneyed, and the dialog is eye-rolling with terrible worn out humor. It feels like a bad imitation of better Marvel movies. Its too bad as there are some good costume and character designs. I don't think a an ancient awakened god would be spouting out sarcasm of today hipsters. It is better than WonderWoman 1984, but that's not saying too much. Alot of actoin scenes with not much to show for it, I'd give this one a miss and rate it a low 5/10.