Even though the DCU is slowly falling apart due to reboots and cancellations, we still enjoyed most of the recent movies. We loved the live-action renditions of Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, and even Justice League, which also had its fair share of production issues. We have then also seen standalone entries such as The Batman, which plays out in a different universe from the aforementioned titles and even the original rendition of Joker won us over. Now, we will be taking a closer look at Black Adam, which was supposed to be tied in with Aquaman, Shazam, Justice League, and other movies, but with DC heading in a new direction, once again, it seems that this will be a standalone story as well. Black Adam revolves around the fictional nation of Kahndaq, which has been under the yoke of so many oppressors it’s actually hard to keep count. The nation reveres a hero by the name of Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson), who once vanquished the evil ruler in 2600 BC. Even though almost nearly 5000 years have passed, the people of Kahndaq still hope a new hero will arise one day to free them from Intergang, who are now controlling the nation. Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), a local archeologist, is looking for the tomb that carries the crown of Sabbac. This crown was once held by the vanquished king Ank-Ton (Marwan Kenzari). Adrianna believes the crown will hold some value because it is made out of pure Eternium, a coveted material. It seems, however, that she is not the only one looking for the crown, and she and the rest of her team find themselves ambushed by Intergang. As it’s clear that she will not make it out alive, she does a desperate attempt at calling out to Teth-Adam by reciting the word that is inscribed on the floor. By doing so, she actually summons the all-powerful hero and he makes quick work of the soldiers, and he spares none of the attackers. It seems that Teth-Adam does not spare those who commit evil acts and his revival has also created waves in the superhero circuit. The Justice Society is sent to dispose of Teth-Adam, in order to maintain stability. The people of Kahndaq, however, see the revival Teth-Adam as a sign that they will finally be free again. The movie’s flow and pacing are enjoyable. Black Adam has a decent balance between action and story, and the length is also just right. The movie follows a fairly traditional format where the villain is laid out in front of you and the protagonist is clearly the only one who is able to stop them. In this case, however, Black Adam isn’t a traditional superhero as he is also treading a lot of moral grey areas, and he has absolutely no issue killing his enemies. This is actually what also makes his character interesting, as it’s a deviation from the normal superhero tropes. We do have to mention that the CGI in this film was horrendous at times. Some scenes felt as if we were watching a movie that was twenty years old due to the overall shoddy quality of animations and other effects. As a whole, the acting performances are quite good. Dwayne Johnson, for the most part, puts down a noteworthy rendition of Black Adam, but his one-dimensional acting doesn’t always help sell the plight of his anti-hero character. We often turned our attention more toward the supporting characters, which were played by Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Quintessa Swindell, Sarah Shahi, Bodhi Sabongui, and a few others. We loved the live-action adaptation of Dr. Fate, and Pierce Brosnan does a formidable job bringing this character to life. We were often more intrigued by Dr. Fate’s backstory than we were by Black Adam’s feature film. Other supporting roles also provide us with interesting live-action renditions of famous characters, albeit with a few very clear adaptations to cater to inclusiveness. The latter was handled in a modest and natural way, which helped create a diverse cast of superheroes. The only acting performance that often stuck out like a sore thumb was that of the very inexperienced Bodhi Sabongui. Not only did his performance show that he was still lacking experience, but the material he had to work with was also quite abhorrent. The writers dropped the ball on fleshing out his character. The Blu-ray version of Black Adam comes with quite a few bonus features. Outside of the typical behind-the-scenes footage, you’ll also get featurettes revolving around the history of Black Adam and how he appeared in comics and other media throughout the years, and you’ll also get to learn more about the Justice Society and its members. As a whole, the special features were quite pleasant to watch and they did add quite a bit of extra value to owning a physical copy of the film. Conclusion Black Adam was a fairly decent superhero movie with an interesting story to tell, but it also felt a bit shallow at times. The movie’s attempts at humor are often a hit-or-miss kind of affair and the CGI was horrendous at times. We still have not recovered from the superimposed image of Dwayne Johnson’s head on a different body. That being said, if you enjoy most of the previous DC movies, you’ll probably still have quite a bit of fun watching this one. We expected more but were eventually treated to a superhero movie that did have a few cool characters that have been adapted to a live-action format for the very first time.
This content was originally published here.
