It has been a while since I have gone to the theaters to see a Thursday preview of anything but I was invited to check out the early preview of Black Adam and I had a very enjoyable time.
Upon discovering an artifact of immense demonic power, an ancient legend is released from his tomb and unleashed on a modern world he doesn’t recognize. The heroes of today are tasked with stopping him and finding the artifact before it falls into the wrong hands, but that’s all easier said than done.
This movie has been a long time coming. It has been in the works going back 15 years. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was first quoted saying that he would be playing the character way back in 2007, at a time when he was initially in talks to play Shazaam. In 2009, the writer at the time, Bill Burch, gave a gray answer about Johnson’s involvement claiming that nobody is committed until the shooting begins. It wasn’t until 2013 that Johnson himself revealed some murky details about a meeting with Warner Bros. The following year he was “officially” signed on to be the villain/anti-hero in 2019’s Shazaam (as he was in the comics) but, obviously, that didn’t happen. It would be another four years before things really started to heat up.
In 2017 Johnson once again revealed some vague details about a meeting with DC executives, and a few days later it was announced that he would get a solo feature. His stock had risen so much over the course of a decade that positioning him as a antagonist seemed wasteful. That same year also saw The Rock speak about his vision for a battle with Superman at some point and saw some rumors that Back Adam could appear in what was an ill-fated Suicide Squad (pre-James Gunn) sequel. The primary concept from that idea was repurposed for the eventual Black Adam story and in 2018 DJ confirmed he would not be in Shazam and even believed his solo film was on the way the next year. Then, of course, Justice League tanked but Aquaman had massive success and the higher-ups at DC/WB were scrambling to figure out what to do.
In the meantime, Johnson was a busy guy with plenty of other opportunities and his crowded filming schedule pushed back any hope of production even further. It wasn’t until 2019 that Jaume Collet-Serra was brought on to direct after he and the action star had worked together on Jungle Cruise. It looked like production was finally going to begin in 2020, but then Covid shut all that down. However, during the pandemic, Warner Bros hosted the virtual DC FanDome event and the man himself stopped by for a special animated teaser for the film. Even though it wasn’t actual footage, it was the first real substantive piece of evidence that the film was happening. Principle photography began in April 2021 and here we are 17 months later.
After all this time, the real question is: was it worth the wait? The answer is both yes and no, but which side of the coin you land on depends on how you view the context of the timeline that brought us here. Fifteen years is a long time to wait and if you’ve been heavily invested for all that time then it’s probably disappointing, unless you have a very narrow scope for what you wanted to see from the character and from DJ in that role. If you are on the opposite side of that spectrum, it’s an entertaining and fast-paced action flick that could potentially open the door for the future of the DC Extended Universe.
I probably land somewhere in the middle, having watched The Rock’s career move from the wrestling ring to the big screen over the course of 20+ years, and I was able to have a good time with it despite a lot of negative reviews. Black Adam was a project I was aware of for a long time and interested in, but only loosely familiar with the character’s source material, so I wasn’t invested in that sense. However, director Jaume Collet-Serra understood that would be the main portion of the audience and did an excellent job pacing the film and not slowing down to ask questions or dwell on too many details. It’s an interesting parallel that lines up with the titular character’s “shoot first, ask questions later” persona.
The script from Adam Sztykiel and Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani introduces a lot of characters that we are meeting for the first time and haven’t been part of the DCEU up to this point, and going that route presents plenty of hurdles. However, I low-key loved how they steamrolled right past the full-fledged introductions for each of the new faces but I could see how that was off-putting. Fans of the comics and some of the other DCEU products will be able to pick up on things that the average person won’t and that’s cool for them but it also gatekeeps the fandom to a certain extent, rewarding those hardcores much more than providing context and content for the mainstream fans that are more integral to the film’s success.
One great example of that is during part of Hawkman’s intro. He is asked a question about his ship and he says the whole thing is made from enth (or Nth), a fictional metal with special properties that’s also indestructible. The line of dialogue is so hurried that the name of the metal itself is barely perceptible. There is never any further explanation of what the metal is, where it comes from, or any of Hawkman/Carter Hall’s backstory, which is interesting but convoluted. We barely even get his full name and the film just barrels right along. I understand why that’s a problem but I also have a weird respect for it, and it’s probably better than jeopardizing the pace that works well just to give foundations to characters who may not even be around in subsequent films. It is a gamble that will work for some and not for others.
All things considered, Aldis Hodge still brought a lot of personality to the character and was one of the bright spots of the film. Is he rich? Does he even have superpowers? No clue, but those are the kinds of questions the film never slows down to ask, let alone answer. He does, however, has a very sophisticated jet, a nifty bird suit, and a mace that allows him to fight Black Adam and not die instantly. Hodge plays the role well, caught between his cloudy allegiance to a rigid definition of justice and his own ego in the face of defeat.
Pierce Brosnan was also a bright spot as Dr. Fate, also introduced with very little backstory or foundation as simply Kent. Those who know will know but that name, Kent, obviously carries incredible gravitas in the DC world and it’s wielded haphazardly here. Is it a first name? Last name? Is he related to the Smallville Kents? Once again, none of that is ever addressed even though other characters meeting him for the first time in this film would more than likely have those questions. Moving right along, Brosnan steps into the role with confidence though and he and Hodge represent the moral compass, if not the heart of the film.
A similar case could be made for Sarah Shahi who plays Adrianna Tomaz, a sort of rebel leader for the people of Khandaq, the fictional birthplace of Black Adam. She is the one who first pursues the dangerous artifact at the center of the story, she is the one who releases Teth-Adam from his tomb, and she is ultimately the person who is able to best reason with him amid his rampage. Perhaps even more than the other distinctions I floated, Tomaz is the real hero of the story. Her cause is just, she fights for it despite being ill-equipped to do so, and she protects her son while teaching him how to be part of the resistance. It’s very Sarah Connor-esque and that’s probably why I like her (that’s not the only thing taken from Terminator 2, but I’ll get to that).
Mohammed Amer is hilarious as Karim, Adrianna’s brother, and he is the key piece of comic relief that feels very much at home in the movie. He feels like an authentic piece of the world of Kahndaq that was created. Marwan Kenzari was very good too as Ishmael, but I can’t get into why without some spoilers.
You may be wondering: where does that leave Black Adam himself? It is made abundantly clear, through the promotion and the film, that he is not the hero here. The goal was to make him an anti-hero and they did so by saddling him with the protection of the innocent via the elimination of the wicked. This raises an interesting moral question about not just the methodology of the superpowered but the notion of extreme measures, if the ends justify the means. That is given context through the foreign-occupied fictional country of Kahndaq. It isn’t a question that has truly been asked of on-screen supes, and maybe it’s not fully answered here either, but it’s at the core of this character’s transition into the modern world. Can he adapt, will he, or should he?
There is a scene from the trailer that has sort of defined the character. That was Hawkman saying that heroes don’t kill people with Black Adam responding, “Well, I do.” There is no sympathy for the mostly faceless Intergang hooligans getting killed in large numbers. They are the oppressors of a foreign nation and I’m okay with them getting what they deserve here. That’s kind of the point. Things enter a gray area when it becomes apparent that Black Adam enjoys killing them because it removes him from the lethal protector role. There is one instance where he tosses one thug up in the air, removing him from the equation, but then chases him down to kill him via blunt force with his own hoverbike. It’s when he starts going out of his way to kill people that he needs the moral compass provided by the other characters.
Not knowing how to feel about him, but still enjoying the spectacle of watching it unfold is the desired intent. However, Johnson himself doesn’t feel like the main character of this film. Whether intentional or not, the performance is pretty robotic for one of the most charismatic guys in the world. Contrary to the moments showcased in the trailer, there are moments when he seems to be devoid of any personality at all. That makes it more difficult to know whether to be on his side or not. The script has humor written in and The Rock has great comedic chops that we’ve seen plenty of before, but the delivery seemed to miss the mark more often than it landed. Pairing him with Adrianna’s son is meant to soften him up and inject humor, but it didn’t work for me. It’s particularly derivative of the relationship between John Connor and the T-800 in T2, all the way down to teaching the hulking anti-hero catchphrases for when they kill the bad guys (at least, just like in T2, there is that moment of payoff).
While a good amount of the promotion for this movie focused on a reinvention of the superhero genre, it actually recycles a ton of proven elements from successful existing properties beyond what I’ve already mentioned. There is even a scene from the trailer, which didn’t make the final cut of the film, that’s a very intentional reworking of a scene from Iron Man that’s meant to stand as a stark contrast between the two types of characters. Apparently, there was a lot of stuff that didn’t make the final cut because it was too dark. So, even though a lot of bad guys die, some up close and personal and some in the distance, what we are left with is a pretty familiar PG-13 superhero action movie and a version of the character that’s more reserved than what I was hoping for.
I understand. Accessibility is important, especially when it comes to box-office success and a large percentage of The Rock’s fans are still kids too. So, the risk of alienating them and their parents wasn’t worth it for the studios. I do, however, fear the efforts to steer clear of the R-rating may have ultimately undermined some of the core messages in the film and made the gratuitous violence somewhat cavalier.
The negative reviews were pretty loud heading into the opening weekend and some of that criticism is justified, but I still had a lot of fun watching it and so did a bunch of people. The audience and user scores stand in strong opposition to the critical response and that’s what’s going to carry weight in the long run. I would have preferred more of DJ getting to do some real, heavier character acting and less CGI but this reminded me of the good animated DC films that WB has made over the years. I had long wondered why those types of stories weren’t being made into live-action and this was a good answer to that.
I won’t get into where it ranks in the DCEU or anything like that, but it was one of the films I have enjoyed more coming from the studio and am more looking forward to what comes next than I’ve been in a long time. One of the creative choices Johnson has championed and campaigned for a long time got the biggest pop of the whole movie, and I’ll be there for what comes next.
Recommendation: See it for its freight train-style approach and its moral ambiguity in a genre that doesn’t typically like gray areas.
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