Directed by:
Jaume Collet-SerraCinematography:
Lawrence SherComposer:
Lorne BalfeCast:
Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Shahi, Viola Davis, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Quintessa Swindell, Odelya Halevi, Joseph Gatt, Marwan Kenzari (more)VOD (5)
Plots(1)
Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods - and imprisoned just as quickly - Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world. (Warner Bros. US)
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Reviews (7)
I really don't want to watch this anymore. After Zack Snyder’s departure, I thought Warner wouldn't send these movies out anymore, but Black Adam actually looks exactly the same as the Snyder films, only that Jaume Collet-Serra uses about a third less slow motion. We still get more than an annoying amount of it though, and when the action starts, you don't really enjoy it because when it's not slow motion, it's either chaos or just golden-blue flashing. And there’s action more or less all the time, because there's nothing to stand on in terms of story, character depth, or anything else that could potentially engage, and they probably knew that. Black Adam is an emaciated over-colourful action flick that tries to be theatrically spectacular, but comes across as ridiculous and often even embarrassing (the skateboarding boy brings to mind the worst of 90s clichés). Dwayne Johnson stares and tries in vain to convince himself that he's playing Clint Eastwood, and getting through this collection of dull visual attractions, empty story and flat characters to the end credits is ultimately quite a chore. But it does have an advantage, an hour and a half after the screening ended, I remember nothing of Black Adam.
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#11 DCEU. Black Adam is a spin-off of Shazam!, and that is the most important thing you need to know in advance. It's not DC for adults, it's just another piece of the puzzle for teens. Unfortunately, the film was worked on for too long, so today its inclusion in the branching DCEU is only harmful. What's the point of all those winks, cameos, and Easter eggs when the whole world is constantly being restarted? Why introduce another team, the Justice Society of America, when apparently we won't see them again in this lineup and with these actors? Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Shahi, and Pierce Brosnan are fine, but all those promises leading nowhere are a problem. RIP Sups.
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Dwayne Johnson is beginning to look like Steven Seagal, at least in action movies. This is unwatchable. Tarantino is right, the last two decades of cinema, crammed with colourful comic book adaptations, is a dark era. Films made to order, without their own identity, creative passion and without a shred of originality. Thank goodness for exceptions like James Gunn (well, okay, the last Avengers and its emotional spark was pretty OK too, the one-eyed king among the blind).
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While watching Black Adam, I felt like I was watching a sort of mash-up of the MCU and DC films, especially considering the characters – Doctor Fate (Dr. Strange), Hawkman (Falcon), Atom Smasher (Ant-Man) and Cyclone (Storm or Enchantress) – whose almost rip-off-like similarities at times irritated me a little. In terms of action and visuals, the film is handled quite solidly, although there are way too many slow-motion sequences in places (the film might have been ten minutes shorter without them), but whatever. I found the cast a bit awkwardly chosen to the point of being second-rate in some cases (like the wannabe funny and heroic family). Too bad Black Adam isn't, as one might expect from the title, a bit darker (but not as visually badly dark as Batman vs Superman) and too bad it doesn't hold back with the humour a little. (Spoiler alert) I was "amused" that Marwan Kenzari basically reprised his role of Jafar.
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It's not often that a DC film grabs my attention, but this one did. It has what many other DC films lack: humor, engaging characters, and Dwayne Johnson as the perfectly conflicted superhero Black Adam. Add in some impressive action scenes directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, and you've got an American adventure blockbuster that I thoroughly enjoyed.
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