Film Review: Black Adam
DWAYNE “THE ROCK” JOHNSON EXPANDS THE DCEU WITH THE GOOFY, UNPRETENTIOUS BLACK ADAM
The long-gestating Black Adam, whose association with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson long predates the DC Extended Universe itself, is finally here. Exactly what’s described on its tin, the film never really fulfills Johnson’s hyperbolic overpromise of “changing the hierarchy of power of the DC Universe,” but there’s a fleet charm in its unapologetic goofiness and blunt-force alacrity. An uneven rebuttal of black and white superhero morality, Black Adam successfully — and at times sloppily — juggles its brutality and crowd-pleasing action; it’s a classic superhero team-up in a mixed bag. Minor spoilers ahead…
Black Adam should receive an award for its dazzling, iron-fisted impatience. A Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson vehicle since the DC Extended Universe was but a twinkle in Warner Brothers’ eye and since Shazam was still known as Captain Marvel, it’s a superhero film almost 20 years in the making. But what should be a prestige cornerstone of a big screen franchise, touted by The Rock himself to “change the hierarchy of power of the DC Universe,” is instead a frenetic beat ‘em up barreling its way through fleet superheroics and murderous melees. What’s most surprising, though, is that goofy, unpretentious crowd-pleaser mode isn’t exactly a bad look for Black Adam.
Directed by genre journeyman Jaume Collet-Serra (Jungle Cruise, House of Wax), whose penchant for briskly-paced thrillers has single-handedly propped up Liam Neeson’s late-career transformation into an action hero, Black Adam rockets out of the gate to dispense with exposition at lightning speed. Flashbacks color in the history of the North African kingdom of Kahndaq, which 5,000 years ago was home to a ruthless tyrant monarch and the slave - Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) - who dared to defy him. Imbued with godlike power from the wizard Shazam (last seen in David F. Sandberg’s Shazam!), Adam violently liberated his city and became a legend, eventually becoming a symbol of hope for modern-day Kahndaq, now fallen to foreign occupation from the globe-spanning criminal element known as Intergang.
“What’s most surprising, though, is that goofy, unpretentious crowd-pleaser mode isn’t exactly a bad look for Black Adam.”
Collet-Serra is wholly uninterested in world-building, instead choosing to spend Black Adam’s opening salvo snapping pieces together with reckless abandon. Revolving its superheroics around archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) and a laughably stock game of hot potato for a powerful Macguffin - the Crown of Sabbac - Black Adam wastes no time accidentally awakening its titular hero to crack some skulls. Even its big superhero team-up, which introduces the very first big screen iteration of the Justice Society of America, is written in amusing shorthand; you’d be forgiven to believe that the movie versions of these heroes - Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate, Aldis Hodge as Hawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, and Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone - have been around forever. It’s a crude and matter-of-fact setup that’s either refreshingly cavalier or frustratingly lazy, but the JSA vs. Teth-Adam showdown makes for a meaty center of an uneven superhero tale. There’s plenty of adrenaline-pumping joy to be found as Black Adam routinely toes the PG-13 border, reveling in the JSA’s humorously futile attempts to stop the bloodthirsty antihero from roasting, dismembering, and pulverizing Intergang goons. If anything, Black Adam finds its greatest strength in obliterating a line rarely crossed in superhero films: the justification - nay, endorsement - of violence in the face of oppression.
Dwayne Johnson is clearly having a ball stepping into Black Adam’s lightning-powered boots, but it’s a more subdued performance that’s clearly missing his typical spark of charisma. Stoic and gruff, Johnson’s Teth-Adam is a far cry from the imperious, arrogant demigod of the comics. And Black Adam also suffers from many of the same flaws that plague almost every modern superhero film: the visuals range from lush and beautiful to rushed and wonky, and while the final showdown is a cut above the standard big beam explosion fiesta - mostly on account of Adam’s brutality and some clever magical trickery - it still relies too much on its weightless CGI beatdown. But Black Adam buoys itself with a shocking self-awareness, never once pretending to be above its unapologetic, goofy, and deliriously violent yarn. Nimble and fleet in his contradiction of the mythologizing Marvel way, Jaume Collet-Serra just might have cracked the code on the disposable superhero crowd-pleaser, and with it, the future of the DC Universe.
