Black Adam (2022)

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Shadi, Aldis Hodge, Piersce Brosnan

Primary genre: Superhero

The second from last of the DC cinematic universe entries (the other being “The Flash” (2023)), Jaume Collete-Serra’s “Black Adam” was an unexpected flop considering the heavy marketing involved and Johnson’s bankable charisma. To be fair though, the character of Black Adam never had the larger than life appeal of Batman and Superman so it was destined to face an uphill battle in the box office.

However, Collete-Serra’s output unfortunately, is as generic and blunt as they come in the now tired superhero genre. Following the path of creative decline, it is overloaded with mediocre special effects featuring a pedestrian storytelling approach and a wildly inconsistent tone; Black Adam murders bad guys (ugly portrayals of Australian mercenaries and power hungry Middle Eastern totalitarians) but this is mostly played for laughs in a film seeking out to make such actions the central moral conflict between Black Adam and the Justice Society. An unnecessary voice over introduction through the eyes of a teenage boy (Amazon’s “Samaritan” (2022) did the exact same thing) offers to the audience obvious pieces of information that they get repeated by characters as the movie drags on to an eye rolling effect.

The screenwriters try (very) hard to add Marvel inspired humor which besides a sole exception, falls flat and the cause of serious eye rolling. This is particularly problematic for a story that attempts to (superficially) discuss with a straight face slavery, tyranny and foreign occupation hinting an obvious metaphor for any nation (pick a country) in the Middle East. Additional US based cultural are scattered through the proceedings to ridiculous disbelief - a kid serving as the forced catalyst for much of the action feels it belongs tonally in a different film, a 90’s Middle Eastern Californian counterpart who achieves enlightment when he wears a cape because that is what oppressed little boys dream in places like Palestine and Iran.

Despite its lengthy running time, the plot is fairly simplistic to the point of auto-rectifying itself. Boasting several scenes of unapologetic stupidity (a result perhaps of the constant rewrites) - Black Adam is imprisoned voluntarily only for five minutes later to escape and reach the finale’s locations without GPS; his ability to speak English 5,000 years later is never explained; people converse in Arabic accents…English; Cyclone’s make up comes on and off with her costume and any character can find each other within a vast city through the power of teleportation and premonition.

Swinging from one bombastic face off to the next one, its over-reliance on special effects will switch off even the most persistent viewer. Witnessing CG doubles flying and demolishing a (mostly unrendered!) digital environment is not something to be proud off although its “Paint it Black” sequence (clearly inspired from Quicksilver’s shining moment in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” (2014)) has the bare minimum of fun. Running at a breakneck pace towards the end, the idea of unleashing (a tame version of) Hell on Earth is always a welcome one but of course we need to include a sky (this time is red!) beam but the execution is Netflix level tame lacking any visual panache.

Yet for all its gaping flaws, some minor qualities do separate it from the trash which Disney spits out these days. Its darker tone remains a welcome addition and its serious thematic context could have led to some uncomfortable but nonetheless interesting snippets of conversation. The cast is solid too; Johnson looks the part and the rest are likeable … action figures with Pierce Brosnan being the one who walks away with his dignity intact.

“Black Adam” is definitely not the spectacular failure that media described. A more coherent and focused script could have turned this into an intriguing exploration and a why-not deconstruction of the now tired superhero genre. Yet, its safe execution, uneven tone and a barrage of passable special effects chain the film into the pillar of cinematic mediocrity.

Overblown and overproduced superhero tale

+Some interesting thematic ideas

+Johnson looks good

+Brosnan walks with his dignity intact

+Likeable action figures

-Mediocre special effects

-Inconsistent tone

-Lack of context

-Incredibly stupid

-Terrible humor