Adapted from the DC Comics character, Black Adam is a film long in the making, with early developmental stages going back to the early 2000s. Dwayne Johnson stars in the titular role as Teth-Adam (his name before Black Adam), a mythic champion of the people of Kahndaq, who took out its tyrant king centuries ago – after being given powers by the wizards who gave Shazam/Captain Marvel his – just before being placed in a tomb. However, he is one day awakened by a local archeologist and activist, Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) as she is faced against Intergang soldiers who are out for an ancient, magical crown.
To say the least, he dispatches them rather quickly, and quite brutally. But as Black Adam gets used to the modern world, and the threats that face his homeland with the presence of Intergang looming over Kahndaq, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) orders the Justice Society to take in the new metahuman, as his power level is considered a danger to the world. The group, led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), consists of Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). Will they stop Black Adam, or will they come to some kind of understanding?
While far from perfect, the film offers a lot to like. As someone who has thoroughly enjoyed most of Jaume Collet-Serra’s work, from his early horror films like Orphan to his string of Liam Neeson action flicks, he has a very hard-hitting dynamic visual style that suits a comic book film really well, especially when it comes to the action. It’s a much more effective big budget turn for him than something like Jungle Cruise, where the whimsical nature didn’t quite fit his strengths as a filmmaker. The film is also fairly no-nonsense, running at a fast pace, and with a runtime of just over two hours, it packs a lot to keep you engaged.
I also liked the characters here. Obviously, Dwayne Johnson is a very charming screen presence, and despite him not relying on his smile and affable qualities that have defined pretty much all his roles since the early 2010s, he brings a dry sense of humor and taps into some of the darker aspects of the character fairly well. But supporting players like Brosnan and Hodge really bring a lot to their roles, especially given these are characters we have not been introduced to before. It was still fun seeing a big superhero film with almost completely fresh faces, and the film gives most of them ample opportunities to play with their abilities, and it’s pretty well realized with the visual effects.
When it comes to the other thing about Black Adam that I find incredibly compelling, it is a bit of a double edged sword. While the plot is very simplistic and straightforward, it is trying to explore some deeper ideas on a thematic level. It begs the question, sometimes literally from a character’s mouth, what makes a hero? Can one be considered a hero if they are brutal to their enemies? But it also goes beyond that. The Justice Society can pretty much be considered a stand-in for American imperialism, a western force that enters a country full of brown people due to something they perceive to be a threat to themselves.
The very first encounter that the Justice Society has with Black Adam upon reaching Kahndaq feels like it could have been a deleted scene from Team America: World Police as they cause incredible amounts of collateral damage, destroying historical sites, getting actively booed by the locals. Even Adrianna calls them out at one point, saying that Kahndaq has been dealing with foregin invaders seeking to exploit their resources for years, and yet they haven’t come in to help. Only now that a superhuman like them is helping, it is a threat that needs to be taken out.
Granted, the film doesn’t dig much deeper into these ideas beyond what I just told you, but those ideas are still there nonetheless, and they inform the central conflict between Black Adam and the Justice Society, and their respective arcs. However, how much that intrigues you will also depend on how much you’re willing to overlook the fact that superheroes who kill aren’t that big of a deal anymore, especially after the success of stuff like Deadpool and Logan. This is where the age of the film’s development shows. Had this come out in the 2000s, maybe sometime around Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, the themes as they are explored here, would probably be more appreciated. It’s also odd that this conflict about superheroes who kill is happening in the same universe that was kicked off by Superman snapping a dude’s neck. The film even has a sky beam in the climax, but I was willing to forgive it because it also features a skeleton army and basically the devil as the big bad, so…yeah, it evens out for me.
There are also other clunky elements in the writing. The film will often have to force moments of exposition to explain certain things, such as backstory for some of the Justice Society members. It’s not the most natural, but in cases like Quintessa Swindell’s Cyclone, it’s one of the few things they gets to do outside of action scenes, which feels like a waste of a charming performer. There’s also some questionable line deliveries from the actor playing Adrianna’s son, which I don’t want to fault him too much for. And there are some big reveals that the film seemingly doesn’t bother trying to hide, so surprises are a bit short in stock. But these issues didn’t really effect my overall engagement with the film as I was watching it.
At it’s best, Black Adam is a silly but stylish genre exercise that flirts with some big ideas but mostly keeps those in the backseat in favor of wild, relentless, and unabashedly comic-book-y action. It’s littered with moments that made me go, “oh, that’s pretty cool,” and pumps them out one right after the other, in the hopes that I don’t notice that this behemoth is just barely being held together, and for the most part, I think it really works. I do wish it committed to the themes a bit more, allowing them to have a bit more room to breathe, get even darker with its implications, even if some of the violence here was already pushing that PG-13 to its limits. But with all that said, I still had a really fun time, and compared to all the other superhero movies I’ve seen this year (outside of Multiverse Of Madness, which I really liked), it’s nice to see a film like this that, even with some of its generic elements, is operating on its own vibe and style, and I was happy to meet some of these characters that I was otherwise not familiar with, and I do look forward to seeing them again.
Black Adam is now out in theaters.