Black Adam (2022)


As the DC Cinematic Universe circled the drain Warner Bros. desperately tried to get audiences to come back.  As they did it became more and more obvious that their strategy was to copy Marvel.  This wasn't hard as every key Marvel character had some sort of doppelganger in the D.C. universe.  For instance, instead of Dr. Strange, there was Dr. Fate.  Instead of Black Panther we have Black Adam.

To be fair, T'Challa was always a good guy and a positive force for the fictional country of Wakanda, which managed to become an advanced civilization due to a steady supply of vibranium.  Kahndaq, the ancient kingdom in which Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) lived, had something called eternium and, because of it, became the target of international mercenaries that were in control of the country.  In the comics, Black Adam was a supervillain and a main rival of Captain Marvel.  Here he is an antihero who becomes the reluctant protector of his homeland 5000 years later. 

When king Ahk-Ton (Marwan Kenzari) becomes enamored with power he forces the population of Kahndaq to mine enough eternium to create the Crown of Sabbac which will grant him immortality and rule over the Earth..  When a young boy (Jalon Christian) dares to demand freedom for his people he is sentenced to death, only to be rescued at the last moment by the Council of Wizards and turned into Teth-Adam, who goes on to stop King Ahk-Ton.  In the modern day Kahndaq is ruled by foreign invaders who seek the crown, something archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) hopes to prevent. 

When searching for the crown she awakens Teth-Adam who immediately begins annihilating the mercenaries.  This gets the attention of the Justice Society, led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge).  Along with him is Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo).  Together they hope to negotiate with Teth-Adam and have him say "Shazam", which will turn him back into his human form.  However, he does not intend to go quietly, and he has an entire country behind him.

Some of the same themes from Black Panther show up, such as colonization and foreign oppression, and we get clones of Storm and Ant Man with the younger heroes.  There are attempts at fish-out-of-water humor, but it falls victim to the fact that Teth-Adam shows up fully speaking colloquial English with no on-screen explanation.  One has to look up that it is the "Wisdom of Zehuti" which allows him to learn and speak any language fluently.  However, audiences should never have to spend time Googling a movie to fill in gaps a quick sentence would fix.  It's a superhero movie so pretty much any bit of mumbo jumbo can explain things away.  

Which brings me to the usual frustrating things from this film that plague all D.C. offerings.  It has a shallow committee-written script, terrible CGI that feels unfinished and the sense this was filmed in front of a green screen with the "hell-hole" filter employed that most hack directors use to represent Mexico.  Director Jaume Collet-Serra also like everything digitally overexposed, something that Darryn Lynn Bousman was guilty of with is Saw sequels and Repo! The Genetic Opera.  

Despite these issues it was still successful both for a D.C. film at the time as well as a Dwayne Johnson vehicle, most of which notoriously underperformed in the U.S. but played well in China.  It's not great, but at least good enough that it could have translated into at least a couple more movies.  This was not to be as Black Adam was tied to the Shazam movies, with the second one being a major disappointment, and the whole thing being handed over to James Gunn to reboot on the day that the end-credits scene was filmed.  Despite a decent performance by Johnson and a rather good one by Brosnan, the sad fact is we'll probably never see any of these guys again unless Gunn's version of the DCCU suffers the same fate as what came before. 

Black Adam (2025)
Time: 125 minutes
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Quintessa Swindell, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Bodhi Sabongui
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra


 

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