Black Adam premiered on October 21, 2022. The film stars Dwayne Johnson as the titular character Teth Adam, or as he is more commonly known, Black Adam. The film also stars Aldis Hodge(Hawkman) Noah Centineo (Atom Smasher), Quintessa Swindell (Cyclone), Sara Shahi(Adrianna Tomaz) and Pierce Brosnan (Dr. Fate/Kent Nelson). The film has ran its course in theaters and amassed right at 400 million dollars at the box office on a 200-million-dollar budget. Does that really tell the whole story about the movie or should we just go ahead and label it a box office bomb and move on with the misery that is DC? Let me explain why I think money isn’t that important here.
Black Adam is an origin story of one of the biggest anti-hero’s in the DC Comic book universe. The film starts out with trying to free the people of Khondaq from an evil king ruler. Teth Adam destroys this ruler and becomes the savior of his people. I enjoyed that plot line, but later they mention that his son had done nearly all the work and then turned his powers over to Teth Adam, who would become Black Adam. Because of what he done to the king he was entombed for 5000 years. Until the character of Adrianna Tomez finds his tomb and reads the inscription. Tomez was in search for a crown, that when used, would summon a demon. She found both and the rest of the movie is complete chaos and destruction.
After Black Adam is awakened and starts taking out intergang. Yes, that intergang. He is challenged by none other than the Justice Society of America. A team of heroes that includes Hawkman, Atom Smasher, Cyclone and Doctor Fate. These four were sent in by none other than Amanda Waller to contain Black Adam. They all fight through the city causing havoc. Eventually, after all the fighting, Teth Adam submits and goes with them to sleep in Amanda Wallers base. They do this, not realizing that the crown was taken, and a descendant of the king Black Adam destroyed would take the throne. This would summon a demon that only Adam could stop.
Black Adam was summoned by Doctor Fate and went back to Khandaq where he would eventually be victorious against the demon. He would be seen as the savior of Khandaq just as his son was before him. The Justice Society, with the loss of Doctor Fate decided to leave him be and go back home.
I know what you’re thinking is this it? and the answer is yes.
First the characters of the film were mostly spot on. Black Adam is probably one of the best roles I have ever seen Dwayne Johnson in. Not only was he the perfect size, but he has that stoic way about him that kind of keeps you on edge, especially when he’s playing someone as chaotic as Black Adam. Hawkman, and Atom Smasher and Cyclone were all perfect and even looked great. The best looking and best cast character in the whole film was Doctor Fate. Pierce Brosnan is a great actor and played Doctor Fate perfectly. They even got the look perfect, and his spells were just like they jumped from the comics and on to the screen. I give the characters a 10/10.
The writing/Plot for the film took the hit. I know they were trying to send the message that Black Adam is the savior of Khandaq and that’s what he is today. However, with all the stuff in between it really slowed down the plot. We have one part of the plot where the Justice Society is coming in to fight Adam, and then we have the second plot point where Black Adam and the Justice Society are working together to fight the demon lord trying to take over the throne of Khandaq. For a 2+ hour film it felt really rushed, but I guess when you have one guy just destroying armies and fighting for 1.5 hours of a film it really goes by fast. I give the writing a 6/10.
The Director appears to be new to big box office films. Some of the work he is most known for are horror films which weren’t great box office successes. He had big shoes to fill coming into a world with the likes of Zack Snyder, Patty Jenkins, and James Gunn. He did a great job following all the directors named. The film had decent pacing for all the action, but that plot felt rushed because it was just like 30 minutes of the film, and the rest was Black Adam fighting. Given from my research that Juame Collet-Serra hasn’t really directed a film of this magnitude I still give him a 7/10.
Final thoughts:
Black Adam is a film about an anti-hero who is trying to find his place in a world that he doesn’t understand. He was awakened from a slumber and without hesitation started attacking everyone around him. The film really focused on destruction and chaos and Black Adam fighting anyone who stood in his way. It wasn’t until the Justice Society showed up and started pushing the plot a little did the movie start to pick up.
I feel like the film could have focused a little more on why Black Adam was entombed instead of giving us like a 2-minute clip and then nothing. It could have also give us a little more of the timeline it was in with DC films. I mean, yeah, I get it that DC is in this phase of change, but the only thing we got was the end credit with Henry Cavills Superman sent by Amanda Waller. It gave us an idea that it was after Justice League, but how far exactly? Did the government think that Black Adam was another Steppen Wolf attack? Did they want to contain him before anything of that magnitude happened? I mean they only knew a folk lore legend about him why send in their “big guns” when they had no clue about him. A lot of things didn’t add up. Stopping him and getting him to realize the world is not the same its a little different than taking him captive in a Task Force X compound. I feel like that even with those flaws and unanswered questions Black Adam is still a well rounded film. Even with the scores above I want to give it an overall of 6.5/10.
I know that’s a low score, but they brought Henry Cavill back into the mix, they done a lot of right things with introducing a character and trying to give him an origin story that makes sense to both comic book fans and non-comic book fans. The biggest let down is not allowing this film to tie into the Shazam story line. Maybe we will see something when that film releases? Heres to hoping!
So, even though Black Adam failed to hit the billion-dollar club it made over its budget, it was a strong film for a character that isn’t at the forefront like Superman or Batman and was a good action flick. Could it have been better? Yes, will they learn from the mistakes moving forward? History says no, but let’s hope with some new production teams on board and new people coming in they do. I would say that this is a step in the right direction for DC/WB and overall the film will get near the 600-million-dollar mark with Box office take in and streaming service purchases and rentals. That says success to me even after a 200-million-dollar budget.
