Black Adam Review: Excellent Cinecomic Of Origins, But Also A Surprising Ensemble Film

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, Pierce Brosnan

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra

Where to Watch: In Theaters

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

The Rock had said that the DC universe would never be the same again. A little bit he was right because with Black Adam the pantheon of superheroes by Warner found in Dwayne Johnson a charismatic figure, the protagonist of a successful and entertaining cinecomic, and who above all sets off interesting premises for the future of DC Films. Jaume Collet-Serra’s film brings to the stage characters and stories that entertain and excite. In short, if on the one hand, the various independent projects are traveling at full speed (read the review of The Batman), the cinematic continuity started in 2013 with Man of Steel finds new life in a product that – not without some flaws – genuinely surprises.

Between films at risk for arrest warrants, original productions canceled shortly before release, and countless other internal problems, Warner Bros returns to theaters with its DC Extended Universe, after a year off from James Gunn’s most recent Suicide Squad. This time, to fill a piece of this universe, which tries to be as shared as possible, is Black Adam, a film victim of three postponements, which sees Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) in the role of the Egyptian slave Teth -Adam, “become a God” using the powers bestowed upon him by the Seven Wizards. Full of frenetic action from start to finish but also of weak and redundant (pseudo) – food for thought, “Black Adam” sets aside the desire to deepen his characters and the context in which they move, exclusively in favor of a charismatic protagonist and a convulsive, and at times irregular rhythm, marked by an unstoppable succession of action sequences.

Black Adam Review: The Story

In 2600 BC the nation of Kahndaq was ruled by a ruthless tyrant, who enslaved the population to force them to extract a prodigious mineral called Eternium, hidden underground. The goal was to forge the crown of Sabbac, a mystical artifact capable of incorporating within itself – and giving its bearer – the phenomenal powers of the demonic realm. When a brave young man, however, tried to oppose and ignite the spark of freedom, the sovereign executed him in the public square, making him a martyr in the eyes of a people desperately seeking their hero. Thus, it was that the boy was chosen by higher entities to become Teth-Adam, the Champion of Kahndaq: furious at the wrongs suffered, and eager to snatch the dangerous crown from the king’s hands, the warrior faced his enemy.

The ensuing battle killed the tyrant but resulted in the hero’s sacrifice, which became a symbol of hope for generations to come. Five thousand years later, in the present day, Kahndaq is still a country devoid of freedom: a mercenary army called Intergang has settled there to take possession of the Eternium and find the legendary lost artifact, subjecting the natives to a harsh military dictatorship. Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), a descendant of the original rebels, is in turn on the trail of the crown of Sabbac to save it from the aims of the Intergang. When she finally finds herself a prisoner of soldiers, in the shadow of the ruins that hosted the last great battle of Teth-Adam, her words echo in the fallen halls, awakening the Champion of Kahndaq from a sleep that lasted five millennia.

However, the creature that has emerged from the shadows is an entity as powerful as it is violent and uncontrollable, but capable of distinguishing good from evil: Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is a deity with unorthodox methods, but his return to the world of the living instills hope in the oppressed people, who praise the new advent of their champion. The world, however, cannot stand and watch: Amanda Waller, the pragmatic and inflexible leader of Task Force X, decides to prevent the wave of destruction of the newcomer, and for this, she asks for help from the members of the Justice Society of America.

The supergroup is made up of Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (a great Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swyndell), four metahumans with incredible physical, elemental and mystical abilities. The encounter-clash with Adam is inevitable, but the confrontation with the four executioners will allow the protagonist to think about being a true hero, about sacrifice and the ethics of a paladin.

Black Adam Review and Analysis

Black Adam is both a native standalone and an intriguing superhero crossover. The film tells the genesis and the formation of a new character for the DC Universe, that of The Rock, but at the same time starts a surprisingly choral story. One of the most pleasant notes is represented by the members of the Justice Society, who over the 125 minutes of duration manage to find a space that is congruous and consistent with the narration: the management of Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone is excellent and not the characterization of the protagonist is overshadowed – but not even overshadowed. In this The Rock is the absolute protagonist: Adam talks little about him, looks crooked, grunts, and makes irony, all while devastating, killing, and destroying.

Black Adam outlines a parable of the brilliant and even funny, solemn and epic anti-hero, capable of not taking himself seriously with the right comic tempos, all wisely balanced and converging in the figure of Johnson. Not only an actor but also a producer of the film, The Rock has infused his convincing creative vein into the character, a virtue that in the cinecomic industry (and not only) is attributable only to figures like Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool man of action, talented interpreter, self-deprecating and self-referential, in this case, but Teth-Adam also relies on the mammoth physicality and the sympathy of his alter-ego. A perfect and intelligent example of a symbiosis between face and character, whose premise bodes well for the future of this and other pillars of the DC universe at the cinema.

However, it must be said that in this amalgam not everything is perfect in the writing of the film: it would have been necessary, for example, to give a more defined background to the Justice Society, introduced in the DC cinematic universe without providing the public with many backgrounds on the background of the four heroes. In some moments, however, the script is lost in scenes and dialogues that are a bit cloying and naive. An element, the latter, which at some juncture comes into contrast with the tones of an epic film, but also violent and imbued with a pleasant pungent comedy.

Beyond these microscopic flaws, Black Adam has a plot that all in all works, does not neglect any character – except, perhaps a villain a bit dull, simple and mere pretext to trigger the rise of the protagonist – and above all entertains enough with a rhythm practically flawless. Even with some reservations, on a visual level, Black Adam turns out to be a discrete pleasure for the eyes. We immediately chase the elephant out of the room: some flashes of direction are not entirely convincing. Collet-Serra directs a cinecomic that does without the author’s flashes or particular aesthetic intuitions. The film with The Rock is a pop toy, goliardic and “caciarone”, exaggerated and extreme in juggling lightning, explosions, flames and alternative dimensions. However, the use (now too inflated) of slow-motion is frequent during various fight sequences.

A frankly superficial and rather lazy trick useful to “tell” the speed and frenzy on the screen, but the excessive repetition of this technique makes some clashes not exactly original. The good thing is that the action, in Black Adam, is always spectacular and very well-choreographed, to the point that even in moments of greater chaos the skirmishes are still perfectly legible. And the use of special effects is also excellent, especially as regards the particles and the incredible skills of the protagonist. Not always, however, the CGI makes the best modeling of some supporting actors or their respective accessories, such as Hawkman’s wing armor or Atom’s gigantism. However, these are tiny trappings that do not spoil the visual sector of an artistically successful and engaging film, even from a musical point of view.

Let’s be clear, from a pure entertainment point of view, the film does its fair job: targeting a well-defined target on a global scale, “Black Adam” ensures fights, various fist fights and even a light fun tone, made such both through a deliberate construction over the lines of situations and characters (sometimes even not in a positive sense), and both using an excellent “team” chemistry between the members of the so-called “Justice Society“, a team of superheroes who respond to Amanda’s orders Waller (a character who, in James Gunn’s film, commanded the Suicide Squad). Leaving aside the obvious continuity problems, we are then presented with a new superhero team, the “Justice Society”; and, thanks to excellent performances, well-made designs and figures also known to the general public, such as Pierce Brosnan, the new group of heroes, and their frequent exchange of words, contributes in part to increasing an overall appreciation of the work by the audience.

What, however, does not work with the film is its pretentious desire to overdo it, with a clear goal of putting itself above the typical standards of the vast world of cinecomics, but ending up being exaggerated, and excessive. For this reason, some of the themes that can be found during the film do not develop into something altogether interesting, but remain in a stalemate and are continually reiterated until the end credits; one above all, the most essential one, is the anti-heroic matrix of the protagonist: although it may stand out, at least for a characterization principle, compared to the two chapters on Tom Hardy’s Venom, this conception, here extremely redundant, makes the whole nature of the character.

If, on the one hand, themes and situations do not convince that much, on the other the direction of Jaume Collet-Sera manages to stand out and entertain: the action sequences, a key component of the entire work, are quite clear and visually excellent; there is the element that marries perfectly with that aura of excessive that pervades the whole work, and which strongly winks at the faction of Snyder Cut lovers (a recurring theme in the DC house, for several months). Although the story is simple, narratively speaking, the perception of an Origin Story is not perceived, as much as a choral and chaotic film which, a priori, contravenes the minimum requirements of an origin story about a cartoon character.

Betting everything on a high percentage of action, an index of approval among fans, but which automatically involves a superficial general contextualization, “Black Adam ” fails to express itself with great narrative coherence: all the pretexts for reflection that unfold during the first act of the film culminates in a confused and disordered third act which, for better or for worse, accompanies the story to a conclusion. But in the end, what was supposed to be a very successful incipit, to favor the rebirth of a coherent shared universe, limits itself to offering the public two hours of adrenaline, not reaching, however, to hit the target and consequently embracing those cliché from which the DC cinematic universe wanted so much to break away.

Black Adam Review: The Last Words

Black Adam is an excellent cinecomic of origins, but also a surprising ensemble film. Although the writing is not perfect regarding some narrative premises, above all the somewhat forced and inexplicable introduction of the Justice Society, the plot of the film with The Rock entertains, entertains and even offers some interesting twists. Dwayne Johnson, however surrounded by interesting and well-managed supporting actors, is the absolute star of a figure who could give new life to the DC Universe, also the protagonist of some of the best action sequences of the DCEU. Too bad only for a direction that is a little too “slave” to slow-motion and some vaguely cloying dialogue, elements that in any case do not weigh too much in the face of various qualities. In short, maybe The Rock is right: DC Films starts from here and indeed.