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Star Rating:
Black Adam is a DC Extended Universe film based on the comic book character of the same name. It stars Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam, whom archeologists release from his tomb to free Kahndaq from a criminal organization known as the Intergang. Meanwhile, Intergang’s leaders want to obtain an ancient artifact, the Crown of Sabbac, which grants power and invincibility.
While I didn’t think this movie was bad, I’d consider it a mid-tier movie that’s just okay. It’s decent if you want something to entertain you for a few hours, but it has several issues and could have been better written.
Black Adam doesn’t seem to have much personality at all. He was a bit boring. He might be an ancient superhuman being, but he was once human, and yet he seems dull and bland. I don’t know much about Black Adam from the comics, but I’m sure that he has much more personality than the movie portrays him.
They introduced too many new concepts but didn’t provide enough explanation. The story mentions Kakndaq, Black Adam, Intergang, the Justice Society, and four new heroes. But I felt like Intergang and the Justice Society, as well as the heroes, were underexplained.
I’m still not sure what Intergang was, other than a criminal organization. Why did they have the technology they used? I don’t know how they took over a country. I don’t know if they are some bigger organization that affects the whole world or just some small organization. And why haven’t any other superheroes noticed them?
We meet the Justice Society and four new superheroes all in the same movie: Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Cyclone, and Atom Smasher. Each hero needed more time to describe who they were and what their backgrounds were, but it’s all crammed into one film. This is especially true with Doctor Fate.
Side note: I watched this with my mother, and as soon as the new heroes came in, she asked me to explain who they were. But since I don’t read as many DC comics as I have Marvel, I couldn’t. I think this shows that they needed more explanation.
The movie also seemed to struggle with deciding how to portray Black Adam. It had problems striking a balance between a good guy and a bad guy. While I understand that Black Adam began as a villain but, over time, became more of an anti-hero, it seemed like the writers were hesitant to commit to either. I think this contributed to his lack of personality as well.
Finally, although I don’t think it hurt the film, some fans might find it off-putting because some of the characters didn’t resemble their comic book counterparts.
Personally, I think it’s better for well-known characters to look like them, especially if they already have a defined appearance. Ultimately, though, altering their physical appearance and outfit design has little effect on the film itself.
Having said all that, I still enjoyed watching the movie. No scene felt too long. I never got bored. It was well-paced and still entertaining to watch. It had some funny jokes that genuinely made me chuckle. It’s action-packed and has good fight scenes.
I think there were some great visual shots in the cinematography. I was also glad to be able to see most of it. Most fights took place during the day, when there was an ample amount of light to be able to see them. There’s been a few other DC movies that I found hard to see because the fight scenes happened at night and were poorly lit. (Wonder Woman’s fight with Cheetah, cough cough).
While I did find Black Adam’s personality bland, I think the other characters were interesting, and all the actors did a good job. I loved Pierce Brosnan in it. Though I’m not sure if we’ll see anything further related to this film, I do think some of these characters deserve to have their own movies.
Black Adam was a mid-tier superhero film. There are a few issues with the movie, but it’s still enjoyable to watch. I did notice most of the issues while watching the movie, but I didn’t feel like they ruined it. I still had fun watching it and still found it entertaining as a superhero popcorn film to watch.
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