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A Review of “Black Adam (2022)”

 

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Black Adam is the 11th film in the DC cinematic universe. There is a weird trend of turning comic book villains into anti-heroes in their solo movies e.g. Venom and Morbius. I would’ve preferred having Black Adam be a villain in a Shazam movie before getting his own movie but here we are. It was promised that it will change the hierarchy of the DC universe but does it?

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The biggest enjoyment I got out of this movie was the action sequences. The most memorable sequence in the entire film is the fight between Black Adam and the Justice Society. It is choreographed well and visually entertaining. The other action sequences are never as good as that one and the director does overuse slow-mo to a ridiculous degree. Nevertheless, they are still fun to watch.

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On that note, I enjoyed the Justice Society in this movie. The way Dr Fate and Cyclone are animated is visually awesome. Their costumes are also great, I especially love the design of Dr Fate and Hawkman. I think the casting for the Justice Society was great. Pierce Brosnan is perfect casting as Dr Fate, Aldis Hodge is terrific as Hawkman, and Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell are fun as Atom Smasher and Cyclone respectively with good chemistry between the two.

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However, Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam is just fine. I never got the feeling in the movie that he was the perfect casting or anything like that. Dwayne is overshadowed by everyone else here because their characters have more charm and personality than Black Adam. It doesn’t help that Dwayne’s performance feels very one-note thanks to the writing of the character. Black Adam is just very dull and uninteresting. He is just a character that kills people and spouts constantly how he isn’t a hero. He could have been very interesting as the character was a supervillain in the comics but the film felt too scared to go to that line. The Justice Society doesn’t get much depth either as they are just introduced to be an enemy for Black Adam to punch.

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Additionally, the soundtrack, which is composed by Lorne Balfe, is quite forgettable. It’s not as good as some of his previous works such as Mission Impossible Fallout and Black Widow which is a shame. The story isn’t very memorable either. It’s very by the book with a hero who has to take out a group of bad guys with a forgettable main villain. The main overall clash is over by the 2nd act but they need a final one which results in a random villain from nowhere. The last act is as cliché as it gets with a beam in the sky, a CGI army and a dumb CGI villain. It is unfortunately kind of overstuffed and clashing though as it seems to be trying to be a Black Adam origin movie but also a Justice Society movie at the same time.

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Overall, Black Adam is fine. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be but it’s as generic as it can be. The movie doesn’t try to do more with the superhero genre and in a market of superhero over-saturation, this doesn’t stand out whatsoever. It’s clear they wanted to make a fun, entertaining popcorn movie and I think in terms of that, it succeeds. The most interesting aspect of this movie is the post-credit scene and the implications for the future of the DC cinematic universe. It is a little bit sad though that the post-credit is more memorable than the actual movie. With James Gunn now head of DC studios, hopefully, we get more enjoyable and interesting DC movies than this.


 


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