Black Adam, starring Dwayne Johnson, is said to be the first step towards a new era for
DC, and while this is more likely going to be the case after the release of The Flash
film, this new entry in the DCEU does make some
introductions and re-introductions that will shake it up and get us thinking about what's
to come with the slate that Warner Bros Discovery will build upon in the years ahead.
But in this video, I'm going to be giving you my spoiler free review and reaction to
DC's Black Adam, discussing whether it's a worthy new addition
to the DCEU.
Before I get into it though, if you want to keep up to date on any of my content surrounding
Black Adam over the coming days including my full breakdown of the film, then
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But without further a do, lets dive into my spoiler free review for Black Adam.
So Black Adam has quite an interesting setup when it comes to superhero movies.
US superheroes come to a middle eastern country to prevent its local hero from protecting
the people there.
It also deals with a character that rejects being a hero and the opportunity for more
weighty themes and a deeper complexity in a DC movie, like we've seen more recently
with other examples, is not the case with Black
Adam.
This film takes those ideas and presents them with a lot more action and quite the rapid
of cinematic edits, that like the plot, ends up being more in line with an average conventional
comic book movie.
But once I understood this and I kind of guessed that to a degree going in, it was an enjoyable
experience.
After seeing the film, I do think it's a project
that could have been much better with it's narrative ideas and the characters could have
had more time to breathe.
There's so many characters to introduce, and there's little
time to really get to know the Justice Society, or really enjoy the origin of Black Adam in
a satisfying way.
It's one of the rare comic book projects where I actually wished it was
a bit longer to allow us more time to connect with the characters on show.
As a whole, Black Adam follows a very conventional structure
that you'd get in an average comic book film today, and at times the script can make it
feel quite outdated.
This has been the case with a lot of comic book movies from Marvel more
recently, and I was hoping that it would at least freshen up the universe styled movie.
But while the style and execution of the film was not that inspiring, I will say that it
did entertain me throughout and made me somewhat
excited to see what DC is going to do following the end of this current slate, that ends with
the flash film.
Of course, we got big announcemnets the other day surrounding movies
with Superman, Black Adam, The Batman and other characters, so there's still a lot of
excitement going forward, especially if the new
DCEU is looking to bring in great writers and directors like Christopher McQuarrie,
who we'd never thought would make one of these types of films.
So it's not a disaster that this film is much more conventional then the recent
DC films, which you know, I've been loving as of late.
Joker, The Batman, The Suicide Squad and the Snyder Cut have all been different
kinds of comic book movies, regardless of being connected to the DCEU or not, and that
has really worked because it's given us individually great films.
In my opinion, while this doesn't continue with Black Adam, the excitement
of what's to come and Dwayne Johnson's part in the future does get me anticipating what
they will do, and I do think this film did some great things that made it an enjoyable
experience.
When it comes to the plot, we know that the very basis includes Black Adam rejecting the
idea of being a hero and his very appearance gets Amanda Waller to bring some acknowledged
heroes in to the frame to stop him from going about his current brutalist ways.
Enter the JSA, the first DC superhero team that is represented by Aldis Hodge's Hawkman,
Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone, Noah Centineo's Atom Smasher,
and Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate.
While we could have got more of the JSA and the exposition involved really down plays
their unique abilities, the team’s chemistry does really
work and I'd love to see them in more projects with different writers helming their scenes.
But the JSA are called in to dampen the effects of Black Adam, who's caaled upon by the locals
to help take out the mercenaries who are extracting the mineral Eternium from their land.
We get a prologue that could have been handled better, but it does explain that this the
powerful mineral is the thing responsible for transforming a slave into the anti-hero
figure we watch on screen.
A group of rebels which is led by Sarah Shahi's Adrianna, go looking for
a crown made of Eternium, and from there, Black Adam is unleashed, he's pissed off and
the JSA have to calm him down before a bigger threat
comes into play.
On one side it's a cool idea for a superhero origin film to really show the different perspectives
of those on the ground who look a figure with a questionable
morality, but on the other it does feel quite outdated and a repeat of what we've seen before.
Essentially, the film’s whole objective is to give Black Adam a good introduction,
with the hope that he'll be put against a better
villain in times ahead.
When it comes to Black Adam himself and his backstory, we don't really get the full perspective
until later on in the film, which I think doesn't help in making the viewer fully
connect with his character.
However, the brutal and stoic performance of Dwayne Johnson does add to Teth Adam in
ways the script doesn't.
It’s definitely enjoyable to see him beat loads of evil mercenaries, use his lightning
powers or remove a soldiers arm alongside Collet-Serra's solid action directing.
There's a chaotic visual flair that's a blast to
witness and I can't fault the film in it's efforts to entertain in a new way.
Again, this could have been extended even further if the film went deeper in exploring
a brutal superhero thrust into society, and I think there were
more narrative opportunities for Johnson's character.
Of course, Black Adam was a passion of Johnson's for over a decade, and the old regime
at Warner Bros didn't want to follow through in making something they really had a desire
to put to screen.
We also saw this with Zack Snyder and look at the difference between his cut
of Justice League against the theatrical cut that really has no passion in it's execution
whatsoever.
You deffinitely see the passion on display from the Rock, even if it's executed in
quite a conventional way, and it does make me respect him and his desire to make this
film.
With better writing, directing and more time to flesh out a compelling narrative, Black
Adam may have been something really special.
Moving on, the film’s heavy focus on action is something that is mainly brought to screen
by a lot of digital effects, and again, it makes it hard to fully delve into this world
when there's an overuse of explosions and relentless
action.
At the same time, a lot of the visual effects themselves were actually done quite well and
you can tell that there was some impressive wire work in the midst of overused
CG.
I think Man Of Steel is an underrated and great example of this being done more effectively,
because they built out the characters story, they made you connect to him, and then
developed the central themes at play, so that when you did get the heavy destruction and
action scenes, there was always more weight behind them.
Black Adam could have done that more effectively, but instead it feels weightless at times,
especially during the final battle with the film suffering from quite a poor
villain.
You may have already seen that villain from the trailers, and it would have been better
to have more time to make some of these components feel more neccasary.
But as I said, the vfx work is fine and I will also say that
it's executed better then a lot of visual effects we've seen in recent Marvel entries
and I guess the conventional components are not as
bad as say Thor Love and Thunder or even the DCEU's Wonder Woman 1984.
It's better than those and I think if you switch your brain off, you can enjoy the spectacle
and the ride that this film brings.
Overall, Black Adam definitely directs you in the direction of a larger story in the
future and it doesn't hide the connections to characters like Shazam or even another
one in that post credit scene we've been talking about
for weeks.
It teases that under the new leadership with maybe a better writer or even filmmaker, we
could expect to see a much better narrative, and I think it's good that at least
the pieces and characters are there to really do something effective long term.
While Black Adam is also self-contained, there are many
traits that have been re-used from comic book movies over the last few decades and I think
it was a missed opportunity to really give us something new that 4 of the last 5 DC movies
have done quite successfully.
Still, the inclusion of other characters like the JSA does give the atmosphere of the DCEU
quite a new feel, and the themes did present an opportunity to
do something different with a character that's powerful enough to fight superman.
Over recent years, DC have shown the interest in exploring superheros to their very cores
and giving us portrayals that question whether we can
really hold these characters in such high regard, when they do questionable things and
have the power to really do worse.
If they were able to put these questions at the forefront like
with say Man Of Steel or The Batman, I think this film may have been something more long-lasting
and a project that doesn't just feel like another run-of-the-mill comic book adaptation.
Doing something different would give the DCEU an alternative step ahead of say the MCU,
which is currently all focused on multiversal chaos and big cameos.
There really is the chance for them, and hopefully when the new Warner Bros regime begins their
own slate, they will really focus on films with better writers
and individual narrative longevity in a genre that's starting to feel really repetetive.
We'll have to see, but while Black Adam is quite light on story, it does deliver many
action packed and enjoyable moments with a great
acting ensemble.
So if you're into that kind of comic book film over a more nuanced take, then I think
you'll enjoy this next entry in the DCEU.
But that was my spoiler free review for Black Adam.
Black Adam isn’t a great DCEU film nor is it a terrible one, and I've made it clear
in previous videos that I'm personally on board
with the new DC doing all different types of movies, whether it be films within the
DCEU such as the recent Suicide Squad or outside with projects such as The Batman or Joker.
I've liked 4 out of their last 5 films and while
Black adam may not be close to the level of those, such as Joker, The Snyder Cut, The
Suicide Squad, or The Batman, it is a lot better than
entries such as Wonder Woman 1984 or the theatrical cut of Justice League.
Director Collet-Serra did a solid job of presenting all the darkness and antihero that we know
is in the fabric of this character and he built out
promising newcomers within DC’s expanded world.
Dwayne Johnson is a welcome addition himself and it's great to see that one of the biggest
superheroes has finally returned to the big screen just days after an announcement that
they would be getting a new solo film.
That being said, I think there were some greater opportunities to really dive even deeper into
the moral ambiguity of a character like Black Adam and by allowing more time to really deliver
on the themes and tighten up the script, Black Adam may have been the Man Of Steel
for a new generation.
Yes those universe films call for more scrutiny, and we saw that with Man Of Steel back in
2013, but look at how that film is still in the cultural conversation
all these years later and think about how Black Adam being a character of moral questioning
would be perfect with that kind of reversed approach.
But overall, while Black Adam might not be the greatest film in the DCEU, nor the greatest
comic book movie, it was an entertaining ride with glimmers of better storytelling
and it also does signal that a change is coming.
And hopefully in the long term, the universe movies can thrive just as much as the seperated
ones have in recent years when it comes to DC.
I'm giving Black Adam a rating of 6.5 out of 10.
But to those who have already seen the film, what did you think of the Dwayne Johnson DCEU
film and do you agree that it has some great qualities even if it isn't a perfect
film.
Let me know down below in the comments section.
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