While I used to read a lot of comics, including plenty of Justice League, the truth is I don't know too much about Black Adam. I guess I just didn't happen across the right titles/issues. But I what little I'd seen of the character did catch my interest. At least sometimes, he seemed to be less a villain and more of, well, someone who might have had a point, even if he did things differently from the heroes.So when I heard that the Rock was personally invested in bringing the character to the big screen, I was intrigued. I can't say I was expecting this movie to be good, but I wanted it to be, and I even allowed myself to hope that it might be.
The film felt a little clumsy to me. It starts with a narrator giving us a big expository infodump, which just feels like a lazy way of getting vital information across. There's quite a lot of important characters, but very few of them get much actual development, especially in terms of backstory. The movie feels a little unfocussed, with a macguffin that's established as being vitally important right from the start, and yet it's constantly ignored and pushed to the background. Character motivations and reasoning often felt a little shallow and contrived. A lot of fantastical elements don't receive any explanation at all. There's plenty in this movie for people to complain about is what I'm saying.
And yet I enjoyed it. The first big action set-piece had me grinning, enjoying the music and the gratuitous dramatic slow-mo. The movie was quite action-heavy, and I thought the action was quite good overall; it made good use of special effects and had enough variety that I didn't find it repetitive. What's more I was invested; I was almost surprised to find myself caring, at least a little, about most of the characters. They might not have had much development but they did have personality. And while the central themes of the movie might not have been explored in that much depth, I dare say they did resonate with me somewhat (though I can see why some people might take issue with some of the thematic elements).
Dwayne Johnson played Black Adam as a quiet, somewhat distant, yet intense character. I wouldn't call it a very emotional performance, but I still found the character likeable and even in the end relateable, at least a little bit. I liked Pierce Brosnan's Fate, I actually think he put a lot of heart into the film. And while I didn't think Aldis Hodge's Hawkman had as much depth as a character, I liked the chemistry the two had. Sarah Shahi was good as Adrianna, though I felt the character could have been written with a bit more personality. Mohammed Amer's Karim was a sufficiently entertaining comedy side-kick, I like that he wan't portrayed as a coward but rather did not hesitate to step up when he needed to. I thought Marwan Kenzari did a good job as Ishmael, it's a shame he didn't have more screen time to really bring the character to life.
It's not Bodhi Sabongui's fault, but I kinda hated his character Amon; did we really need another cape-obsessed kid teaching the protagonist how to be a comic-book character? It kinda worked in Shazam because Shazam was basically a big kid, and that film gave them a lot of time with nothing particularly dangerous happening for them to chill. That wasn't the case here. Plus the kid was undisciplined, running around pulling stupid stunts and causing issues for everyone else, and probably should have died several times. Honestly the character is one of my biggest issues with the movie. But hey, he was nowhere near as irritating as Awkwafina's Katy in Shang-Chi, so I guess it's not that a big deal.
Overall I guess I'd call this movie a 7/10. It's a fun superhero movie that's just a little different from a lot of what we've seen in the superhero genre in the last few years.
Black Adam is considered an "anti-hero", and one of the major themes of the film is what a hero is. The Justice Society say he's not a hero because he kills his enemies - which makes sense in context as for a long time the Justice League (and I believe the other "official" teams including the Justice Society) has been portrayed in the comics as never taking a life. Black Adam himself doesn't call himself a hero. But his people see him as a hero; it doesn't bother them that he's actively killing their opressers. And that I think that's an interesting topic to debate.
Of course this movie doesn't delve into the debate, not in depth anyway, but it was still interesting to see it touched upon at least. And as I said I can see why some people would not be happy with the idea of a killer like Black Adam being ultimately portrayed as a hero in this film, but let's be real: movie protagonists killing the bad guys is a pretty common thing. So I don't have a problem with it here, if though I don't exactly want to see Superman flying around murdering people. Different comic book characters represent different themes.
Having said that, I didn't get what was up with the Justice Society. Since when do they work for Waller? They got so upset with Black Adam for killing people who they must have known were criminials, or at the very least soldiers who attacked him first, yet they were perfectly happy to hand him over to be locked in a tiny tube for his entire (possibly eternal) life? How is that BETTER than dying? Never mind that they crossed international borders without legal authority and send him to be incarcerated without even a trial. Seems pretty hypocritical to me for them to be criticising his methods.
I'm not sure if eternium is even a thing in the comics, I don't recall ever having heard of it. But the setup of this movie, with eternium only being found in Khandaq, feels a bit too similar to Black Panther's whole "vibranium is only found in Wakanda" deal, with the respective characters being champions (and in the comics rulers) of their respective countries. Of course that was just the setup, the plot developed in a very different way, with a foreign power occupying the country for it's resources etc. I'm just saying there were a couple of things that were very reminiscent of other recent superhero films. Like the giant CGI skybeam, and the sudden Suicide-Squad-esque army of undead that came out of nowhere at the end. Oh, and Atom Smasher growing to giant size using a suit given to him by his older predessor has Ant-Man vibes. It's fine, just, you know, a bit lazy perhaps.
They really did NOT explain the Justice Society AT ALL. They just showed up and acted like they'd been around the whole time. Honestly, I respect it. It honestly makes the world feel more realistic to me, to think that superheroes have been around for ages and don't even need to be explained, than to think that the world is suddenly full of superheroes when there weren't any around before. It just feels like the film makers finally accept that superheroes aren't some crazy idea that "normal" film audiences won't be able to understand unless it's all spelled out for us. Superheores are mainstream now, for better or worse.
I feel like the eventual revelation that Teth Adam wasn't the one chosen to wield the powers was a very powerful moment. It not only explained a lot, it also gave him a lot more depth. Suddenly we understood why he was so distant, so surly. Why he tolerated Amon and eventually even went along with his folly, why he looked out for Adrianna even as he was busy fighting off an attack from soldiers armed with weapons he had never seen before.
The way he floated around everywhere is actually fitting with how I've seen him portrayed in the comics, yet I feel like they gave it slightly different meaning here. It's interesting.
So there's Superman and Wonder Woman comics in the world where Superman and Wonder Woman are real? How does that work exactly? What I'm asking is, who pockets the profits? Pfft, the publisher is probably a subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises.
How exactly did Samir die? Did Ishmael kill him, then drag his body out of a different (higher) door than the one they came in from, and throw his body over the cliff? I'm really not sure what that was all about.
It feels like Waller just keeps failing upwards, doesn't it? I wonder where this is going to go in the end? Is she just going to always be this boogeyman in the background, or is there going to be an eventual showdown, are we eventually going to get to see her fall?
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