Xtreme Vogue London Desk: Judith Benjamin
Star Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
What’s Good: The duration of 2 hours remains to be the only positive thing
What’s Bad: DC once again trying to be like Marvel in a failed attempt of doing so
Loo Break: If you’ve seen any decent superhero film before, take a loo break anytime during the film & you’ll still get what’s happening without even knowing what happened
Watch or Not?: Even if you had liked Black Adam from the comics, avoid this to keep that memory intact!
Available On: Theatrical Release
Runtime: 124 minutes
User Rating:
Set in the ruins of Kahndaq, the story starts with a flashback from 2600 BCE in which we see how the adversities in the city give birth to a champion who stays beside the people to fight for their justice. Cut to, the present day, Kahndaq’s people are yet again enslaved to the bad guys, coolly known as Intergang, until the rebel in Adrianna (Sarah Shahi) awakes the ‘champion’ & we see his origin story as Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson).
Teth understands his assignment of freeing his people from the bad guys but faces the resistance of the members of ‘Justice Society’ for being an ‘anti-hero’. Oh yeah, just like all other superhero movies, there’s an object (crown, here) which gives great power to the one who possesses it. Teth Adam becomes Black Adam by the end, I wished the film also could’ve become interesting but it didn’t.
Script Analysis
The story of bringing back a superhero from the history book of your culture to guard the current-day scenario of your city begins on an interesting note, just like Dwayne Johnson’s career, but similarly starts getting monotonous ending up being mundane. Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani’s story follows everything basic a superhero film should have and it isn’t even polished with mind-numbing VFX to at least grab your attention to something.
The effects look cool when Pierce Brosnan’s Fate spreads the web of his mental powers but they aren’t used well to create any kind of intriguing tension. Lawrence Sher’s camerawork does save the sinking ship at times but that doesn’t ensure it keeps it floating till the end. Everything drowns together.
Star Performance
Dwayne Johnson proves why you don’t need to be muscular to be a good superhero. He just couldn’t hold the formula of being broody, confused & funny at the same time. He mashes every emotion resulting in one big ball of “why dafuq I’m even here?”.
Pierce Brosnan tries to level the unorganized chaos going around as Fate by being as subtle as he can. The problem is, his performance along with the supporting cast just doesn’t get any meat to be remembered for. Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher does everything Hulk already has mastered with over the years, and there’s nothing new DC tries to showcase with him.
Aldis Hodge as Hawkman tries to lead the JSA (Justice Society of America) but fails miserably in leading a better part of the film due to his poor character sketch. You don’t even get into the mindset of Sarah Shahi feeling her pain as that’s the reason for her rebelling against the Intergang. Everything related to her is just a touch-and-go leaving things half-baked as her performance. Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone is as unnoticeable as Dwayne’s career without the jungle movies.
Direction, Music
Jaume Collet-Serra takes the traditional route of directing the story which already has been done to death. He faces the problem every director faces while designing a superhero film in the post-Avengers era.
Lorne Balfe’s music disappoints as it fails to compose even a single set piece which stays with you after you’ve left the cinema hall. The integration of The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’s soundtrack does come as a nice surprise but that’s not Balfe’s original creation.
The Last Word
All said and done, Dwayne Johnson with Black Adam is at least a decade late to make any kind of impression on the viewers.
Two stars!
Black Adam Trailer
Black Adam releases on 20 October, 2022.
