black adam 2022 movie review

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra , and featuring a remarkable lead performance by Dwayne Johnson , the spiky and majestic “Black Adam” is one of the best DC superhero films to date. This tale of a gloomy, seemingly malevolent god who reappears in a long-occupied Middle Eastern nation rejects most of the choices that bland-ify even the good entries in the genre. For its first third, it presents its title character—a champion who challenged a despotic king thousands of years earlier—as a frightening and unknowable force with a bottomless appetite for destruction. Known by his ancient moniker Teth-Adam, his reemergence from a desert tomb proves both a miracle and a curse for people who prayed for someone to defend them against corporate-mercenary thugs who have oppressed them for decades and strip-mined their land.

Throughout the rest of its running time, “Black Adam” leans into the inevitability of Adam’s evolution toward good-guy status, condensing the transformation of the title character in the first two “Terminator” films (there are even comic bits where people try to teach Adam sarcasm and the Geneva Conventions). “Black Adam” then stirs in dollops of a macho sentimentality that used to be common in old Hollywood dramas about loners who needed to get involved in a cause to reset their moral compasses or recognize their worth. But the sharp edge that the film brings to the early parts of its story never dulls.

Adam initially seems as much of a literal as well as a figurative force of nature as Godzilla and other beasts in Japanese kaiju films. It’s initially hard for the people in Adam’s path to tell if he’s good, evil, or merely indifferent to human concerns. One thing’s for sure: everyone wants Adam to help them prevent a crown forged in hell and infused with the energy of six demons from being placed atop the head of someone in Intergang, a global corporate/mercenary consortium whose interests are represented by a two-faced charmer ( Marwan Kenzari ).

Decades ago, Humphrey Bogart played a lot of cynical men who insisted they weren’t interested in causes, then changed their minds and took up arms against corruption or tyranny. Viewers still love that story, and Johnson has updated it many times during his career, most recently in “ Jungle Cruise ,” in which he played a character modeled on Bogart’s riverboat captain in “The African Queen.” He channels vintage primordial acting by Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger but also poet-brute performances like Anthony Quinn’s strongman in “ La Strada ,” and infuses the totality with his unique charisma. “Black Adam” confirms that he’s studied the classics and cherry-picked bits that seem to work for him. There are even tenderhearted moments of regret and recrimination that seem inspired by 1950s moral awakening pictures like “ On the Waterfront .”

The latter are usually triggered by three “civilian” characters who appeal to Adam’s presumed innate (though submerged) goodness. One is Adrianna Tomaz ( Sarah Shahi ), a university professor, resistance fighter, and widow of a resistance hero who was killed by the colonizers. Another is Adrianna’s cheerful and indomitable son Amon ( Bodhi Sabongui ), who zips around the bombed-out city on a skateboard that seems to have as many secondary uses as a Swiss Army Knife. And then there’s Adrianna’s brother Amir (comedian Mohammed Amer), who livens up a standard-issue earthy everyman role.

Somehow, though, the script by Adam Sztykiel , Rory Haines , and Sohrab Noshirvani resists the temptation to wallow in unearned sentiment. Nor does the movie insist, despite the evidence, that Adam and the superheroes brought into to confront him ( Aldis Hodge ’s Hawkman, Noah Centineo ’s Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell ’s wind-manipulating Cyclone, and Pierce Brosnan ’s dimension-hopping and clairvoyant Dr. Fate) are wonderful people who have pure motives and always mean well. In conversations about motivations and tactics, nobody is entirely right or wrong. The movie’s edge comes from its determination to live in moral gray areas as long as it can.

It also comes from the violence, which is presented as the inevitable result of the characters’ personalities, ambitions, and duties, rather than being associated with any particular code or philosophy. That framing, plus the sprays of blood and images of people being impaled, shot, and crushed, pushes the movie’s PG-13 rating to the breaking point like “ Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom ” and “ Gremlins ” did with the PG rating nearly 40 years earlier. There were several walkouts at the “Black Adam” screening this writer attended, and in every case, it was somebody who brought a child under 10.

In fairness, they may not have expected the movie to begin with a flashback that climaxes with a slave at a construction site getting gut-stabbed and thrown off a cliff, and a boy being threatened with beheading, or for the title character to obliterate an army with electrical bolts and his bare hands seconds after his first appearance. Nearly every other scene—including expository dialogue exchanges—is set against the backdrop of a chaotic city whose residents have been hardened not just by the occupation, but by the catastrophes that are unleashed whenever super-beings clash, which ties into recurring scenes and dialogue about what it means for a small country to be invaded and occupied by outsiders who set their own rules and are indifferent to daily life on the ground.

Film history buffs might note the studio that originated the project: the Warner Bros. subdivision New Line. It rose to prominence with horror films, grew by releasing auteur-driven, down-and-dirty genre pieces and dramas (including “ Menace II Society ” and “ Deep Cover ”), and got into blockbusters with the original “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. You can see that lineage reflected in many scenes and sequences of this film, which is PG-13 in fact but R in spirit. “Black Adam” immediately announces what sort of film it is by weaving in quotes from the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” (the melody of which is referenced in Lorne Balfe ’s score) and musical as well as visual snippets from “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly”—key works from artists whose best work invites you to root for people who move through their worlds like threshers.

The film’s director honed his mayhem chops in horror movies, then in R-rated thrillers in which Liam Neeson brutally dispatches adversaries. Collet-Serra makes a PG-13 film feel like an R by cutting away or jumping back from the nastiest violence, but letting us hear it (or imagine it when people watch from a great distance). He also does it by insisting, through actions as well as dialogue, that individuals, even superhuman ones, do things for multiple, often contradictory reasons. (A boy’s bedroom is filled with superhero posters and comics, and when a “good guy” and Adam fight in there, they burn and tear through DC’s most recognizable icons in a way that rhymes with scenes of the city’s historic monuments being toppled or pulverized.)

Fidelity to basic film storytelling keeps “Black Adam” centered even when it’s doing ten things at once. The film is packed with foreshadowings, setups, payoffs, twists, and surprises, and is filled with well-defined lead and supporting characters. One standout is Brosnan, who delivers a moving portrait of an immortal who is tired of seeing the future and thinking back on his past. Dr. Fate looks at those who can live in the present with a mixture of melancholy, wisdom, and envy.

Another is Johnson, who has real acting chops but in recent years has often seemed to be constrained (maybe intimidated?) by his lucrative image as the people’s colossus. He’s as minimalist as one could be when playing a god. He takes a lot of his cues from the screen star that the film quotes most often, Clint Eastwood , but he also seems to have learned from action-hero performances by stars like Neeson, Toshiro Mifune , Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Charles Bronson , who understood that the camera can detect and amplify faint tremors of emotion as long as you act with the film—not just in it, and never against it. The peak is a fleeting moment when Johnson lets us know that something deep inside Adam has changed by glancing in a different direction and softening his features. It’s maybe half a second. It’s not the kind of acting that wins prizes because if it’s done well—as it is here—you feel as if it happened in your mind rather than on the screen.

The politics and spirituality of the movie are just as committed and consistent. Even when the story flirts with Orientalism or incorporates simplistic Western heaven-and-hell imagery, “Black Adam” never loses track of what Adam represents in our world: autonomy, liberation, the possibility of redemption and renewal, and a refusal to be defined by however things have always been done.

The result sometimes plays like the DC answer to the pop culture quake that was “ Black Panther ,” serving up a Middle Eastern-inflected version of the Marvel film’s Afro-Futurist sensibility, and letting its setting stand in for any place that was colonized. But its politics are more clearly defined and less compromised. “Black Adam” is staunchly anti-imperialist to its marrow, even equating the Avengers-like crew sent to capture and imprison Black Adam to a United Nations “intervention” force that the people of the region don’t want because it only makes things worse. The movie is anti-royalist, too, which is even more of a surprise considering that the backstory hinges on kings and lineage.

“Black Adam” is a superlative and clever example of this sort of movie, coloring within the lines while drawing fascinating doodles on the margins. In its brash, relentless, overscaled way, Collet-Serra’s film respects its audience and wants to be respected by it. “Black Adam” gives the audience everything they wanted, along with things they never expected.

Only in theaters today.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

Dwayne Johnson as Teth Adam / Black Adam
Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall / Hawkman
Pierce Brosnan as Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate
Noah Centineo as Al Rothstein / Atom Smasher
Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz / Isis
Marwan Kenzari as Ishmael Gregor / Sabbac
Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone
Bodhi Sabongui as Amon Tomaz
Viola Davis as Amanda Waller
Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt
Mo Amer as Karim
Adam Sztykiel
Rory Haines
Sohrab Noshirvani

Writer (based on the characters created by)

Bill Parker
Jaume Collet-Serra
Michael L. Sale

Cinematographer

Lawrence Sher
Lorne Balfe

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‘Black Adam’ Review: Heroism, but Paint It Black

Dwayne Johnson stars in this overstuffed superhero film about an ancient figure granted god powers.

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By Maya Phillips

Behold: the proselytizing superhero film! Listen as it cautions against moral absolutism! It is not the hero movie we need but, thanks to what’s now a tradition of beloved comic book stories shazam-ed into empty Hollywood schlock, it is the hero movie we deserve.

Which brings us to “Black Adam,” a dull, listless superhero movie that hits all the expected touchstones of the genre under the guise of a transgressive new antihero story.

We begin with a briskly delivered tragic back story involving a magical demon crown, a gaggle of wizards and a people’s rebellion in an ancient land called Kahndaq. We then skip forward 5,000 years to modern-day Kahndaq, a poor yet futuristic country that, for generations, has been under siege by various mercenary groups. Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), an Indiana Jones-esque Kahndaqi professor turned artifact hunter, is searching for the aforementioned diadem of doom, with help from her bumbling brother, Karim (Mohammed Amer), and hero-obsessed son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui).

Adrianna summons Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), the champion of ancient Kahndaq who was granted god powers by the same sorcerer who — surprise! — transformed the teenage Billy Batson into the red-spandex-wearing capester Shazam (Zachary Levi) in that 2019 DC action-comedy .

But Black Adam has some rage issues and an inconvenient habit of zapping baddies to death with his lightning powers, so of course, according to the rules of superhero franchises, a superteam must unite to confront him: Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), a meek genius in colorful threads who can manipulate the wind; Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), a rookie hero who’s just trying his best; Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), a Doctor Strange type in a knight helmet; and Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), the leader of this so-called Justice Society of America (not to be confused with the Justice League of America).

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Black Adam Reviews

Black Adam excels at being a popcorn film, one with stellar action and visuals

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 29, 2024

There’s some fun to be had, but it is mediocre at best.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 25, 2024

While Black Adam‘s scattered script doesn’t do its characters and story full justice, the characters, visuals, and hilarious yet heartfelt moments ensure that you’ll still have a fun time.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jul 7, 2024

One of the most notable issues with Johnson as an actor is his constant mugging for the camera.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 5, 2023

Dwayne Johnson saves the day, despite some hiccups.

Full Review | Oct 4, 2023

Black Adam is clearly a major passion project for the Rock, and he clearly wanted to go for something of a more dramatic role, but it doesn't always feel like the film is making the best use of his talents.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 17, 2023

The cast’s chemistry and running jokes help rescue an otherwise formulaic action film. Brosnan’s elegant performance stands out, and the post-credits scene will leave moviegoers begging for a sequel.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2023

Tiresomely heavy exposition, story with little to no creativity, and inconsistent humor make it impossible for the DCEU to take "the next step" in a truly impactful manner.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jul 25, 2023

A misunderstood epic kick off to the next era of the DC UNIVERSE. Visceral & Intense action scenes create such a kinetic time that I loved. @TheRock completely became Black Adam & added much needed mythology to the word SHAZAM.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2023

Black Adam is an action-driven film that knows it is in service of the fans, which means plenty of spectacle and a focus on entertainment with a capital E, for better and worse.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 21, 2023

Black Adam compensates for the copious amounts of expository dialogue with copious amounts of action and spectacle. Dwayne Johnson’s entry as the titular character is fantastic. There’s visual comedy. It is quite barbaric.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 20, 2023

Sabbac's late-stage introduction in Black Adam does not justify the ill timing of his arrival. It only strains an already-thin plot.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Feb 23, 2023

It is NOT all doom and gloom, thankfully. It has a tongue placed firmly in its cheek and a sly sense of humor, never allowing the movie to get too light or dark; just the right amount of entertainment and humor. The Rock gets to let loose.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Feb 19, 2023

I thought it was enjoyable and a different take on the superhero genre. But given everything happening in DC with James Gunn, this story is pretty much irrelevant.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 29, 2023

This is my least favorite superhero movie in recent memory. I'm hoping "The Rock" will choose projects that truly challenge him as an actor and that go beyond cliche action set pieces and poor character development.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 29, 2023

Maybe there was a coherent film being developed at some point, but those days are long gone.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Jan 20, 2023

While DC might have produced the best superhero saga of 2022 with The Batman (take that, Marvel!), it was also responsible for the worst with Black Adam (take that, DC!).

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Jan 14, 2023

Big, loud, and full of energy. Absolutely nothing that you're going to remember after a couple of days, but it does go down easy and is very watchable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 14, 2023

To do both characters of Shazam and Black Adam justice, they needed their own separate films with separate tones. We finally have that Black Adam movie, which is just as brutal and action packed as the Rock has always promised. ... I had a blast.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2023

It is obvious why Johnson was cast in the title role. He is a HUGE box office draw, can portray an extremely menacing character, and would be believable as an ancient superhero.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 2, 2023

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Black Adam First Reviews: Action-Packed and Powered by a Charismatic Dwayne Johnson

Critics say the film suffers from a villain problem and a lackluster script, but a scene-stealing pierce brosnan, lots of action, and the hint of something new in the dceu powers it forward..

TAGGED AS: dceu , First Reviews , movies

Almost 15 years after Dwayne Johnson first announced interest in playing the character, he finally makes his debut as Black Adam in the DCEU this week. But is the movie, eponymously titled Black Adam , worth the wait, the promise, and the anticipation? The first reviews of the superhero spectacle are mixed, but those that get what the movie is and who it’s for praise the positives enough to disregard any shortcomings.

Here’s what critics are saying about Black Adam :

Does it live up to expectations?

Johnson has been attached to the Black Adam role for nearly two decades… His love for the DC Universe shines through the film and his passion pays off well throughout. – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

Those who have been waiting for this adaptation long since Johnson first expressed interest back in 2007 will not walk away disappointed. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

If The Rock smashing more things than he usually can as human characters sounds like a good time, Black Adam delivers. – Fred Topel, United Press International

Given the number of years this project was in development, and how it was promoted to shift the balance of power in the DC Universe, it’s disappointing that the end result is so unremarkable. – Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend

How well does it fit into the DCEU?

Black Adam isn’t a full-on course correction for the DCEU, but it is an encouraging new installment in this larger universe. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

Black Adam feels like the first project in years to take from multiple parts of this universe while also focusing on setting up something big for its future. – Gregg Katzman, CBR

Though we’ve prayed DC would move on, there are more than echoes of the Snyderverse here. – John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

A strong entry into the DCEU. – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

As much as Black Adam is a darker take on Shazam, it also repeats the missteps of lesser DC movies. – Fred Topel, United Press International

It’s not awful, especially when compared to many of the other DCEU films, but it’s far from the game-changer it claims to be. – Matt Rodriguez, Shakefire

Does it feel like any other movies?

The film plays like 2018’s Venom in multiple ways, focusing on brutal action sequences and a mixed tone of dark moments and humor. – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

The movie is essentially Shane on steroids, set in the Middle East instead of the Old West. – Peter Debruge, Variety

One movie that’s clearly a model for Black Adam is Terminator 2: Judgment Day . – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

(Photo by Warner Bros. Pictures)

How is The Rock as Black Adam?

The Rock delivers one of his best performances. He put his heart and soul into this role. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

An absolutely terrific performance by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, [the movie allows] him to flex his trademark muscular showmanship and combine that with character-driven appeal. – Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

Johnson keeps up his enchanting screen presence as he lands old-fashioned one-liners and brutal action all with complete passion. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

Johnson also breathes just enough emotion and empathy into the character. – Gregg Katzman, CBR

Johnson is grandiose as Black Adam, leaving his charismatic movie star stamp in every scene. This is perfect casting from more than a physical standpoint. – Jeff Nelson, Showbiz Cheat Sheet

No matter what one might think about this Black Adam movie as a whole, The Rock grabs your attention and keeps it no matter what he’s doing. Johnson is the man. – Todd McCarthy, Deadline Hollywood Daily

His charisma and brooding stares can only take the film so far. – Matt Rodriguez, Shakefire

Black Adam is perfect for Johnson’s action-figure frame. He just deserves a better first superhero outing than this. – Brian Truitt, USA Today

The problem isn’t that Johnson can’t act — he definitely can! — the problem is that he doesn’t want to. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

What about the Justice Society?

The Justice Society of America nearly steal the movie right from underneath [Johnson] as the film gives them a satisfactory introduction, leaving us wanting more from all of them by the end. – Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture

Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan’s portrayals of Hawkman and Doctor Fate are both equally brilliant. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

Brosnan is a natural in the role of Fate and it’s a wonder how no one tapped on his talents sooner for a superhero role. Hodge is just as great in the film. – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

Pierce Brosnan [is] the standout, even if his character reads like a second-rate Doctor Strange. – Peter Debruge, Variety

Brosnan steals every scene he’s a part of, and the actor is brimming with charisma. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

On the whole, members of the JSA are dealt short shrift, leaving [them] severely underdeveloped. – Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell’s Atom Smasher and Cyclone feel like they stumbled in from another movie. – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher in Black Adam (2022)

(Photo by ©Warner Bros.)

How is the action?

Black Adam features a lot more action than most DC movies. – Peter Debruge, Variety

The visual spectacle just keeps coming at you for two hours, and the effects are all so stupendous that you could begin to take it for granted. – Todd McCarthy, Deadline Hollywood Daily

This movie is packed with action. When we say that, we mean it is pretty much non-stop action for the entire movie. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Every fight sequence packs a punch, and the film gets extra creative when utilizing Doctor Fate’s powers. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

Collet-Serra manages to make these action scenes exciting in everything from Adam wiping out large armies to a hand-on-hand fight through an apartment with Hawkman. – Ross Bonaime, Collider

There is no wit, no thrill, and no slickness to the action. – Witney Seibold, Slashfilm

Does the film have a worthy villain?

The villain doesn’t do much of anything except provide us with a pretty cool battle, so we will take it — reluctantly. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Unfortunately, there isn’t much depth to the big bad, and he’s ultimately there to offer a ton of action in the final act. – Gregg Katzman, CBR

It’s just a shame that the main villain isn’t stronger here because it does overshadow some of the bombastic action on display. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

The single most forgettable villain in comic book movie history. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam in Black Adam (2022)

How is the script?

The screenplay is so action-orientated that it almost completely leaves out the necessary room for characters to breathe. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

The script of Black Adam is arguably the weakest part of the film. Character arcs can feel paper-thin and predictable. – Sheraz Farooqi, Cinema Debate

The character development is shallow. – Eric Eisenberg, Cinema Blend

The script does little to help non-DC-scholars here, briefly alluding to nanobots and relics and the Justice Society of America as if other movies had introduced them already. – John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

Does the movie get political?

The picture’s overarching themes – dealing with colonialism and our desperate need for heroes to speak out against tyranny during bleak times – are affecting and effectively crafted. – Courtney Howard, Fresh Fiction

There’s enough complexity in the post-colonial politics of Kahndaq to engage adults. – Peter Debruge, Variety

It’s an interesting setup: American “heroes” coming to a foreign country to stop the local hero from protecting the citizens. But if you’re hoping Black Adam will get into the complexities of that, this is not that movie. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

Moviegoers may have trouble finding escapist pleasure here, given the knotty global issues the movie raises but doesn’t fully process. – John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter

Will we leave feeling hopeful for the DCEU?

Black Adam will help DC fans restore their faith in the DCEU. – Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky

Black Adam might not change things single-handedly, but it certainly feels like the start of a new era of DC movies. – Ian Sandwell, Digital Spy

What it sets up for the future of the DCEU is exciting and not to be overlooked. – Ben Rolph, Discussing Film

The film’s whole purpose is to give Black Adam a suitably grand introduction on the assumption that he’ll be pitted against a more deserving adversary soon enough. – Peter Debruge, Variety

Perhaps this is a new way forward for the DCEU, but do we really need them to do exactly what the MCU is doing? – Chris Bumbray, JoBlo’s Movie Network

Black Adam opens everywhere on October 21, 2022.

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‘Black Adam’ Review: Dwayne Johnson Plays an All-Powerful DC Villain Who Can Be Talked Into Heroism

Set in the imaginary Middle East country of Kahndaq, this meaty, feature-length teaser reframes a fan-favorite 'Shazam!' baddie as an antihero, though his greatest battles are still to come.

By Peter Debruge

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SPOILER ALERT: The following review contains mild spoilers for “ Black Adam .”

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After all, this summer’s “DC League of Super-Pets” wrapped with Krypto (Clark Kent’s companion, also voiced by Johnson) meeting Black Adam’s pet basenji, with whom he debates the meaning of “antihero”: “It’s basically exactly like a regular hero, except way cooler. You make up your own rules, and then you break them.” The prospect that the superegos attached to these two canines might one day collide transforms the spectacular (but otherwise pointless) one-off/origin story that is “Black Adam” into a feature-length tease. The payoff is still to come, but here, audiences are presented with the moral and emotional backstory for a future showdown.

“Black Adam” is built around the notion that Teth Adam, as he’s referred to for most of the movie, isn’t evil so much as really, really angry. The surprisingly serious-minded (but still plenty pulpy) project deprives Johnson of his greatest superpower — his sense of humor — while giving the now-straight-faced star a chance to play a character with some interesting contradictions. His instinct is to kill anyone who upsets him, and yet, he can still be reasoned with. This flexibility will prove crucial, since there’s a far more malevolent (if not especially memorable) character scheming to liberate Kahndaq, the fictional quasi-Egyptian country where the film takes place.

It’s an unusual move for DC to base an entire superhero feature in the Middle East — although it’s a homecoming of sorts for Johnson, whose film career kicked off playing the Scorpion King in “The Mummy Returns.” Doubly daring is the way “Black Adam” aligns our sympathies with the locals, who call upon an ancient hero to help overthrow the white mercenaries extracting precious Eternium from their land. In the film’s “300”-style prologue, the powerful mineral is responsible for transforming a lowly slave into a practically godlike figure — with the help of several wizards.

Flash forward to the present day. Tired of living in a state of oppression, a group of rebels led by tough gal Adrianna (Sarah Shahi) go looking for a legendary crown made of Eternium. Co-written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani, “Black Adam” features a lot more action than most DC movies, cramming the exposition into a series of supercharged set-pieces — including an early “Tomb Raider”-like sequence wherein Adrianna and three accomplices explore a cave, recovering the crown and unleashing Teth Adam from his millennia-long imprisonment.

Looking thoroughly annoyed, his neck thick as a banyan tree trunk, Johnson levitates into the first of many confrontations, blasting blue lightning from his fists. Bullets bounce off his bald dome; bazookas barely slow him down. Collet-Serra has studied everything from “The Matrix” to “Zack Snyder’s Justice League,” basing his visual style on favorite tricks from more original films. Half the reason it’s so hard to take comic book movies seriously stems from lazy devices like Eternium and wizards, which “Black Adam” accepts without the slightest hesitation.

The movie is essentially “Shane” on steroids, set in the Middle East instead of the Old West, but still seen through the eyes of a young boy — Adrianna’s comic book-obsessed son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), in this case — who idolizes a figure of questionable morality. As with “Shane,” sticking a kid in the middle of the story brings the entire project down to a middle-school-level intellect. And yet, except for the recent Batman movies, that’s how most of the DC films feel.

The most out-of-place characters here are the quartet representing the JSA. Adrianna rightly questions why Hawkman and friends should show up now, after a villainous organization called Intergang has been exploiting them for years. Black Adam may be billed as an antihero, but by the logic of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” he’s more helpful to these Kahndaq freedom fighters than the JSA. Fight scenes involving Hawkman, Atom Smasher and Cyclone pose strange challenges, considering their powers, while Doctor Fate at least gives the visual effects team some fun tricks to animate.

No one’s allowed to upstage Johnson, however — not even a bulging demon named Sabbac who appears near the end. Clearly, the film’s whole purpose is to give Black Adam a suitably grand introduction on the assumption that he’ll be pitted against a more deserving adversary soon enough.

Reviewed at Dolby screening room, Burbank, Oct. 17, 2022. MPA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 125 MIN.

Production: A Warner Bros. release of a New Line Cinema presentation of a Seven Bucks, Flynn Picture Co. production. Producers: Beau Flynn, Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia. Executive producers: Toby Emmerich, Richard Brener, Dave Neustadter, Chris Pan, Walter Hamada, Adam Schlagman, Geoff Johns, Eric McLeod, Scott Sheldon
Crew: Director: Jaume Collet-Serra. Screenplay: Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani, based on characters from DC created by Bill Parker, C.C. Beck. Camera: Lawrence Sher. Editors: Mike Sale, John Lee.
With: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Mohammed Amer, Bodhi Sabongui, Pierce Brosnan.

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Review: Style and great supporting players make ‘Black Adam’ forgettably entertaining

A scowling man with electrical currents around his outstretched arms in the movie "Black Adam."

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The newest entry in the DC Extended Universe, “Black Adam,” starring Dwayne Johnson, has been hyped as a “new phase” and a “change in the hierarchy” for the embattled comic book franchise, but that doesn’t mean there hasn’t also been cause for concern. The trailers looked ponderous and gray, and though the film is directed by the auteur of many lively Liam Neeson actioners , Jaume Collet-Serra, his prior outing with Johnson, “Jungle Cruise,” left his signature verve behind. But, it seems Collet-Serra has got his groove back for “Black Adam,” or perhaps he was saving it for this film, which is far more entertaining than it has any right to be.

It helps that “Black Adam” has a distinct and dynamic visual style and tone that distinguishes itself against the Marvel “house style” we’ve become accustomed to over many, many phases of superhero flicks, which have devolved into a depressing digital sludge offset by an onslaught of cutesy, quippy dialogue. In “Black Adam,” the setting is a bustling Middle Eastern city, the cinematography and digital effects crisp and saturated, the action brutal and bruising enough to test that PG-13 rating and the quips judiciously metered out.

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Johnson plays an ancient champion from the kingdom of Kahndaq, who received his powers from the Council of Wizards (you might remember them from the DCEU movie “Shazam” ). Kahndaq is now a modern metropolis, overrun by an organized crime outfit known as Intergang. Adrianna ( Sarah Shahi ), who has been searching for a cursed crown made of “eternium,” awakens Teth-Adam (Johnson) from a 5,000-year slumber while escaping an Intergang faction. The all-powerful champion is essentially a “Dark Superman” — he flies, he has super strength, lightning shoots out of his hands, etc. After a violent clash in the desert, this supercharged Encino Man becomes the protector of Adrianna and her plucky son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui, who steals the whole movie).

But in this universe, there need to be checks and balances on all-powerful beings, so the Justice Society is called up to rein in Teth-Adam (and also to introduce new characters for spin-off movies). Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) swoop in to “promote stability” in the world and battle it out with Teth-Adam in the streets of Kahndaq. They eventually decide to team up to take on Intergang, who have occupied the country for 27 years, mining eternium and searching for the cursed crown so that their leader, Ishmael (Marwan Kenzari), can ascend the throne as some kind of hell demon king.

Dwayne Johnson confronts a man in a mask and armor

Screenwriters Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani have to power through a lot of expository lore, character intros and various mumbo jumbo, so they take the tack of repeating the beats over and over again: Teth-Adam lost his son in the process of gaining his power, he’s reckoning with 5,000 years of trauma, he’s not a hero, but his damage makes him powerful. There’s also a refreshingly anticolonialist bent lurking in the story of Kahndaq overthrowing their occupiers, embodied by the rebellious Amon.

While massive global star Johnson is clearly the box office draw, dramatic roles aren’t his forte, and that’s especially clear here as he delivers a dour and dark dramatic performance that’s lacking his natural charisma. Surprisingly, he’s the weak link. Collet-Serra surrounds Johnson with a charm offensive of supporting actors, including Hodge and Brosnan, who are great, as well as Shahi, Sabongui and comedian Mohammed Amer as Adrianna’s brother Karim. The director does heroic work crafting a film around Johnson that is fast and entertaining, tossing needle drops and skateboard stunts and movie references and zombies and funny uncles and fire demons in the mix just to keep us somewhat distracted from the void that is Black Adam himself.

The whole proposition is all a bit silly, and everyone seems in on the joke except for Johnson. While the film feels cobbled together out of spare parts of other superhero movies, and it’s almost instantly forgettable, Collet-Serra manages to hold it all together out of sheer force of will and an inherent sense of style. If there’s any superhero to write about with “Black Adam,” it’s the director, and it’s a good thing to see he still has some lightning coming out of his fingers.

Katie Walsh is a Tribune News Service film critic.

‘Black Adam’ Rated: PG-13, for sequences of strong violence, intense action and some language Running time: 2 hours, 4 minutes Playing: Starts Oct. 21 in general release

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Black Adam is Warner Bros.’ most brutal superhero letdown yet

Warner bros.’ long-awaited black adam movie starring dwayne ‘the rock’ johnson is a one-note spectacle for children about how cool murder is.

By Charles Pulliam-Moore , a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.

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A tight shot of a bald man in a black superhero suit with lightning crawling up his left arm to shoot out of his right, which is reaching beyond the camera’s view.

Black Adam , Warner Bros.’ latest superhero movie based on DC’s comic books, has been in the works ever since the studio first came around on the genuinely inspired idea of casting Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as a terrifying Superman analogue best known for beefing with children . In Black Adam , you can plainly see how much hope and faith Warner Bros. has placed in the idea that a darker, more brutal antiheroic figure might be just what its beleaguered cinematic universe of cape films needs to pull itself out of what seems like a death spiral . What’s harder to see, though, is how anyone at Warner Bros. looked at the completed Black Adam and didn’t immediately recognize it as yet another sign of what a messy place the DCEU’s become.

Black Adam, from director Jaume Collet-Serra, tells the story of Teth-Adam (Johnson), an ancient, magically empowered demigod who first walked the Earth as a mortal man thousands of years ago in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Kahndaq. Though the bulk of Black Adam is set in present-day Kahndaq and follows Teth-Adam as he confusedly tries to understand what became of his nation after he vanished one day in the past, the movie also repeatedly flashes back to his life as an ordinary man in order to make you understand what it is that drives him to be the way he is.

Before Teth-Adam became a hulking, invulnerable thunderstorm shaped like a professional wrestler, he was one of the countless enslaved Kahndaqi forced by their tyrannical king to mine their land for its Eternium, a glowing rare metal whose properties are never really spelled out. Brutal as life under their king was, no one ever dared to rise up against their oppressors for fear of death. But Black Adam ’s earliest scenes detail how that all changed one day thanks to Teth-Adam’s son Hurut (Jalon Christian) — a young boy whose act of defiance sparked a revolution and subsequently led to his death.

A muscular bald man wearing a humongous golden necklace and embracing his son, who is also bald and dying.

Though Black Adam’s backstory has always been an important part of understanding him as a character, the movie’s way of gradually teasing out what happened to his family while also playing coy about some rather obvious details is one of the first signs that Black Adam ’s script isn’t firing on all cylinders. It’s not hard to figure out the big secret Black Adam’s hiding in the present day after professor Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) wakes him from a centuries-long sleep by saying the word “shazam.” And to be fair, Black Adam doesn’t try all that hard to keep the secret hidden or make it intriguing because, once Teth-Adam’s up and operating in modern Kahndaq, the movie shifts gears dramatically to focus on giving its protagonist the flashiest, most murder-filled debut the DCEU’s had yet.

In the same way that Teth-Adam often beats his enemies with his fists, Black Adam beats you over the head with the idea that Kahndaq has been repeatedly besieged, occupied, and in desperate need of a Hero™ over the ages. Were it not for Tomaz’s cape-obsessed son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), it might take longer for Teth-Adam to understand how superheroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman are to the modern world what the Champion of Kahndaq once was to his own home country. But when Teth-Adam comes face-to-face with the first of the many groups of soldiers sent to neutralize him after he wakes up, Black Adam starts doing what pretty much every American superhero movie does: find a multitude of different ways to make murder look cool.

As many superheroes as there are in DC’s catalog of IP, there are only but so many imaginative ways that Hollywood’s developed to bring them and their powers to the big screen. Rather than placing Teth-Adam into imaginative situations designed to show off his power set, Black Adam instead features an overabundance of visceral 300 -style action sequences that slow down and speed up in order to accentuate how unbothered the demigod is as he’s zapping people with lightning or tossing them into the sky before their spines are crushed. But because the movie never really tries to establish what Black Adam’s worldview is or how he feels about… anything, its attempt at framing him as a solemn, self-assured arbiter of justice instead makes him come across like an uncharming sociopath à la Brightburn .

A man in a black body suit emblazoned with a glowing lightning bolt and accented by a black hooded cape. Behind the man is a wall of flames from an explosion he’s caused.

A big part of what makes Black Adam feel like such a weird misfire is how undeniably charismatic we all know Johnson is capable of being even when he’s portraying characters that you aren’t exactly meant to see as “good” people. You can see shades of that magnetism and how much more compelling it might make Teth-Adam as Black Adam introduces a curious new version of the Justice Society of America consisting of Carter Hall / Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Kent Nelson / Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Albert Rothstein / Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo).

It’s when the JSA shows up in Kahndaq to fight Teth-Adam that Black Adam remembers how fun and exciting superhero stories can be no matter how serious their main characters are. In sharp contrast to the uninspired way Black Adam shows off Teth-Adam’s strength, the movie’s action sequences featuring Cyclone’s sky-dancing aerokinesis and Doctor Fate’s theatrical parlor tricks are some of its most memorable. Hawkman’s never really needed the sort of rebranding that made everyone take the DCEU’s Aquaman more seriously , but Hodge’s Hall exudes a magnetism and worldliness that immediately makes you want to know more about him, his team, and what kind of presence they have outside of Black Adam .

A graying old man wearing a blue shirt and a tan vest bumps fists with a younger man wearing golden armor that’s vaguely bird-themed. In the foreground sits a shining golden helmet reflecting light from throughout the room.

But the JSA’s arrival in Kahndaq, and the way Black Adam pits them against Teth-Adam, has an unfortunate way of highlighting how hesitant the movie is to say what it really wants to say about our pop cultural obsession with mythic superhumans sworn to protect us. It would make all the sense in the world for Teth-Adam to have nothing but fury and thunderbolts for foreign vigilantes coming into his home. But Black Adam stops short of being that logical, both because Warner Bros. knows how irredeemable it might make the character seem in people’s eyes and because the studio has some rather obvious plans for him in the future.

For those who’ve been waiting for a big, bombastic celebration of how powerful Black Adam is that also strips away most of the narrative context that makes him work in DC’s comic, neither Black Adam nor its mid-credits scene will disappoint. But for anyone hoping that Black Adam might actually herald a new era of quality and substantive superhero features from Warner Bros., there’s always the chance that the next movie he pops up in might be a good one.

Black Adam also stars Marwan Kenzari, Mohammed Amer, and Uli Latukefu. The movie hits theaters on October 21st.

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BLACK ADAM – Review

By Marc Butterfield

You can be the destroyer of this world…or you can be its Savior

Black Adam is finally out, and if you haven’t seen it, do. While the first thing that separates the character from a lot of the other superhero movies in the genre, is that, for starters, he’s not a hero. He’s an antihero in its near purest form. Dwayne Johnson, master of shameless self promotion has been touting the greatness of this film for a while now, and this time, beyond a shadow of a doubt, he’s right. And what Black Adam believes is right comes from a place of ultimate struggle… and sacrifice.

Born Teth Adam, the character’s origin story is a tragic one. As penned by Adam Sztykiel and Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani, the film reveals the twist of fate that not only gifted this champion of ancient Kahndaq with his powers, but also left him alone and embittered, wreaking havoc throughout the realm. The Wizards, realizing what has happened, imprison Teth Adam deep within the Rock of Eternity. This is where the black-hearted Black Adam has been entombed for 5,000 years. However, the suspension of time has not weakened him, physically or emotionally; the moment he is freed, he is clearly still imbued with god-like powers, still an invulnerable powerhouse possessing unbelievable strength and lightning-fast speed…and anger. Back with a vengeance and unleashing his own brand of justice amongst those around But forever comes to an end when Teth Adam is suddenly summoned by one word…SHAZAM!

Now, with the same mindset that got him buried 5,000 years earlier, Black Adam’s modern day journey begins. Black Adam’s return is quickly noted by Carter Hall – a.k.a. Hawkman, portrayed by Aldis Hodge – who immediately puts out the call to his friend Kent Nelson, a.k.a. Doctor Fate, played by Pierce Brosnan; Al Rothstein/Atom Smasher, played by Noah Centineo; and Maxine Hunkel/Cyclone, played by Quintessa Swindell.

Re-forming the Justice Society, the team is swiftly galvanized into action to contain the antihero’s destruction halfway around the world. Black Adam has awakened to modern day Kahndaq, in his time a great kingdom but now a shadow of its former self. The once storied and wealthy country, the birthplace of ancient magic and the epicenter of the region’s most vital, priceless resource—Eternium—is being pillaged for that precious resource. Leading the charge is Intergang; a villainous organization simultaneously mining the last vestiges of Eternium and destroying Kahndaq’s citizens’ chance for a prosperous future.

Soon, like everything else around him, the Justice Society proves to be another nuisance. And, even as Black Adam gains a better understanding of this new version of his city and country, he remains conflicted; his anger still burns and his definitive moral code never wavers as he navigates what he’s meant to be for this version of Kahndaq. At the same time there is another, more dangerous adversary growing more powerful, and this triad of opposing foes—Black Adam, the Justice Society and the leader of Intergang— are destined to clash to determine the future of Kahndaq and, perhaps, the world. On a side note: credit is given to Jack Kirby who created the Fourth World. InterGang debuted in Kirby’s Fourth World saga. While it isn’t a straight adaptation of any previous material, nor does the screenplay pull from any of their storylines, it does reference elements readers of The New 52’s The Dark Age and the latest Hawkman comics will recognize.

Teth Adam, the titular hero of the movie, didn’t ASK to be brought back, he was safely and comfortably entombed in the capital city of the fictional country of Khondaq, until some tomb raiders, chasing the real hero of this story, caused his release. But once he’s unleashed, watch out!

He handles the bad guys in a way that we all wish a lot of the other heroes would, especially given this sets brutality. They do get what they have been doling out for apparently years.

From here the film goes into overdrive with an economy of storytelling that is efficient and useful: new characters are brought in without dragging us all through an unnecessarily lengthy and protracted period of exposition. We meet them, we get a few seconds that sets them up for their role in the story, and that’s it, move along, we have stuff to do.

There are returning characters from other DCEU properties, Amanda Waller (played to perfection by Viola Davis) and fellow government stooge from the Suicide Squad, Jennifer Holland as black ops agent Emilia Harcourt as well as some surprise cameos.

Director Collet-Serra’s singular vision is made more powerful by the cinematography of Lawrence Sher, the costume design team of Kurt and Bart, stunt coordinator Tommy Harper and special effects coordinator J.D. Schwalm. The epic score comes from composer Lorne Balfe who captures the essence of the DC comic book world’s antihero. The Black Adam Theme and The Justice Society Theme are highlights of the film.

BLACK ADAM doesn’t do what a LOT of other superhero movies have gotten into the habit of doing lately, which is bogging itself down with an overabundance of side stories and useless character clips. We meet Hawkman (Aldis Hodge, who makes this DC steadfast a real bad ass) and Doctor Fate, played by Pierce Brosnan with so much heart that he makes you forget about any other superhero wizarding types (ahem, sorry BC). Plus there’s great chemistry and team-bonding between Centineo and Swindell. We aren’t spoon-fed background about them, but rather we get to see, not hear, why they matter to the events unfolding.

There is a bit of social commentary in the movie, you aren’t force-fed, but led. It matters though. And there is action. A LOT of action. It’s beautiful, destructive, especially the standard comic book bit where two factions that should be working together meet, and have to fight it out to figure out what side things fall out on. And it is done well.

BLACK ADAM is in theaters and IMAX now.

RATING: 3 1/2 out of 4 stars

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In 'Black Adam,' a lightning-based champion can't hold a charge

Glen Weldon

Black Adam the character (Dwayne Johnson) tosses lightning, but Black Adam the movie is a Faraday cage. Warner Bros. hide caption

Black Adam the character (Dwayne Johnson) tosses lightning, but Black Adam the movie is a Faraday cage.

Black Adam is what happens when you build a movie from the outside in — when you start with the visuals and figure everything else will just fall into place.

More to the point: Black Adam doesn't work. To understand why, it helps to know where the character comes from.

In the early 2000s, writers Geoff Johns and David S. Goyer — with art by Stephen Sadowski and many others — introduced to the comics pages a new version of Black Adam. The character had been around since the 1940s as a supervillain who dogged the family of superheroes that, like him, had been given powers by the wizard Shazam. As such, he came factory-installed with the basic supervillain-threats package: I'll destroy you, I'll rule the world, etc.

Their new Black Adam, however, was a statesman in spandex, ruler of the fictional nation of Kandhaq. He was haughty, superior, imperious, humorless. They were careful never to depict him doing anything so prosaic as walking, or even standing. No — whenever you saw him, he hovered about a foot above the floor, peering down his aquiline nose at those (literally and figuratively!) beneath him. It was a power move, obviously — and it made for a great visual. Not for nothing.

When what the Rock is cooking is under-seasoned

From the moment he was first revamped in the comics, fan sites lit up with posts dreamcasting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Black Adam. In their defense, there was a strong resemblance. And as this is superhero comics we're talking about, keep in mind that the essential appeal of any character is partly — let's be real, largely — visual. Particularly for readers of comics who start young, it's a hero or villain's look — their color palette, costume design, logo, and their sheer physicality as rendered across splash pages and bursting out of panel grids — that first pulls you in, and will likely retain its visceral power over you for the rest of your life.

So those fans posting their composite renderings of Black Adam's costume crudely (and sometimes not-so-crudely) Photoshopped over Johnson's superhero-ready physique were responding to something real — but that something was strictly visual. It ignored all of the dutiful work that comics writers and artists had devoted to defining the character's newly made-over vibe as a kind of diet Doctor Doom. (Doctor Vague Dread? Doctor Outlook Not So Good? Doctor Don't Count Your Chickens?)

Among the many fans of the comics' Black Adam who didn't get this particular memo, if we're to simply judge by the evidence available onscreen in Black Adam , is Dwayne Johnson himself.

Because while the actor played the heel back in his wrestling days, he's spent his retirement from the ring assiduously cultivating a charming, wisecracking, everyone's-older-brother persona, both on and off the screen. His is a charismatic presence that flatly, emphatically and very intentionally exists to dispel notions like "haughty," "imperious" and especially "humorless."

It's easy to imagine the big lug reading a comic depicting Black Adam as an all-powerful badass who slaughters hundreds of bad guys and thinking: That'd be cool to play. And then, after checking his socials, going even further than that: And people want to see me play it!

But his performance in director Jaume Collet-Serra's middling, muddled foray into the DCU keeps fighting against itself — and losing. The actor's dogged attempt to play aloof and imperious effectively quashes his natural, movie-star charisma — his ability to connect to audiences — and shuts him down completely. As a result, his Adam comes across as simply dour. Distant. Ponderous. Persnickety, even.

Hey Mr. Producer, I'm talking to you, sir

Perhaps he thinks he's serving Clint Eastwood's stoic Man With No Name? Certainly the film itself explicitly and repeatedly references that character. The difference, which turns out to be an all-important one, lies in the two actors' respective approaches to stardom.

Eastwood never particularly cared what we thought of him as a person. Johnson, however, has always displayed an innate yet carefully cultivated sense of what he believes his audience wants from him, and a baseline desire to move through the world as Four-Quadrant Appeal made flesh. You can feel that brand-awareness, that abiding cautiousness, leaking out of Johnson every moment he spends onscreen here.

That the star is also a producer of Black Adam will be lost on no one, as it keeps manifesting in ways small and large.

Small first: In the comics, Black Adam sports a Dracula-esque widow's peak and pointy little elf-ears. Both of those attributes got nixed — in a very early production meeting, no doubt.

Again and again in the film, physical representations of other, much better-known DC Comics characters — posters, action figures, etc. — get crushed or shredded or pulverized into a fine dust. It feels playful at first — a shot across the bow! — but then, somewhere after the fifth occurrence, it becomes something else.

More centrally, we have Johnson's insistence that Black Adam's story merited its own film, and should not get shunted into a Shazam! sequel, as was originally planned. This despite the fact that the two characters share the same origin, power set and visual iconography. What are we to make of the fact that Zachary Levi's Shazam! character, a powerful flying guy with lightning powers, doesn't even rate a mention in a film whose central plot finds Amanda Waller (Viola Davis, again) scrambling to find heroes capable of going up against...a powerful flying guy with lightning powers?

If there's a difference between being a producer and convincing a major studio to bankroll your vanity project, Black Adam doesn't argue strongly for it.

Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) would like a word. (Pssst. It's "Shazam." "Shazam" is the word he would like.) Warner Bros. hide caption

Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) would like a word. (Pssst. It's "Shazam." "Shazam" is the word he would like.)

Going back for seconds, and thirds, and fourths

It seems both obvious and inevitable to note that, this many years into superhero cinema's ascendancy, novelty comes at a premium.

Even so, Black Adam seems perfectly content to pick over the wilted remains of the superhero-movie salad bar. Its wry, goateed wizard Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan) plays like warmed-over wry, goateed wizard Dr. Strange. Its gee-shucks, hero-worshipping giant Atom-Smasher (Noah Centineo) can't help but remind us of gee-shucks, hero-worshipping giant Ant-Man. Its magical element Eternium feels like something scribbled on the whiteboard at the naming session where they brainstormed Vibranium. And the nerdy kid who eagerly advises Black Adam about his powers and catchphrases (Bodhi Sabongui) owes so much to the nerdy kid who eagerly advised Zachary Levi's character about his powers and catchphrases that it's gotta be an intentional attempt at parallelism. Right?

What is arguably new — new-ish, anyway — about Black Adam is how matter-of-factly it positioning at its center an all-powerful anti-hero who kills without remorse.

But even this gets in the way of the film's storytelling. We kick off with the Kandhaqi freedom-fighter Arianna (Sarah Shahi) unwittingly awakening Black Adam from his millennia-long sleep and, equally unwittingly, leading many, many, many generic bad guys to his location. Black Adam unceremoniously proceeds to slaughter them in a set-piece marked by Zack Snyder-esque camera flourishes — but in the aftermath, as he hovers over a field strewn with dismembered corpses, you start wondering where the film can go from there. How does it escalate? How does it hope to increase the tension?

For a while, Black Adam simply opts not to bother. Instead, it just keeps throwing more generic bad guys into the po-faced, levitating sausage grinder that is Johnson's character. When the Justice Society arrives, with its more powerful opponents, it's reasonable to hope that they'd pose something of a challenge. But no, not really — he still kicks their asses in a series of hero-on-hero fight scenes. It just takes him a little longer.

You'd think, in a movie that featured so many of the kind of super-powered confrontations that most films like this shunt to the third act, we'd be mercifully spared the climactic clash in which the hero fights an evil version of themselves.

Don't hold your breath.

When CGI catches up to comics artists

But back to the Justice Society — there's Brosnan's Dr. Fate, Centineo's Atom-Smasher, plus Aldis Hodge's Hawkman and Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone. Don't worry, you haven't missed the movie that introduced any of them before — this isn't the MCU, after all, where characters get a trot around the track on their own before getting dragooned into a team. In DC, everyone hits the ground running at the same time.

Consequently, the film asks us to invest far more emotional weight in the Dr. Fate/Hawkman friendship than Brosnan and Hodge manage to generate in their scant minutes of screen time together.

But at least they look great, which is no small feat. Growing up reading Dr. Fate comics (yes, I was the one!) I've always loved the bold simplicity of his blue-and-gold outfit — whenever he dons the helm that obscures his face, he could pass for the mascot of University of Michigan's fencing team. And while Hawkman's costume always looks great on paper, there's a nagging goofiness that's crept into his few previous live-action forays.

Think about it: In the comics, you've got a guy hovering in the air with wings dramatically extended. Awesome! Iconic!

But in live-action, the only way that same guy stays airborne is by...flapping. And flapping. And flapping. It's much less striking. It's vaguely uncomfortable to look at, frankly.

This Hawkman works, though. So well that you hardly even notice the flapping.

The hero Cyclone isn't given much to do, but what little she does, she does colorfully. As she generates and controls the wind, she transforms into a multi-hued blur — until, that is, director Collet-Serra ramps down the camera speed, and we get a glamour shot that looks like a Sears Portrait Studio photographer instructed her to poke her head through a bed of rainbow cotton candy.

Keep it simple, for the shareholders

Early on, you'd be forgiven for thinking that Black Adam aims to engage with ideas that, historically, PG-13 studio superhero movies studiously avoid: the brutal legacy of imperialism and colonization, for example. The inadequacy of individual action – even superheroic action — within systems built to oppress. For a thrilling moment, even the most essential tenet of superheroism — the whole notion of putting one's faith in a single individual, any individual, instead of taking collective action — seems like it might be on the table. But in the end these ideas, and others, get only gestured toward, never seriously engaged with.

Most mystifying is the film's decision to depict Kandhaq as a country under the thumb of a white occupying force, only to then primly insist that the true enemy here is a homegrown would-be tyrant. It's a dodge, and it's put there intentionally to assuage, to reassure, to smooth any feathers that might get ruffled by the blandest suggestion of Western culpability in the oppression of even a fictional people.

It's just one more of this film's many frustrating aspects, but it's rooted, like all the rest of them, in the overcautious, risk-avoidant hollowness of its central performance.

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Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Power born from rage.

Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods—and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.

Dwayne Johnson Aldis Hodge Noah Centineo Sarah Shahi Quintessa Swindell Marwan Kenzari Mo Amer Bodhi Sabongui Pierce Brosnan James Cusati-Moyer Jalon Christian Benjamin Patterson Odelya Halevi Uli Latukefu Jennifer Holland Henry Winkler Chaim Jeraffi Sharon Gee Stephan Jones A. Manuel Miranda Djimon Hounsou Raj Kala E. Lloyd Napier Kiara Rashawn Onye Eme-Akwari Sanna Erica Vince Canlas Tonea Stewart Meghna Nagarajan Show All… Patrick Sabongui Alex Parkinson Joseph Gatt Kamen Casey Dennis Dawson Mike Senior Jermaine Rivers Regina Ting Chen Sekou Laidlow Cameron Moir Donny Carrington Boone Platt Philip Fornah Derek Russo Angel Rosario Jr. Tang Nguyen Christopher Matthew Cook Natasha Ellie Daniel Danca Yssa Mei Panganiban Ben Jenkin Viola Davis Henry Cavill Natalie Burn Maurice T. Johnson Tre Ryan Vanessa Vega Rivera

Director Director

Jaume Collet-Serra

Producers Producers

Jennifer Conroy Jazmyn Tanski Jarin Rossiter Miguel Victorio Beau Flynn Hiram Garcia Dany Garcia Dwayne Johnson

Writers Writers

Adam Sztykiel Rory Haines Sohrab Noshirvani

Original Writers Original Writers

Bill Parker Jerry Siegel Jack Kirby Joe Shuster C.C. Beck

Casting Casting

Editors editors.

John Lee Michael L. Sale

Cinematography Cinematography

Lawrence Sher

Assistant Directors Asst. Directors

Ryan J. Pezdirc Megan Schmidt Nick Satriano

Additional Directing Add. Directing

Greg Rementer

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Chris Pan Toby Emmerich Adam Schlagman Walter Hamada Geoff Johns Dave Neustadter Eric McLeod Richard Brener Scott Sheldon

Production Design Production Design

Art direction art direction.

Anne Costa Virginia Berg Sarah Delucchi Yuri Bartoli Beat Frutiger Justin O'Neal Miller Robert Aguirre Mike Stassi Kevin Gilbert Mari Lappalainen Rachel Aguirre Christian Scheurer Joseph Grundfast Kevin Houlihan

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Amanda Cornell Tim Croshaw Yu Kil-won Larry Dias Brett Fahle Mark Keever David Chow Nick Forman Ryan Heck Silvia Mahapatra Emma Sparer Justin Trudeau Scott Herbertson Monika van Schellenbeck Shari Ratliff Bria Kinter Blade Ladish Richard F. Mays Joseph Ramiro Daniela Medeiros Stella Vaccaro Allen Coulter Cheyenne A. Bell Walter Schneider

Special Effects Special Effects

John Rosploch Robert Brenner Anthony Delacruz Matthew Dion Jason Sheriff Roxanne Gross Dino Doane

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Bill Westenhofer Pier Lefebvre William Wright Anderson Brandon Hines Austin Beaulier Nikos Kalaitzidis John Lindstein Fabricio de Vasconcellos Baessa Antonio Jeff Bruneel Marlon Victor Bondoc Zachary Kinney James Milligan Cliff Welsh Karen M. Murphy Rob Meyers Chris Morley Gabriela Pruszkowska Matthew McDonald Jev Belyaev Zachary Goodson Jefrin Antony Patrick Bacon Claire Callway Robert Bock Youcef Bessaa Gaia Bussolati Alexander T.H. Browne Valentin Cottenye Rohan Bediskar Nick Irving Allen Aaron Cornwall Daniel Enrique De Leon Etienne Devillée Lisieux Calandro David Blanco Castillero Romain Besnard Angel Carrasco Daniele DeMaio Nilesh Chhadimali Sean Cushing Darby Faccinto Aaron Eaton Adam Endrodi Matthew Dravitzki Patcha Binginapalli Fabrizio Fioretti Andrew Hofman Mike Hsu Vincent Ren Haur Hsu Suzanne MacLennan Ramiro Galan Martin Gorbea Sanchez Jeremy Hampton Paolo Forni Max Hicks Jacob Metcalf James Milligan Fredrick Lyn Deokmun Jeong Marie-Eve Lecours Jacob Curtis Miller Hugo R.A. Morris Yuyoung Lim Emad Khalili Mike Meaker Ryan E. Murphy Yash S. Pathak Robert Schajer Elisabetta Rocca Wonchan Song Vinay Krishan Rohilla Margo Smith William B. Lim Doug Spilatro Mathieu Vezina Patrice Poissant Victor Van De Velde Paul Story Hiromu Yoshida Derek Spears Matthias Villemont Justin Strong Shevina Valentina Arda Uysal Duy Pham Robert Chapin

Stunts Stunts

Freddie Poole Joe Bucaro III Tanoai Reed Corrina Roshea Bobb Nicole Marines Jessica Medina Adrienne Ballenger Kelly Bellini

Composer Composer

Lorne Balfe

Sound Sound

Ann Scibelli D. Chris Smith David Werntz Bill R. Dean Greg ten Bosch Michael Keller Tom Ozanich Bryan O. Watkins Harry Cohen Christopher Battaglia Ando Johnson Tim Walston Erick Ocampo Diego Perez Ryan Murphy John Sheridan Matt Vowles Sean Byrne Can Yesilyurt Mitch Osias Darrin Mann Patricia Nedd Whit Norris Alyson Dee Moore

Costume Design Costume Design

Bart Mueller Kurt Swanson

Makeup Makeup

Gary Archer Deborah La Mia Denaver Amani Durrani Kelcey Fry Mazena Puksto Heather Benson Amanda Sprunger Haile Werntz Para Malden Sarah Mays Bill McCoy Bjørn Rabben Lia Malamo Chris Diamantides Kerry Herta Joel Harlow Midian Crosby Matthew W. Mungle Donna Martin Kaylee Swisher Tonilee Marrone Michael Shawn McCracken Darla Wigley Björn Rehbein Don Rutherford Deborah Rutherford

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Jennifer Hodges Leay Cangelosi Adruitha Lee Suzanna Boykin Monique Hyman Kate Loftis Irenia Vail Cassie Russek

New Line Cinema Flynn Picture Company DC Films Seven Bucks Productions Warner Bros. Pictures

Releases by Date

12 oct 2022, 19 oct 2022, 20 oct 2022, 21 oct 2022, 02 dec 2022, 22 nov 2022, 05 dec 2022, 16 dec 2022, 01 jan 2023, 16 feb 2023, 16 mar 2024, 03 jan 2023, 16 jan 2023, 19 jan 2023, 22 feb 2023, releases by country.

Theatrical M
Theatrical 14
Digital 14 HBO Max
Theatrical PG
Theatrical 12
Theatrical 11
Theatrical K-12
Digital 12 VOD
Physical 12 DVD, Blu-Ray & 4K UHD
Physical 12
Premiere K15
Theatrical 16
Digital TVOD
Digital Netflix
Theatrical 12A
Theatrical All
Theatrical T
Theatrical G
Theatrical N-13
Theatrical B

Netherlands

New zealand, philippines.

Premiere 15
Theatrical PG13

South Africa

Theatrical 13

South Korea

Theatrical 6+
Theatrical 13A
Physical 12A 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray / DVD
Premiere New York City, New York
Theatrical PG-13
Digital PG-13
Digital PG-13 HBO Max
Physical PG-13 4K Ultra HD / Blu-ray / DVD

125 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by demi adejuyigbe 48

not so much a movie as it is a Black Adam (2022) - All Scenes | Movieclips YouTube compilation

Review by Karsten

noah centineo is gonna continue delivering the corniest performances imaginable and i’m gonna keep watching them

Review by davidehrlich ★½

The question that “Black Adam” poses is a simple one: What happens when Hollywood’s most risk-averse movie star collides with Hollywood’s most risk-averse movie genre? The answer provided by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s depressingly inevitable (and inevitably depressing) foray into the superhero-industrial complex is, of course, even simpler: Exactly what you’d expect. Only worse.

All due respect to whatever unique and illustrious history Black Adam may have developed since his DC Comics debut in 1945, but the lifeless spectacle that director Jaume Collet-Serra — who made some nifty thrillers before “Jungle Cruise” reduced him to the John Ford of Rawson Marshall Thurbers — has cobbled together for the character’s big screen origin story is so exhaustingly derivative of other superhero…

Review by IHE ★★ 53

exactly what you’d expect from a Dwanye Johnson led superhero movie in 2022

Review by Dakota Joaquin ★★ 38

For the love of God can we please just stop pretending that Dwayne Johnson is a good actor it’s not funny anymore

Review by ty ★★ 15

I’m sad to say that this was not about drive, it was not about power, they were not hungry and they did not devour. They may have put in the work, put in the hours to take what’s theirs but was it worth it? No.

Review by Sydney🚀 ★★ 31

I don’t want to talk about what I just watched I want to talk about when we are getting a Pierce Brosnan Doctor Fate movie

Review by ash ½ 1

Imagine cannibalising your studio’s streaming catalogue, cancelling near-finished projects for a tax write off, and pinning all of your box office hopes on *checks notes* Black Adam and Don’t Worry Darling. Revenge is a dish best served in poor Rotten Tomatoes scores.

Review by Riley ½ 17

Kinda like having your cerebellum ruptured minus the satisfaction of at least being dead at the end.

Review by ♦️•Lily•💋 ★ 21

The reason he’s called the rock is because he has the acting range of one

Review by George Carmi ★★½ 17

BREAKING NEWS: THE ROCK SAVES THE DCEU...

...in another dimension. Not ours. Unfortunately.

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blecch adam

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Jason's Movie Blog

A movie blog for movie reviews, trailers, and more.

Black Adam (2022) Review

ALL JOHNSON AND NO SUBSTANCE

The DCEU has certainly had its fair share of problems along its planned trajectory. As Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) continues to provide moviegoers everywhere with its extensive cinematic library of Marvel character superhero adventures, the DCEU is trying to play catch up with its own realm of costumed heroes and superhuman beings. The studio, which falls under the movie studio control of Warner Bros. Pictures, has had a difficult time in producing a successful formula in trying to convey DC Comics of superheroes into cinematic endeavor for moviegoers to enjoy. This is apparently known in the spilt decisions of 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , the problematic efforts in 2016’s Suicide Squad , and the disappointing presentation of 2017’s Justice League , with most finding these projects (in general terms) not meet to the standards of what was promised. This is even further expanded upon other endeavors such as 2020’s Birds of Prey and Wonder Woman 1984 , which faced very differences of opinions from reviews and moviegoers alike, as well as the DCEU shake-up, with future projects being pushed back, shuffled around, and even shelving them completely (the now unreleased Batgirl film). That being said, the DCEU is starting to find its groove, especially after the release of 2017’s Wonder Woman , 2018’s Aquaman, and 2019’s Shazam! ; finding those feature films to have their own swagger and appeal that works in both film storytelling and entertainment purpose for audiences. Now, following the more favorable release of 2021’s Suicide Squad , Warner Bros Studios and director Jaume Collet-Sera gears up for the next installment in the DCEU with the release of Black Adam . Given the inherit and anticipation for this project, does this superhero soar high to blockbuster glory or is it just a derivate and messy production that doesn’t go anywhere?

In the middle eastern country known as Kahndaq, the villainous crime syndicate called Intergang has claimed the land for their own, putting the locals under their control as they harvest their natural resources, including Eternium. Young boy named Amon (Bodhi Sabongui) wants to push back against the invaders of his homeland by causing trouble, while his mother, Adrianna (Sarah Shahl), is an archaeologist is in search of the fabled Crown of Sabbac, a magical object that’s capable of bringing the wearer tremendous power. While searching for the crown in a nearby crypt, Adrianna also uncovers an ancient tomb, and when threatened with encroaching Intergang enforcers, she manages to free Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson), a being from the ancient world that has been imbued with incredible superpowers, from his slumberous prison. Returning to Kahndaq, Amon tries to encourage Teth-Adam to become a hero for the people, with the recently awakened man’s god-like strength and Shazam magic easily defeating aggressors. Investigating this strange arrival is the Justice Society, with superhero veterans Kent Nelson / Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan) and Carter Hall / Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) leading the charge as well as recruit newcomers Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Albert “Al” Rothstein / Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) are tasked with deciding just how dangerous Teth-Adam truly is. Unbeknownst to all parties, another party is looking for the Crown of Sabbac, who seeks to claim the ancient power for his own and seeking dominion of nightmare consequences.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

It’s very easy to point out that the differences between the MCU and DCEU have been. It’s basically night and day type of experience, with one studio finding its rhythm (albeit formulaic in some regards) yet proving to be effective, while the other struggles to find its stride. Yes, I’ll admit that I did like Man of Steel (probably one of the select few who did) as well as Wonder Woman (love actress Gal Gadot as Diana Prince) and Aquaman (the sheer epic scope of the feature is amazing), but the DCEU has been problematic with their other release (i.e. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice , Suicide Squad , Wonder Woman 1984 , and Justice League ). Those features, while promising with plenty of superhero nuances and inherit hype from its pre-release marketing, didn’t exactly match up to what many (including myself) expected, which is reflected upon the feedback from moviegoers and the “behind the scenes” shake up of the franchise, leaving the continuation of the DCEU in a somewhat ambiguous limbo state, which is in contrast to the how the MCU is presenting its feature films. Yet, some of their recent endeavors have barked a bit up fruit than others, including the much more favorable representation of the Suicide Squad in the 2021 film as well as the vastly superior director’s cut of Justice League in 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League . In the end, it’s kind of hard to tell what direction Warner Bros Studios is charting for the DCEU, especially with the company being merger is Discovery. Let’s hope for the best!

This, of course, brings me back to talking about Black Adam , a 2022 superhero film and the 10 th installment in the DCEU lineup (11 th one if you include Zack Snyder’s Justice League ). Given the various notions that the DCEU has recently had with its struggle of trying to find its particular so-called “cinematic groove”, I was kind of curious when Black Adam was first announced, especially with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson playing the titular lead character role. Of course, Johnson has acted before in a variety of action and comedy endeavors, but not in the superhero genre. I do like Johnson in several of his movies (love him in Moana , the Jumanji movies, and all the Fast and Furious features that he’s in), so I was kind of interested to see how the former wrestler turned actor was going to handle such a leading superhero character role such as Black Adam. From that point onward, I really didn’t hear much about the movie. I mean I heard about it, but nothing about the cast or the plot or the director or anything like that. Only that it was going to be a very “hyped up” blockbuster feature for the DCEU. Of course, my first really impression for the movie came in the form of the movie trailers for Black Adam , which were heavily featured a lot during the “coming attractions” previews every time I went out to the movie theaters. From that alone, the movie looked pretty good and looked like Johnson was going to be the right fit for such a stoic no-nonsense type of antihero character. Thus, I was curious to see Black Adam and went to see during its opening day on October 21 st , 2022. And what did I think of it? Well, I have to say that I was quite disappointed with the movie. Despite have a bit of fun with its non-stop action and a very suitable fit of Johnsons as the titular character, Black Adam feels like dated and generic superhero origin movie that has little substance to sustain such a popular character. There’s a few redeem qualities, but that’s not enough and makes the whole endeavor just borderline mediocre. And that’s a shame for a movie that’s been super hyped up as the “next big thing” for the DCEU.

Black Adam is directed by Jaume Collet-Sera, whose previous directorial works includes Non-Stop , The Shallows , and Jungle Cruise . Given his familiarity with suspenseful thrills and action sequences in those films, Collett-Sera seems like a suitable choice to direct a promised action-packed superhero film of which Black Adam is being touted as such. Thus, for that effort alone, I do commend Collet-Sera’s direction for making the movie embracing the various action scenes throughout the feature. I personally think that the action scenes were better in the first half rather than latter half, but (overall) the movie does promise that high octane action sequences that were shown in the trailers. In that regard, I think that Collet-Sera succeeds in making the action very frenetic and fun to watch. There is violence to be had in the film ( Black Adam is rated PG-13) and there are few moments to see how Teth-Adam deals with bad guys in an almost Mortal Kombat finishing move. Basically, Collet-Sera knows what moviegoers want to see and delivers that in the movie; finding the action scenes to be some of the best part that Black Adam has to offer. It’s nothing mind-blowing or incredibly awesome, but it is something that entertaining to see, which Black Adam heavily banks on.

There are a few storytelling beats and elements that do technically work in Black Adams’s narrative, with Collet-Sera staging them for some poignant mean Of course, I do like the whole “hero awakening in modern day” of which the movie that heavy uses when Teth-Adams awakes in present day Kahndaq and seeing him interact with modern technology and objects. Of course, this particular usage has been many times before, but the execution of it all is amusing to watch in the film as a fun gag of sorts. Of course, I do like the more fantastical fantasy elements of superhero features, with Black Adam heavily steeped in that notion, with plenty of mystical vistas, powerful beings, and the usage of magic. I’ve always gravitated towards movies like that and, while not super exciting as other endeavors, I still appreciate the movie embracing that fantasy superhero element. As for the emotional part, I did like how Collet-Sera stages a few one of them as well as few poignant means, including why the JS (or any other superhero for that matter) haven’t stepped in to stop the Intergang organization from oppressing the people of Kahndaq, but only came to the war-torn country to stop Teth-Adam. It may be a little plot point to discuss or examine, but I do like it and poises an interesting question on the nature of superheroes and what they deem worth to get involved.

In the presentation category, Black Adam meets the industry standards for what a current superhero blockbuster feature film is called for. It doesn’t push the boundaries of modern cinematics of comic book film endeavors, yet it still keeps to the tradition and spirit of one. Of course, it’s kind of interesting to see most (if not all) of the movie being located in a Middle Eastern-esque country (Kahndaq) and not in some generic “big city” in the USA. Plus, while we are on that topic, I did like how Black Adam does have a few prominent key characters being played by Middle Eastern talents. Anyways, the setting showcases of various war-torn areas, including a decrepit cityscape of which a lot of the film’s battles fought on, which makes the whole action scenes fun to watch. This also includes several fantastic places that (again) use the film’s fantasy elements, that help build the ancient powers that are at play from the old world. Thus, while the movie isn’t perfect, I do have to give credit to several of the movie’s “behind the scenes” team, including Tom Meyer (production design), Larry Dias (set decorations), Kurt and Bart (costume design), and the entire art direction department. Additionally, the cinematography work by Lawrence Sher has some good moments that help build dramatic cinematics throughout the movie. Even a few crucial areas are overused (more on that below). Lastly, the film’s score, which was composed by Lorne Balfe, is actually pretty good. There’s plenty to like about it as it is charged with plenty of pounding bombastic pieces as well as few quieter / chanting suites that help build the more dramatic / uplifting moments. A pretty solid score from Balfe.

Unfortunately, Black Adam isn’t all the hype that everyone was hoping for, with huge and glaring problematic areas that hinder the feature from standing tall and proud. Perhaps the most prevalent one that draws criticism towards the film is in the actual story of the narrative. What do I mean? Well, for better or worse, the story that’s being told in the movie script, which was penned by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani, is quite predictable and almost formulaic to the touch. In a nutshell, the story in Black Adam is half-baked and feels very much so lacking in a proper narrative construction in the movie. Everything about the movie from its world-building, characters (and their development), action, visuals, and superhero nuances, feel somewhat half-done, but were never properly executed quite the right way during the film’s production. Subplots are fragmented, plot holes are numerous, stuff that is presented becomes irrelevant to the plot (Eternimum), and characters are just badly written. Thus, Black Adam just comes across as mundane superhero blockbuster endeavor that only has a shell of the story to help propel Johnson in the titular antihero character.

In addition, the movie heavily uses the classic exposition sequences to quickly catch us (the viewers) up on what is going on in the movie’s world. Yet, the usage of such lengthy expositional moments can be exhausting, especially in the beginning portion of a film of which Black Adam does. Yes, it was interesting, but just very exhausting and tiresome to actually get to the feature’s “meat and potatoes” of the story. And let’s not forget that the cheesy and cringeworthy dialogue throughout the movie. I kind of figured that this was going to be the case, especially with many of the dialogue that was featured in the movie, but what was presented definitely felt quite cheesy at times. That’s not to say every single dialogue line utter was bad or terrible, but there were more than what I was expecting. This really plays upon some of the film’s more comedic and dramatic scenes, with some of the jokes and gags (dialogue driven) were tonally off and not that funny (at all) and some of the more “heavy-hitting” ones (monologues or character-built moments) felt clunky and wooden.

Another big problem is how recycled the movie is (both in superhero movie category as well as in its own aesthetics). How so? Well, from the superhero movie standpoint, Black Adams feel very much so a dated endeavor, with a lot of familiar beats being played out in the classic origin tale for comic book characters. Yes, I do understand that superhero movies are still “all the rage” and origin feature films are still quite commonplace and heavily utilized those plot points as way and means to introduce a particular super. That being said, Black Adam presents those familiar beats, but never really interjects a more modern style into the mix or (for that matter) anything really creative. What’s presented has been done before and on better storytelling platforms, with the movie feeling quite dated, especially since superhero movies have evolved into the more “golden age”. Of course, superhero endeavors have a proven formula to work with, yet they still incorporate a bit more elaborate flair within its creation (be it story, characters, dramatics, etc.). Black Adam felt like it was produced during the mid-2000s…. back when superhero movies were still trying their footing prior to the release of something like 2008’s Iron Man or The Dark Knight . I know that we (as viewers) have been a little bit spoiled in our comic book superhero movies, but Black Adam doesn’t really stand tall and proud in comparison to other releases in this modern cinematic landscape.

As for its own aesthetics, Black Adam feels recycled in a lot of its various fight sequences, with Collett-Sera staging some numbing effects within some of the story beats. How so? Well, seeing Teth-Adam fight (and easily defeat) a horde of unnamed Intergang enforcers for the first time was pretty cool and then maybe the second time still had that effect, but seeing it happen again and again in a variety of recycled motions…. that becomes a bit monotonous and mind-numbing to watch. The same be said with the Justice Society involvement in the film, who enter the feature with the intent of stopping Teth-Adam. The first time was cool, but seeing it happen again and again become just tiresome and mind-numbing. Thus, the utter repetitive nature of the movie becomes a bore and one can easily see the lack of substance that the script doesn’t have for the narrative as well as Collet-Sera who doesn’t know how to make an impactful and entertaining superhero blockbuster. Also, I do have to stress the over usage of “slow-motion” film technique and how it truly becomes annoying. Yes, this particular technique isn’t new or revolutionary as it’s been done many times over for dramatic effects in movies, but Black Adam uses it so much that it becomes tiresome to watch almost every scene that uses “slow-motion”. This also brings up the cinematography by Lawrence Sher, who goes a little bit Zack Snyder’s 300 mantra with Black Adam ….and doesn’t connect well with it. This also doesn’t make the film’s CGI visual effect shoots, which are a combination of good to mediocre, with a few glaring noticeable of bad green-screen effects or computer-generated constructs that are a little bit shoddy in their integration presentation.

Of course, a director must walk a “fine line” with superhero movies…. give too little and it becomes not enough excitement and give too much, and it becomes all-action with no substance. Sadly, Black Adam leans more heavily towards the latter, with bloated action that, while cool and visual interesting, never really challenge the status quo of either superhero movies or blockbuster pictures. This is perhaps the most apparent during the third act, with the feature reaching the climactic battle that becomes way too CGI heavy-driven that it starts to feel like a cutscene from a video game. Some elements definitely work in this particular portion of the movie, yet it still feels very hollow and doesn’t reach the same type of impact as what was intended. The final result of it makes the Black Adam’s ending feel redundant and far-less interesting than other DCEU endeavors (almost something on-par with 2016’s Suicide Squad), with lack of heart and emotion.

The cast in Black Adam is a mixture of good and bad, with several recognizable acting talents attached to this superhero blockbuster, yet most of the character themselves come off as a bit of cliché or just simple underdeveloped in the film, which renders them very much generic. Perhaps the strongest (literally) and most memorable character in the entire picture is the main person who is headlining Black Ada m. Yes, I am talking about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in the antihero protagonist role of Teth-Adam. Johnson, who is known for his roles in Moana , Central Intelligence , and Jungle Cruise , has certainly been around the movie industry for quite some time and has made a name for himself as a “larger-than-life” actor and always playing such “larger-than-life” characters in various action and / or comedy movies. One could call it “type casting”, but Johnson is always up to the task and is always good at delivering his dialogue lines…. even though some are silly. Thus, it comes at no surprise that Johnson is a perfect fit for such a powerhouse superhero character like Teth-Adam. Basically, Black Adam is a vehicle for Johnson, and it clearly shows that whenever he’s on-screen. As mentioned earlier, Johnson has wanted to be a part of this project for quite some time, so one can easily see that he’s enjoying the time on this movie. Physically…. he looks the part as Johnson’s bulky physique definitely helping make the character intimidating with his various superhero powers. He’s having a blast playing Adam and he’s definitely fun to watch.

Of course, the limitation of the character is quite noticeable, especially since he’s quite stoic and stonewalled towards many situations and characters he interacts with it. It’s what the script calls for and it becomes a bit stale as the feature progresses. Thus, the “humanity” portion of Teth-Adam could’ve been better handled, which makes Johnson, who is always good delivering those big, bravado moments, come off as a bit weaker than intended. Still, what’s presented works and one can easily tell that Johnson is having fun in such a superhero role. In short, whether you love the movie or not, there is no denying the fact that Johnson is the main star and attraction for Black Adam and perfect encapsulates the role to a fault. Let’s hope that he returns for future DCEU projects. Would love to see him go up against the likes of Cavill’s Superman, or Gadot’s Wonder Woman, or even Levi’s Shazam.

Beyond Johnson, the rest of the superhero characters in Black Adam make up the members of the Justice Society, which is a mixture of good to mediocre, especially with (as mentioned above) the movie introducing these character rather quickly with little to no backstory setup to speak of. Perhaps who the most memorable one (of the group) is the character of Kent Nelson / Dr. Fate, a superhero who uses sorcery and mystical powers from a magical helmet as well as seeing glimpses of the future, who is played by actor Pierce Brosnan ( GoldenEye and The Thomas Crown Affair ). From a visual standpoint, Dr. Fate seems like a very fascinating superhero, with some incredible mystical powers. Plus, it is quite fun to see Brosnan jump into the superhero foray and can easily outshine all the acting talents involved in the picture, including Johnson. Thus, it was delight to see him in such a role and acts “veteran” actor in Black Adam . That being said, the character of Dr. Fate is eerily similar to Dr. Stephen Strange / Doctor Strange from the MCU, including a mystery backstory into the mystic arts, using fractal imagery when using their powers, doppelganger spell to create multiple copies, and catching glimpse of future events. When you compare the two, it’s quite similar and Dr. Fate, who is introduced in this movie, doesn’t have enough backstory to carry the character enough, which is quite disappointing. Heck, I would’ve love to see (and still hope) for a Dr. Fate movie with Brosnan returning to play the character.

After Brosnan’s Dr. Fate, the next JS character is Carter Hall / Hawkman, the winged leader of JS, who is played by actor Aldis Hodge ( Brian Banks and TURN: Washington’s Spies ). Hawkman gets plenty of screen-time and Hodge is up to the task of making the most of his time in Black Adam as the more noble and righteous superhero…. almost like a bit of the opposite to Johnson’s Teth-Adam. Plus, it’s nice to see the character of Hawkman appear in a live-action DCEU feature film. However, he mostly ends up being just a “punching bag” for Johnson to abuse in almost every scene in the first half of the movie. He gets a bit of redemption and understanding in the latter half, but that’s when Black Adam starts to become a bit numb, which makes Hodge’s Hawkman rather straightforward and fades into the background.

Sadly, the other two JS characters (Maxine Hunkel / Cyclone and Albert “Al” Rothstein / Atom Smasher), who are played by actress Quintessa Swindell ( Trinkets and In Treatment ) and actor Noah Centineo ( The Perfect Date and The Recruit ), are woefully underdeveloped in the movie and basically should’ve been written out of it completely. From a visual standpoint, both character get enough representation, with Cyclone’s wind powers are captured with dramatic flair and Atom Smasher growth / size difference played with amusing laughs. Yet, their character themselves are just nonexistent and are just along for the ride in Black Adam . Heck, Cyclone isn’t given anything to make her personality standout, while Atom Smasher adds a few moments of comic relief, but it’s a bit “hit or miss”. Thus, it’s sad that Swindell and Centineo don’t get much material to play around with.

Unfortunately, the rest of the non-superhero characters in the movie fare actual worst and end up being quite “cookie cutter” caricatures that are incredibly one-dimensional. As stated, I do appreciate the Middle Eastern acting talent is being represented in movie as the various characters, but that still can’t hide the fact that these characters are poorly written and just mediocrely played on-screen. This is perhaps best one of the group would be the character of Adrianna Tomaz, an archaeologist of Kahndaq who is looking for the Crown of Sabbac and aides Teth-Adam throughout the movie, who is played by actress Sarah Shahl (Alias and Fairly Legal). The character has some interesting moments in the film and definitely is presented as the strong female archetype of which Shahl does sell. However, that still doesn’t make the character memorable and slowly becomes quite “cookie cutter” as the narrative progresses forward in the picture; making Adriana just as vanilla as when she was first introduced.

Who actually fares the worst (in my opinion) is the character of Amon Tomaz, Adrianna son who is looking to make Teth-Adam to be the hero that the people of Kahndaq need, who is played by actor Bodhi Sabongui ( A Million Little Things and The Main Event ). Why does is he fare the worst? Well, because he’s generic as they come in the movie. He’s annoying super hyper-active kid that befriends the hero and leads him down the right way (or at least tries to). It’s quite a cliched character and, while Sabongui has the right amount of energy for such a character, the character himself is so bland and straightforward and only acts like plot device to help propel events forward. Thus, the character of Amon is superfluous and downright generic as they come. The same can be said for side supporting character of Karim Tomaz, Adrianna’s brother, who is played by actor Mohammed Amer (Mo and Ramy). His character is supposed to be the sidekick character (of sorts) and has a lot of comedic dialogue lines, but the actual comedy of it all and how it is delivered is rather flat and boring; making the character of Karim rather dull and unmemorable…..even though the script tries to make him a memorable one.

Probably even faring worst than all of them is the actual main antagonist of the feature in the character of Ishmael Greggor, a colleague of Adriana who is looking for the Crown of Sabbac for his own ambitions, who is played by actor Marwan Kenzari ( Aladdin and The Old Guard ). Sadly, the movie makes this character villain so bland, generic, and straightforward that it comes off as just a terrible cliché. It’s sad because I’ve seeing several of Kenzari’s other work and he actually does a good job in his acting talents, which makes it even worse to seem him reduce to such tasteless baddie that’s generic as they come. Plus, the movie immediately plants him as the villain, despite the script and the direction of the film trying to hide that fact, which makes completely redundant. In the end, Kenzari’s Ishmael is just another cliched villain with a lame backstory and an even lamer character presence in the movie.

Additionally, there are also a few cameo-like appearance from previous DCEU films, including actor Djimon Hounsou ( Gladiator and Blood Diamond ) as the wizard Shazam, actress Viola Davis ( The Woman King and Fences ) as Amanda Waller, and actress Jennifer Holland ( Peacemaker and Brightburn ) as Email Harcourt. Again, most of these cameo appearances are merely minor, but certainly build in that continuity feeling that Black Adam is a part of the larger DCEU universe.

Lastly, the movie does have and Easter Egg scene during the credits portion of the film (aka the mid-credit point). It’s perhaps probably my favorite part of the movie. Of course, I won’t spoil it for my readers out there, but I was imagine another character to appear rather than the one that Black Adam interacts with briefly. Although, who he actually interacts with was great and got me a little excited to what future installments might occur in the DCEU.

FINAL THOUGHTS

You have two choices: you can either be the destroyer of this world, or you can be its savior. It’s up to you!” a question poise to the Teth-Adam, who has awakened from his slumberous prison and must learn to help save the people of Kahndaq or act as its destroyer in the movie Black Adam . Director Jaume Collet-Sera’s latest film tackles the great and powerful antihero character of the DC Comics lineup; presenting an origin tale that acts as introduction to the titular character in the DCEU. Unfortunately, despite the barrage of action scenes, a few storytelling elements, and some likeable performances (most notably in Johnson and Brosnan), the rest of the movie ends up being a haphazard mess of the superhero endeavor, especially from the lack of narrative substance, a messy (and dated) plot, recycled ideas, over usage of technical effects, a few rushed visuals, a bland antagonist, generic ending battle, and unmemorable characters. Personally, I was disappointed with this movie, especially since this particular superhero film was heavily promoted as the anticipated film in the DCEU. It certainly had its moments here and there and I did like Johnson in the lead role, but the rest is just a total misfire, which is incredibly sad. And even worse…. I would probably put this as my least favorite DCEU at the moment….and that’s including 2016’s Suicide Squad . I really wanted to like this movie, but I just couldn’t find the joy or spectacle in it. Thus, my recommendation for this movie is solid “skip it”, for there might be some interest of viewers watching it, but it’s best not to or just simply wait for it to come to streaming / TV. The film’s ending hints at the further involvement of Johnson’s Black Adam being part of the future DCEU, which I do welcome, but hope that it is an improvement on this particular film. In the end, Black Adam is a sluggish, recycled, and outdated superhero that doesn’t really amount to much beyond Johnson’s Adam being introduced into the larger cinematic universe of DC heroes and villains. In short, the movie is all Johnson and no substance!

2.3 Out of 5 (Skip It)

Released on: october 21st, 2022, reviewed on: october 25th, 2022.

Black Adam is 124 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, intense action, and some language

Movie Review – Black Adam (2022)

October 19, 2022 by Matt Rodgers

Black Adam , 2022

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra Starring Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Shahi, Viola Davis, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, James Cusati-Moyer, Quintessa Swindell, Marwan Kenzari and Mohammed Amir.

In ancient Kahndaq, Teth Adam was bestowed the almighty powers of the gods. After using these powers for vengeance, he was imprisoned, becoming Black Adam. Nearly 5,000 years have passed, and Black Adam has gone from man to myth to legend. Now free, his unique form of justice, born out of rage, is challenged by modern-day heroes who form the Justice Society: Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone.

For every new character that steps from the pages of DC Comics and onto the big-screen, audiences and fans alike must be hoping that this is the one that provides the lightning bolt which drives this cinematic universe in a more coherent direction. Sure we can enjoy the standalones, such as Matt Reeves’ The Batman or Todd Philips’ Joker , but a bit of connective tissue for the most iconic characters would make these movies a much more exciting proposition. Is Dwayne Johnson’s 15-year campaign to get Black Adam suited and booted in the DCEU that movie?

Some of this cinematic universe’s strongest elements can be found in the origin movies; the first two-thirds of Man of Steel , Wonder Woman , and Shazam! , a film with which this is intrinsically linked, so-much-so that they were originally planning to debut the characters in a single film. It’s a good thing that they didn’t, because Black Adam is as crowded as Dwayne Johnson’s suit is with muscles, especially for those uninitiated with things such as the The Justice Society of America.

Their introduction are just one of the many moving parts at play in Black Adam , with the titular character’s origin story hastily covered in the opening salvo, we then have to meet Sarah Shahi’s underdeveloped freedom-fighter and her streetwise son, one of the most obvious “it’s him” bad-guys in a long while, as well as Aldis Hodge’s Hawkman, Pierce Brosnan’s Dr. Fate, Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher, and Quintessa Swindell’s Cyclone.

Returning as the nefarious Amanda Waller, a Viola Davis voiceover helps to fill in some of the blanks on their bios, but all credit must go to the actors bringing them to life, because they could have suffered the same superhero fate as some of the characters thrown at the screen in the latter X-Men movies and simply been lost amongst the chaos.

As it is they all get their moment in the CGI sun, with helmet’s off to Brosnan and Hodge in particular, who strike up quite the double-act as they fly around in their Jeff Bezos style spaceship. Centineo and Swindell also bring a level of charm to their heroes that would make their a return a welcome one should this prove to the box-office hit Warner Bros., DC and Johnson are hoping for.

For many the fate of Black Adam rests squarely on the huge shoulders of The Rock, who’s kind-of playing against type here, reigning in a lot of the quips and keeping the eyebrow in check. He’s the reason those not au-fait with the IP will show up to Black Adam , which a superb mid-credits sting aside, doesn’t feel that integral to your understanding of this world moving forward.

His Teth-Adam is a performance of relative restraint, with the film sensibly eschewing a lot of the fish-out–of-water comedy that made something like Kenneth Branagh’s Thor a tonal success, instead it presents the character as a totem of the dichotomy between good and evil, something the DCEU has wrestled successfully with since its inception. As with all of the characters, their trajectories are quite predictable, and you wish the film allowed them more time to breathe, simply so we could give a shit about who is being tossed around those beautiful orange-hued skies.

Imbuing the on-screen action with a superhero performance of its own is Lorne Balfe’s terrific score. His ‘Black Adam Theme’ is already dislodging Harry Styles from the top of the Spotify playlist. A rousing piece of modern music built upon the kind of traditional sounds you’d expect to hear from the films non-specific fictional nation of Kahndaq.

On which, the film perhaps ambitiously attempts some level of social commentary about occupied nations or the situation in the Middle-East, but a lot like everything else in the convoluted script it gets smothered in Jaume Collet-Serra’s blockbuster action, which admittedly has impressive levels of clarity in a world that has so often been shrouded in murkiness.

Cut from the same cloth, or ripped from the same pages to that which has come before, most notably the Snyderverse, Black Adam is two hours of flying and punching that grounds its likeable cast just long enough for it to be decent blockbuster fun.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film ★ ★ ★ / Movie ★ ★ ★

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Black Adam (2022)

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Black adam review: dwayne johnson’s dceu debut is action-packed to a fault.

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Steve Martin Names His Favorite Character From His Decades-Long Career

Netflix's new action thriller movie gets near-perfect rotten tomatoes score, eden first images: 4 marvel stars & james bond alum lead star-studded cast in survival thriller.

Warner Bros.' DC Extended Universe has seen some drastic changes in recent years, from release date adjustments to creative shifts, not to mention the surprise shelving of Batgirl. If there is one thing that has remained consistent, though, it is Dwayne Johnson's insistence that his long-awaited franchise debut, Black Adam , will change the hierarchy of the fictional universe forever. The long-term effects of this movie have yet to be revealed, but as an introduction to one of DC's biggest anti-heroes, it gets the job done. Devoted fans of the DCEU will find much to enjoy here, while those more worn out by superhero antics might not be won over by Black Adam 's action-packed nature. Though suffering from repetitive plot beats and thin characters, Black Adam is powered by Johnson's performance and its promise of an exciting future.

After an exposition-filled prologue set in ancient times, Black Adam brings its focus to the present day streets of the fictional country of Kahndaq, where a villainous organization known as Intergang keeps its citizens under military rule. Archeologist Adrianna (Sarah Shahi) has been searching for a devastating artifact known as the crown of Sabbac (Marwan Kenzari), so designed to give its wearer the powers of Hell. Her search brings her to a tomb that houses not only the crown, but the all-powerful Teth-Adam (Johnson). Once a Kahndaqian slave, Adam was given the powers of the gods thousands of years ago and used them to wipe out invaders from Kahndaq. Now that he's been reawakened, Adam turns his sights on the members of Intergang, and it isn't long before his violent tactics catch the attention of the Justice Society of America, led by the far more traditionally-minded Carter Hall (a perfectly heroic Aldis Hodge), aka Hawkman.

Related: So, Where Is The Justice League During Black Adam?

Sarah Shahi amd Pierce Brosnan in Black Adam

If there is one thing Black Adam has no shortage of, it's action. From the explosive first moments after Teth-Adam wakes to a ground-shaking clash in the streets of Kahndaq, director Jaume Collet-Serra stages numerous set pieces that feel appropriately epic when considering the movie's lead. Black Adam is one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe, and his movie establishes that quickly. Johnson has spoken openly about his character's brutal nature, and Black Adam makes no attempt to soften it. This is a comic book character who has no qualms about killing his enemies, and his violence — still softened somewhat for a PG-13 rating — is actually rather refreshing in that it doesn't try to sand down his darker edges. However, Black Adam 's reliance on action over plot and character development grows thin. Writers Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani don't let the movie breathe; there's barely any time for the characters to interact between each pulse-pounding action sequence.

As a result, some characters suffer. Hodge's Hawkman, while not getting a lot of backstory, very clearly establishes himself as the purest type of hero and a strong leader. He has a compelling dynamic with Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) , another member of the JSA whose powers are somewhat thinly defined, but impressively rendered. Hodge and Brosnan go a long way in making viewers invested in the friendship between these two characters since there isn't as much on the page. As Cyclone and Atom Smasher, the JSA's younger members, Quintessa Swindell and Noah Centineo have some charming moments but little depth. Swindell is still a standout, though; they give Cyclone a quirky, endearing personality. One can easily see how the JSA might be tapped to lead their own project down the line, but Black Adam is less of a JSA vs. Teth-Adam movie and more of a Hawkman vs. Black Adam showdown. Their conflict is far more compelling than the fight that emerges between the various heroes and the movie's actual villain, the demonic Sabbac. Though the plot involving the crown of Sabbac is present from Black Adam 's opening minutes, it constantly feels like an afterthought as Collet-Serra puts more focus on the fight for Kahndaq and Adam's constant clashes with the JSA.

Dwayne Johnson and Aldis Hodge in Black Adam

There's no question, though: Black Adam is Johnson's show. The Rock gets to play a bit against type here by tapping into Adam's darker side. Johnson doesn't offer many wise-cracks, nor does he rely solely on his impressive physique. He's far more serious, which makes his rare moments of softness feel all the more effective. One wishes the Black Adam script might've trusted Johnson a bit more, though. There are so many conversations about Adam's morally gray worldview that there's an impression the screenwriters doubted audiences would understand he isn't like most heroes. What Adam's characterization lacks in subtlety, though, it makes up for in intrigue. With Adam now a player on the board, there is genuine interest in seeing what lies ahead for the DCEU. A post-credits scene that has already leaked online (but won't be spoiled now) hints at a thrilling future for Black Adam, and it will no doubt leave fans eagerly speculating until a sequel is announced.

Black Adam isn't necessarily the smartest superhero movie, nor is it the most entertaining. However, it's still a fairly compelling introduction to one of the more intriguing characters to emerge from the DCEU. Johnson has been working to get Black Adam made for years now, and his passion for the project is evident from almost the very beginning. Its action-packed nature can be exhausting, and certain characters beg for more attention, but as an origin story for Teth-Adam, it succeeds in upending what viewers might've expected from Johnson's live-action superhero debut.

Next: Tar Review: Blanchett Is Phenomenal In Todd Field's Riveting, Powerful Drama

Black Adam releases in theaters Friday, October 21. It is 124 minutes long and rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, intense action and some language.

Dwayne Johnson stars as DC's anti-hero in Black Adam, a villain, sometimes hero, with a brutal brand of justice. After emerging from 5,000-year imprisonment in Egypt, Black Adam awakes to the new world and decides to punish the wicked with a far less merciful justice. Unfortunately, his temper makes a big enough impact to summon the Justice League of America, sending the likes of Hawkman and Doctor Fate to contend with Black Adam and try to persuade him to ease up and take a more diplomatic path. Regardless of Black Adam's grievances with the JLA, he soon realizes he'll need to team up with them when an even more significant threat emerges to stop them.

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Shazam the fury of the gods, the flash movie2.

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Common Sense Says
Parents Say 28 Reviews
Kids Say 37 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Lots of bashing and smashing in disappointing DC movie.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 12+?

High body count, and lots of guns and shooting. Characters get shot, and there a

Sporadic use of "s--t," "ass," "bastard," "piss," "damn," "hell."

Several posters and toys for various DC characters are seen in a boy's bedroom.

Any Positive Content?

The setting of Kahndaq is a fictional place, but it's populated by a diverse gro

The superheroes are all brave and try to do what they think is right, even thoug

The movie poses (but doesn't follow up on) interesting questions about good and

Violence & Scariness

High body count, and lots of guns and shooting. Characters get shot, and there are bloody wounds. Frequent fighting, punching, kicking, bashing against surfaces, hitting with blunt objects. Character grabbed by throat, electrocuted, turned into skeleton. Character sliced by blade. Child shot with arrow. Severed hand. Character stabbed and thrown over cliff, with blood trailing after him. A character thrown from a mountaintop lands with an icky thud. Cars and other vehicles crash. Zombies. Some symbology/imagery traditionally associated with satanism.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Several posters and toys for various DC characters are seen in a boy's bedroom. FedEx sign shown.

Diverse Representations

The setting of Kahndaq is a fictional place, but it's populated by a diverse group of actors/characters, including star Dwayne Johnson, co-stars Aldis Hodge and Sarah Shahi, and many more. Women characters have power and agency, especially Adrianna, who is a strong, brave leader. The main group of superheroes does include two White men. But the movie's story puts decisions in the hands of local people, rather than White interlopers. A heavyset character is portrayed as lovably comic/ridiculous.

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Positive Role Models

The superheroes are all brave and try to do what they think is right, even though they sometimes make mistakes. And they all seem open to learning, even if things are sometimes ambiguous. Adrianna is central to the plot, both as a voice for moral inquiry about military occupation and political resistance and for family unity.

Positive Messages

The movie poses (but doesn't follow up on) interesting questions about good and evil, such as who decides what's good and what's evil, and is itOK to cross the line between the two if good comes out of it? Also: What if there's no such thing as absolutes?

Parents need to know that Black Adam is a DC Extended Universe superhero movie, and a spin-off from Shazam! . Dwayne Johnson stars as the title character, who was originally a supervillain in DC comics. The movie has a diverse cast and asks interesting questions about heroes and villains, but it ultimately becomes a dull smash-and-bash-fest without much time for character development or anything else. Expect large-scale action violence, with explosions/destruction, guns and shooting, and lots of fighting. Many characters (including women and children) are killed, sometimes in gruesome -- though bloodless -- ways: electrocution, stabbing, etc. Language includes occasional use of "s--t," "ass," "bastard," "piss," "damn," and "hell." There's a bit of flirting, and several posters and toys depicting other DC characters are shown in a boy's room. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parents say (28)
Kids say (37)

Based on 28 parent reviews

Have no part with the deeds of darkness.

Very good movie, what's the story.

BLACK ADAM begins 5,000 years ago, with the city of Kahndaq ruled by a tyrant who works to build a magical crown that will give him great powers. A boy sparks rebellion, and, just as the tyrant is about to don the special crown, the boy is given the powers of Shazam! to save the day. In the present day, the crown re-surfaces, and Teth-Adam ( Dwayne Johnson ) is summoned once again. But, rather than a hero, he appears to be a killer, dispatching everyone who tries to get in his way. The crown temporarily ends up in the hands of powerful resistance fighter Adrianna ( Sarah Shahi ), whose rebellious son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), believes that Teth-Adam can be the city's hero. Meanwhile, the Justice Society -- comprised of Hawkman ( Aldis Hodge ), Dr. Fate ( Pierce Brosnan ), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), and Atom Smasher ( Noah Centineo ) -- has been called in to deal with what they see as a threat. But something even worse is on the horizon.

Is It Any Good?

Occasionally exploring themes of what it means to be heroic or villainous, with shades of gray in between, this superhero movie collapses into a boring bash-fest with barely any time to breathe. Like many other villain-as-protagonist movies, ranging from Venom and Morbius to Maleficent and Cruella , Black Adam takes the opportunity to explore such questions as "Who decides who the 'good guy' is?" And "Is it OK to hurt people if some good comes out of it?" Unfortunately, once the movie asks those questions, it forgets all about them as the characters whiz around the screen, hammering away at one another, as well as any solid object that happens to be in the way. In this movie, bodies and debris soar far more frequently than viewers' spirits.

It's safe to say that the majority of Black Adam 's running time consists of fights, chases or battles, and sections of blocky exposition. Much is made of what's supposed to be a tender friendship between Hawkman and Dr. Fate, but we never feel this; it's only told to us through dialogue and goopy music in rare moments between punches. The same goes for a sweet friendship/romance between Cyclone and Atom Smasher; it's just too scarce and fragmented to amount to much. Even the human characters are cookie cutters, from the generic movie "kid" to the lovably comic uncle, rotund and ridiculous (though the actors playing both parts give them their all!). As far as Black Adam goes, those who enjoy The Rock's comedic chops and charismatic smirk may be surprised to encounter an antihero who's stoic in the face of loss and trauma. Unfortunately, though, viewers never really learn who he is or what he wants to be, and that question is ultimately less intriguing than it is uninteresting.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Black Adam 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

What's interesting, useful, or entertaining about a movie centered on a character who's usually depicted as a villain?

In your opinion, what does define "good" and "evil"? Where does Black Adam fall into this scale? Do violent means justify peaceful ends?

How does the representation in the cast of this movie compare to other superhero films you've seen? Why is positive representation important in the media?

What's the appeal of superhero movies? Are superheroes automatically role models ? Why, or why not?

Movie Details

In theaters : October 21, 2022
On DVD or streaming : December 5, 2022
Cast : Dwayne Johnson , Sarah Shahi , Aldis Hodge
Director : Jaume Collet-Serra
Inclusion Information : Black actors, Polynesian/Pacific Islander actors, Female actors, Middle Eastern/North African actors, Middle Eastern/North African writers
Studio : New Line Cinema
Genre : Action/Adventure
Topics : Superheroes
Run time : 124 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : sequences of strong violence, intense action and some language
Last updated : July 9, 2024

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COMMENTS

Black Adam movie review & film summary (2022)
8 min read. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, and featuring a remarkable lead performance by Dwayne Johnson, the spiky and majestic "Black Adam" is one of the best DC superhero films to date. This tale of a gloomy, seemingly malevolent god who reappears in a long-occupied Middle Eastern nation rejects most of the choices that bland-ify even ...
Black Adam
Rated: 1.5/5 Oct 27, 2022 Full Review Branyan Towe Loud and Clear Reviews Black Adam excels at being a popcorn film, one with stellar action and visuals Rated: 3.5/5 Jul 29, 2024 Full Review ...
Black Adam (2022)
Black Adam: Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. With Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo. Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods--and imprisoned just as quickly--Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.
'Black Adam' Review: Heroism, but Paint It Black (Published 2022)
Afflicted by the all-too-common Overstuffed Hero Movie Syndrome, "Black Adam," directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, flies past exposition and speeds through character introductions and back stories ...
Black Adam
Black Adam excels at being a popcorn film, one with stellar action and visuals. ... While DC might have produced the best superhero saga of 2022 with The Batman (take that, Marvel!), it was also ...
Black Adam First Reviews: Action-Packed and Powered by a Charismatic
Almost 15 years after Dwayne Johnson first announced interest in playing the character, he finally makes his debut as Black Adam in the DCEU this week. But is the movie, eponymously titled Black Adam, worth the wait, the promise, and the anticipation?The first reviews of the superhero spectacle are mixed, but those that get what the movie is and who it's for praise the positives enough to ...
'Black Adam' Review: Dwayne Johnson Plays an All-Powerful ...
Dwayne Johnson. 'Black Adam' Review: Dwayne Johnson Plays an All-Powerful DC Villain Who Can Be Talked Into Heroism. Reviewed at Dolby screening room, Burbank, Oct. 17, 2022. MPA Rating: PG-13 ...
Black Adam (film)
Black Adam is a 2022 American superhero film based on the DC character of the same name.Produced by New Line Cinema, DC Films, Seven Bucks Productions, and FlynnPictureCo. and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, it is a spin-off from Shazam! (2019) and the eleventh film in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra from a script by Adam Sztykiel and the writing team of ...
'Black Adam' review: Fun, despite a charisma-free Dwayne Johnson
Review: Style and great supporting players make 'Black Adam' forgettably entertaining. Dwayne Johnson in the movie "Black Adam.". The newest entry in the DC Extended Universe, "Black ...
Black Adam
Summary Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the ancient gods—and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world. Action. Adventure. Fantasy.
Black Adam Review
Our review for Black Adam details how the DC anti-hero's big screen debut suffers from far too many issues that other modern superhero movies have already solved. ... Updated: Oct 29, 2022 3 ...
Movie Review
Black Adam, 2022. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra. Starring Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell ...
Black Adam is Warner Bros.' most brutal superhero letdown yet
Black Adam, Warner Bros.' latest superhero movie based on DC's comic books, has been in the works ever since the studio first came around on the genuinely inspired idea of casting Dwayne ...
BLACK ADAM
Now, with the same mindset that got him buried 5,000 years earlier, Black Adam's modern day journey begins. Black Adam's return is quickly noted by Carter Hall - a.k.a. Hawkman, portrayed by Aldis Hodge - who immediately puts out the call to his friend Kent Nelson, a.k.a. Doctor Fate, played by Pierce Brosnan; Al Rothstein/Atom Smasher, played by Noah Centineo; and Maxine Hunkel ...
Review: 'Black Adam' fizzles : NPR
Review: 'Black Adam' fizzles Dwayne Johnson certainly looks the part of the DC Universe's most powerful anti-hero, ... 2022 5:01 AM ET. By . Glen Weldon ... but Black Adam the movie is a Faraday cage.
‎Black Adam (2022) directed by Jaume Collet-Serra • Reviews, film
Power born from rage. Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods—and imprisoned just as quickly—Black Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world. Remove Ads. Cast. Crew.
'Black Adam' review: Dwayne Johnson deserves a better superhero movie
Finally, "The Rock" is starring in his own superhero movie: Dwayne Johnson carries "Black Adam" atop his mighty shoulders, but it proves too weighty a task. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra ...
Black Adam (2022) Review
This, of course, brings me back to talking about Black Adam, a 2022 superhero film and the 10 th installment in the DCEU lineup (11 th one if you include Zack Snyder's Justice League). Given the various notions that the DCEU has recently had with its struggle of trying to find its particular so-called "cinematic groove", I was kind of ...
Movie Review
Black Adam, 2022 Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra Starring Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Shahi, Viola Davis, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, James Cusati-Moyer, Quintessa Swindell, Marwan ...
Black Adam (2022)
Filter by Rating: 5/10. Pretty Bad. pc95 18 December 2022. Large budgeted and badly disjointed, "Black Adam" belongs in the poor category with the likes of "Justice League" and "Superman vs Batman". The story is hackneyed, and the dialog is eye-rolling with terrible worn out humor. It feels like a bad imitation of better Marvel movies.
Black Adam (2022) Movie Reviews
Ryan's World the Movie: Hero Bundle Get two tickets, a mystery toy, and more! ... Black Adam (2022) Critic Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes Rate Movie. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Learn more. Review Submitted. GOT IT ...
Black Adam Review: Dwayne Johnson's DCEU Debut Is Action-Packed To A Fault
If there is one thing that has remained consistent, though, it is Dwayne Johnson's insistence that his long-awaited franchise debut, Black Adam, will change the hierarchy of the fictional universe forever. The long-term effects of this movie have yet to be revealed, but as an introduction to one of DC's biggest anti-heroes, it gets the job done.
Black Adam Movie Review
November 2, 2022. age 16+. Have no part with the deeds of darkness. The movie did not have a good plot line. The actors didn't have good scripts to work with. There was a lot of special effects but no real story to follow. The last half of the movie was hard to watch due to the character of satan in the movie.