Whether it's rooted in DC vs Marvel brand loyalty, railing against (or in favor of) wokeness/cancel culture/SJWs, everyone has an agenda these days. Everything is either complete trash or AH-MAZING, with little or no room in between.
And that's okay, I guess. But I wanted to watch The Rock (his momma named him Dwayne Johnson) in his official superhero movie debut* without having my expectations tampered with too much. So on opening day, I jumped in the back seat of my sister's Charger (mom was riding shotgun) and went to see BLACK ADAM.
*In my opinion, The Fast And The Furious is also a superhero franchise, because not all heroes wear capes or whatever. But that is probably what the kids call a "hot take."
BLACK ADAM is the story of Teth Adam - an ancient slave turned super-powered revolutionary demigod revered for overthrowing the evil despot of the fictional Middle Eastern kingdom of Khandaq - awakened from millennia of mystical imprisonment by Khandaqi revolutionary and single mom Adriana Tomaz, played by veteran tv actress Sarah Shahi (The L Word, Life, Alias, City On A Hill, The Rookie).
If you're craving mindless superhero action, lite global political notes, and DCEU cameos, go ahead and watch Black Adam. You'll love it. Like most DCEU films, BLACK ADAM is kind of a narrative mess, but boy is it an entertaining mess!
The Rock is perfectly cast as the titular demigod who is really neither hero nor villain. Despite what critics will undoubtedly say, he does a solid job playing the part, hitting the emotional notes when they're needed without trying to do too much.
Teth Adam is not really bad, he's just lawless. Which is reasonable, since the law of his time made him a slave, doomed to die in service to an evil power-hungry monarch who killed his family and loved ones. Granted a version of the pantheon-in-a-box powers that we have seen bestowed on Billy Batson in SHAZAM, Adam's only desire is to unleash his rage on the king with extreme prejudice. Which he does.
Then the wizards who granted his power, apparently unable to take the power back, feel the need to entomb him for all time.
Awakened from his eternal sleep by Tomaz, a tomb-raiding do-gooder trying to keep an ancient occult weapon out of the hands of the techno-criminal mercenary group Intergang, Adam intuitively saves the native Khandaqi woman from the battalion of heavily-armed colonizers in a display of slow-motion ultraviolence worthy of Zack Snyder in all his glory.
This coming out party is immediately noticed by Amanda Waller (played once more by Oscar Winner Viola Davis), Director of Task Force X.
But instead of the Suicide Squad, this time Waller dispatches The Justice Society, a hodge-podge team of super heroes led by BFF's Hawkman and Doctor Fate (Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan). Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) round out the team.
The way the Justice Society - the actual "heroes" - are written in this movie is BLACK ADAM's most glaring weak spot.
While it's reasonable that a ruthless international power broker like Amanda Waller might have a "strike first and ask questions later (if at all)" attitude about taking down a loose cannon like Teth Adam before he can get his bearings, it was clear to everyone involved that even combined they would be no match for him once he got his blood up.
So what did they do? Break him off some disrespect immediately and consistently. While they recognized en route to Khandaq that their only hope was to convince Adam to relinquish his power and submit to being returned to deep sleep, they never once make a sincere appeal to him despite his total lack of malicious intent.
My mom was ready to put hands on Hawkman almost immediately, and never warmed up to him during the course of the movie.
Although they seemed to be sincere in their belief that they were working to preserve "international stability" (i.e. the status quo), the Justice Society's complete disregard for the safety and property of the Khandaqi people in pursuit of a "threat" who had so far only killed international criminals (in self-defense at that) seemed to suggest that their heroism was somewhere between ethnocentric pretentiousness and complete bullshit.
For entertainment purposes, the Justice Society's portrayal works as a limp critique of superheroes as an extension of fascistic "might makes right" ideology, and the Western world's inability to perceive their own blind spots. These flaws don't completely undermine their claims of heroism, but they effectively disqualify their moral authority to tell Adam to submit to extrajudicial imprisonment.
So maybe that was the intent? I dunno.
Either way, I really enjoyed the story as it unfolded. This movie isn't called The Justice Society of America. It's Adam's world now, and these heroes are just living in it. Besides the heavy hand they painted the heroes with, I didn't see any problems with BLACK ADAM that would prevent me from watching it again in the theater, and over and over once it hits streaming platforms.
Even with its shaky portrayal of the "regular" heroes, I felt BLACK ADAM was written much better than SHAZAM, finding Teth Adam much more likeable and heroic than Billy Batson. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Jungle Cruise, The Commuter, Run All Night, House of Wax) did an admirable job with the script and actors at his disposal and showed a good command of superhero action and effects.
The big bad at the end (not gonna spoil it here) was pretty basic, but served his narrative purpose. There's also a mid credit scene that's worth sitting a few minutes extra for.
So I wouldn't say BLACK ADAM is a masterpiece or anything, but it's one of the better DCEU offerings, in my opinion. It also seems like they're set up well to do better in a sequel, if there is one.
That's my two cents.
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