Black Adam

 

Black Adam is a superhero action drama starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan and Noah Centineo. It is the story of an Egyptian man who was enslaved and after being gifted God-like powers, was imprisoned for 5,000 years. Upon his release he must decide how he will impose justice in this new modern version of what used to be his home.

The plot had potential but I struggled to feel engaged with the story to the point where I almost fell asleep at the end. There were parts that were predicable, including the villain, which was unfortunate. Even though this movie was full of action and had well put together CGI, the script was corny and when they tried to be funny it didn’t hit.

I appreciated the diversity of casting however, all of the characters lacked the necessary development for me to care and on top of that they were carbon copies of Marvel characters. I had an issue with the Rock playing the anti-hero Black Adam, an Egyptian. I feel like casting dropped the ball with not finding someone Egyptian or at the very least, Middle Eastern or North African, to play this role. I also felt that his acting was very one dimensional and I didn’t feel invested in his character. I was surprised to see an actor as respected as Pierce Brosnan in this film. He played Dr. Fate and I thought he did well in the role. He was likeable and played someone who was esteemed and knowledgeable. Aldis Hodge is a fantastic and seasoned actor as well. I thought he did a good job with the script that he had, unfortunately, his character, Hawkman, wasn’t very unique. It was extremely similar in personality and costume of Falcon from the Marvel comics. Quintessa Swindell also did well in her role. She was confident and brought a good amount of athleticism to the hero, but like everyone else played a character, Cyclone, which was too similar to Storm from the Marvel comics. Noah Centineo’s character wasn’t very well developed. Atom Smasher was basically a young, inexperienced Ant-Man from the Marvel comics.

Overall Black Adam wasn’t very good. It lacked the necessary execution and polish that its competitor, Marvel, has done well with for almost every movie they put out. This film is not one that I would watch again and I wouldn’t recommend anyone else waste their time either.