A high-voltage big screen delight.
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Dwayne Johnson’s long-awaited superhero film debut is finally here we’re glad to see a new superhero film that isn’t a remake or a sequel. Black Adam was just what we needed to cut the superhero fatigue.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, and Sohrab Noshirvani, the film stars Johnson as the titular character alongside Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, and Pierce Brosnan.
Black Adam is heavy with exposition and high-voltage action sequences, it’s hard to look away even if it suffers from sporadic pacing issues. Much of the entertainment is thanks to its fight sequences (as catastrophic as they may be) and Mohammed Amer’s Karim who serves as the film’s comic relief and will no doubt be a fan favourite for viewers accustomed to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s formula of inducting humour in their action-packed films.
As much as Black Adam serves as an origin film for the anti-hero, it is also the introductory film for the Justice Society of America (JSA). We wish the JSA were better developed in a separate film before having thrown in the mix, fighting a losing battle for viewers’ attention against Black Adam. There is much potential in Hodge’s Hawkman and Brosnan’s Doctor Fate–two very interesting characters brought to life by wonderful performances that suffered from having to take a backseat in The Dwayne Johnson Show. We wish we could say the same for Centineo’s Atom Smasher and Swindell’s Cyclone who had amazing chemistry but under-fleshed out menial roles to play. No diss to Johnson who was clearly expected to carry this film but is one man enough to save the critically-panned franchise?
There’s still much work to be done but the CGI quality in Black Adam is definitely an improvement for the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Despite the occasional drabbiness, Black Adam is still a big screen delight that promises a brighter future for the DCEU–especially with that exciting mid-credit scene everyone will be talking about for days to come.
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