Weekend Watch - Black Adam
Welcome back to the Weekend Watch, where each week, we take a look at a new piece of film or television media and give it a rating, review, and recommendation. This week’s topic, as voted by the blog’s Instagram followers, is the DC Universe’s latest feature film release, Black Adam. The film stars Dwayne Johnson as the titular antihero, with Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Quintessa Swindell, Marwan Kenzari, Bodhi Sabongui, and Mohammed Amer in supporting roles. The film follows the return of Black Adam to Earth after years of exile and his conflict with other heroes and villains as he works to keep his homeland truly free. Let’s get into it.
Letter Grade: C, this film is fine, definitely nothing to write home about.
Should you Watch This Film? If you really want to see Dwayne Johnson playing himself again but with flying and lightning powers or are a fan of Aldis Hodge or Pierce Brosnan, this is probably a solid film for you.
Why?
Black Adam’s action sequences are its crowning achievement, showcasing a solid mix of slo-mo shots, brutal kills, and decent visual effects. Black Adam, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone are all given moments to shine in the various sequences in typically thrilling ways. Unfortunately, after their introductory fight scenes, the action doesn’t really try anything overly daring, becoming quickly repetitive. The dialogue doesn’t do a whole lot either, offering a few quippy one-liners and a plethora of dry exposition with not many truly emotional beats. Dwayne Johnson gets to be his same charismatic self, if a bit more one-note here because most of the humor comes from other sources. The film’s story is pretty basic with a few plot twists that would’ve been so much better if they hadn’t already been given away in the film’s virtually unavoidable marketing campaign. I really feel like if I had seen none of the film’s trailers that I would have enjoyed the twists and the film would be getting better reviews right now. As it stands, the fun aspects of new characters, Dwayne Johnson, and solid action moments often end up overshadowed by a spoiled plot that wasn’t even that complex to begin with and writing that focuses a little too much on exposition and not enough on actual character development. I am guardedly excited to see what they do with this character and the supporting cast in the future. Noah Centineo’s Atom Smasher was a really fun addition to the film, and he could bring a lot to another team-up film. Pierce Brosnan’s Dr. Fate was arguably the coolest and most interesting aspect of the film, but even he isn’t given enough screentime to really connect deeply with his character, and if we’re being honest, the moments without Black Adam on screen were pretty consistently the best parts of the film. The coolest moment Black Adam gets comes not during the film’s run-time but in a post credits scene where we get some actual insight into how he is going to fit in the wider DC Universe going forward. Overall, Black Adam has a lot of potential, but left so much on the table and underdelivered on so much that it can’t be called much more than an average superhero film, on par with X-Men: First Class or Batman Forever. This film is currently showing in theaters if you want to go check it out.
