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Movie Review: Black Adam

Mike Tyrkus

Following the success of Shazam! in 2019, Black Adam feels less like an attempt to thrust Dwayne Johnson into a superhero franchise than it does a concerted effort to erase the goodwill created by the Zachary Levi led action/comedy and bring the property more in line with the dark, foreboding, and often unentertaining DC Extended Universe.

The plot involves tracing Adam’s (Johnson) origin back 5,000 years when he was initially given the powers of the ancient gods, and then subsequently imprisoned for abusing them. Now, unleashed upon the modern world, he sets about enacting his own brand of justice.

Once in play in present day, Adam is intercepted by the Justice Society (Hawkman [Aldis Hodge], Atom Smasher [Al Rothstein], Cyclone [Maxine Hunkel], and Doctor Fate [Pierce Brosnan]) who initially attempt to subdue and capture him before anyone is hurt by his reckless behavior.

Although it begins with promise, the whole affair ultimately follows the same template enacted by previous entries to the DC Extended Universe and becomes an overlong, overwrought exercise in destruction and CGI mayhem that does little to make anything that Adam or the members of the Justice Society do seem overtly or even slightly heroic.

Dwayne Johnson in “Black Adam.” Credit: Warner Bros.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra brings all the subtlety he used on Jungle Cruise to move the story from explosion to explosion, and in that respect, the film delivers and never lets up. But there is little characterization involved here, apart from forced attempts to ensure that no one forgets that these are supposed to be heroes up on the screen and not simply villains in good guy costumes.

As a stand-alone super-hero story, Black Adam, perhaps fares just a bit better than it does when compared to the far more entertaining and seemingly retconned Shazam!

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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