Dwayne Johnson ‘rocks’ the big screen as DCEU’s new anti-hero
Directed by: Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by: Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, & Sohrab Noshirvani
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan
Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence, intense action, and some language
Release Date: October 21, 2022
Runtime: 2:05
This review may contain spoilers
DC has given us Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Speedy Spaz, and a dude who talks to fish – all connected in one universe of superheroes (separated from Marvel, of course). DC’s connected movie universe hasn’t been as successful as Marvel’s. However, they’ve still been able to build up their universe… well, for now.
For now, DC prepares their fans for a new (anti)hero – Black Adam, played by superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
DCEU
Black Adam is the eleventh film in the DC Extended Universe, or DCEU. This was the only film for 2022, but four DCEU films are planned for 2023, starting with Shazam! Fury of the Gods. After 2023, James Gunn is reworking the DC movies into a massive reboot. It’s uncertain if Black Adam and existing DCEU characters will return.
Anti-Shazam
Black Adam starts in the fictional country of Kahndaq (like Marvel’s Wakanda), where Teth-Adam, later known as Black Adam, awakens after 5,000 years. Black Adam instantly begins killing countless troops from the Intergang, a criminal militia now occupying his former land. His killing gained the attention of the Justice Society of America, or JSA, led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge, Straight Outta Compton).
The JSA sees Black Adam as a new villain and attempts to put him in custody. However, the people of Kahndaq see Black Adam as their champion and hero after years of the Intergang’s oppression. Archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi, NBC’s Life), who also helped free him, will try to convince Black Adam to be Kahndaq’s hero before the JSA or Intergang take him down… or before Black Adam kills them all himself.
The Rock
Johnson was awesome in this film, but when isn’t he? The dude seems to always be successful in whatever he touches, whether it’s making tequila, shows, or movies. He even sings! Friggin’ Mr. Perfect…
As Black Adam himself, Johnson didn’t waste time showing off how dark and brutal Adam can be. As soon as he shows up, he’s quick to kill bad guys (who, in all fairness, started shooting him first). Black Adam is practically invincible – he handles armies, the JSA, and even a demon (I’ll get to him in a minute) in the final fight.
Johnson’s attachment to this role has actually been a long time coming. Way back in the early 2000s, Johnson was signed on to play the hero Shazam before wanting to play Black Adam. And then, the film took a very long time to develop before 2019’s Shazam! came around, with Johnson’s Black Adam originally the villain. However, it was decided to keep Black Adam out and give him his own movie.
So, after trying to get this movie going for nearly 20 years, Johnson has finally brought Black Adam to the big screen. Johnson was all over the promotion, even appearing in full costume at the 2022 Comic-Con.
Boy, you’d hope that after striving to make this movie for so long, it would meet the same hype. Sure would be a damn shame if this movie bombed…
The Wizard cameo
Djimon Hounsou returns as the original Shazam wizard. In a flashback, he appeared as one of the wizards who gave Black Adam his powers. Hounsou would later turn Billy Batson into the hero Shazam in 2019’s Shazam! There’s nothing else to say, but it’s just a cool callback.
Black Adam’s reactions
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Black Adam is standing at 40% rotten from critics while sitting on an astounding 90% approval from audiences’ scores. For some perspective, movies like The Scorpion King, Hancock, Big Daddy, and Dr. Dolittle 2 are all at 40% on the site (a very weird mix).
That’s a big difference. So, basically, if you’re looking for a fun time, you’ll like this one. If you’re looking for deeply emotional performances and story writing, then why are you even here? You saw the DC logo on the poster, and yet you’ve set your standards that high?
This is why I always had a problem with Rotten Tomatoes. I mean, who wants to listen to some online know-it-all rattle on about movies, acting, directing… story… waaaaaait a minute…
The actual villain
The film does have a few flaws to it. To be fair, almost every comic movie does, whether it’s Marvel or DC. First would be the severe lack of a main villain until the very end. You could argue the villain didn’t show up so that Black Adam would appear to be the main ‘villain’ for the JSA could fight.
The real villain is Ishmael Gregor (Marwan Kenzari, Aladdin), who I think was the leader of the Intergang. After confronting Black Adam, he turns into a demon called Sabbac. Sabbac is powered by six demons (Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Crateis) similar to how Shazam and Black Adam gained their powers (from Solomon, Hercules, Atlas, Zeus, Achilles, and Mercury). He’s fiery, cool-looking, and has a branded pentagram on his chest. I’ll give him this – Demon dude is metal as hell!
And that’s all I can say about the demon dude; not because I’m holding back spoilers, but because that’s literally all I know from the film. He shows up just to fight Black Adam at the end, and that’s all they wrote.
Un-demonized Gregor barely has much screen time. I kept forgetting him as a minor bad guy. The whole moment Gregor became Sabbac almost felt like they finished the film but realized they needed more time. So they shoved him in as a final bad guy to fill in the time. They could at least have had some build-up for Sabbac, like some kind of legend, prophecy, or something.
CGI
The other thing I remember throwing me off was some of the computer-generated imaging, or CGI. For these kinds of movies, CGI is in high demand with aerial fights and mass destruction. But some of the CGI used was just… I dunno the techie-savvy word for it, but it just looked weird. In scenes with Johnson appearing “powered down” and less muscular, the CGI is really noticeable.
This is a lot of violent, yet safe fun
Black Adam is a fun movie, with plenty of action and CGI battles. It’s definitely all Dwayne Johnson in this movie, and he made this lesser-known character a big name now to audiences. The violence is tamed due to its PG-13 rating, but the film gets around the censorship to show off that Black Adam is a violent anti-hero. Humans (so far all bad) are easily crushed, fried, and flung into the air to their deaths, and he’ll still be seen as a hero and the man to root for here.
Oh, right – DC does post-credit scenes, too. Amanda Waller (Viola Davis returning from Suicide Squad and Peacemaker) warns Black Adam to stay in his own country, or she’ll send more heroes/villains to fight him. She hints there are more powerful beings on Earth – specifically a super-powerful, familiar one with a flowing red cape. It’ll definitely be a powerful superhero that DC would never cancel…
Black Adam is streaming on HBO Max.
