Black Adam

It's not often that a DC film grabs my attention, but this one did. It has what many other DC films lack: humor, engaging characters, and Dwayne Johnson as the perfectly conflicted superhero Black Adam. Add in some impressive action scenes directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, and you've got an American adventure blockbuster that I thoroughly enjoyed. (2022-12-24)

Fun, nothing more, but nothing less. The comparisons with X-Men: Apocalypse are warranted, but I think that in this regard, Black Adam hit the spot. Of course it's not as dark as everyone told us it would be, but it's no boy scout either, and I loved the main revolutionary idea, the natural introduction of new heroes to the scene (offbeat and likeable, with a perfect Pierce Brosnan) and the fact that each of them really was something, and until Johnson's taciturn terminator disposed of whomever he pleased, I was looking forward to every scene. The script even surprised me at the end, and although Jaume Collet-Serra copied Zack Snyder's style, he never overdid it. If there was one thing that really bothered me, it was the somewhat unclear connection to the world of Shazam. Otherwise – and also thanks to the fairly reasonable running time – I really can't complain. It's a promising sign that the DC cinematic universe might finally be taking shape after all these years. (2022-10-28)

They try their best, but with a stupid and muddled script that even The Rock can’t move. Dwayne's dream project has finally arrived and it's not bad, but it's not very good either. It’s average, with an excellent Brosnan, whose Doctor Fate deserves his own film. On the other hand, the rest of the JSA team, or whatever it was, is rather crap, but someone has to do that job. Black Adam has a couple of great scenes where he slices up the bad guys, rips their arms off, and doesn't coddle them at all, but he gets to the gory action for strange reasons, often with no apparent motivation. Colett-Serra doesn't have a coherent story to fill out the Snyder-esque slow motion action, but he tries; it's not much fun, unfortunately. Now we need to pray that Gunn writes the script for the sequel and that Clark will by for more than a brief chat. (2022-11-27)

I really don't want to watch this anymore. After Zack Snyder’s departure, I thought Warner wouldn't send these movies out anymore, but Black Adam actually looks exactly the same as the Snyder films, only that Jaume Collet-Serra uses about a third less slow motion. We still get more than an annoying amount of it though, and when the action starts, you don't really enjoy it because when it's not slow motion, it's either chaos or just golden-blue flashing. And there’s action more or less all the time, because there's nothing to stand on in terms of story, character depth, or anything else that could potentially engage, and they probably knew that. Black Adam is an emaciated over-colourful action flick that tries to be theatrically spectacular, but comes across as ridiculous and often even embarrassing (the skateboarding boy brings to mind the worst of 90s clichés). Dwayne Johnson stares and tries in vain to convince himself that he's playing Clint Eastwood, and getting through this collection of dull visual attractions, empty story and flat characters to the end credits is ultimately quite a chore. But it does have an advantage, an hour and a half after the screening ended, I remember nothing of Black Adam. (2022-10-19)

I went to the cinema to see Black Adam more out of boredom than pleasure and actually got exactly what I expected - (below) average. While Marvel is still more or less the same and keeps itself "in the middle" to please everyone, DC is a bit more mature and gives us either slapstick comedies like Shazam! or funny and at the same time gory action like in The Suicide Squad. It's all the more surprising that Black Adam is neither of these and is a completely sub-par superhero action caper with nothing to dazzle. In terms of acting, it's an ensemble of "no names" along with an over-aged Pierce Brosnan and Dwayne Johnson in the lead role, but he's disastrously miscast for me here. His roles in F&F or jungle movies where he more or less parodies himself are fun and are a hit with internet memes, but I just can't buy him in a superhero role, he (sadly) lacks the acting talent, facial expressions and empathy for the character. In terms of story, we don't get much either, the characters of the heroes are bland, dull and without a stronger backstory, and on the audiovisual side, the action is ordinary and there's not much to praise. All in all, a classic digital action flick that falls short of similar films with its bland characters and weak fan-service, but I guess it can survive as a weaker three-star thanks to its fun genre classification... (2022-10-20)