Black Adam

I hoped "Black Adam" would be a decent entry in DC's recent output as its linked with "Shazam" which might be their best recent movie. But nope. Its another CGI filled dud.

On the plus side there is an effort put into the story and Dwayne Johnson and his rediculusly strong shoulders buldging from his costume are 100 percent real amongst all the boring CGI. But all the team building with rubbish characters no one cares about has already been DC's downfall with the justice league, Suicide squad and even that Harley Quinn movie. And it's takes up too much time here too.

There's not enough time dedicated to making us care about any of these minor characters and their random powers. Just action, action, action that doesn't matter when you don't care about anyone in the movie.

There's some decent gags in the movie I suppose. But overall its just alot of green screen and feels like your watching a computer game instead of a movie. It's more "Aquaman" than "Shazam." So if you liked that one you'll probably like this.

While Dr Fate may have been introduced first in print, for those of us who aren't followers of the comics, Dr Strange is the sorcerer that we identify more with, simply because we got to see him first and certainly with more depth. Everything about Black Adam felt like a low budget remake of Marvel characters. Hawkman even looked similar to Anthony Mackey. Atom Smasher was far too much like Ant Man. Hawkman's compound might as well been Dr Xavier's home for the X Men, complete with the aircraft rising from the front lawn.

Like so many others have reviewed, the Justice Society was simply thrown at us as if we were to already understand who they were. There was no character building whatsoever, other than a one or two sentence dialog that tried to briefly explain how they came to be superheroes. It was extremely rushed.

As for Black Adam...I usually like Dwayne Johnson's films, but in this one, he was stiff and wooden. The other characters...of course Dr Fate was a standout, but it was as if the writers purposefully wanted us to hate Hawkman. His attitude and cockiness were unbearable, knowing that he would be easily defeated by the likes of Black Adam. Perhaps in my mind, I was comparing him to Marvel's Falcon and his much more personable and likable demeanor. Either way, I just wanted to see him get his ass kicked.

All things considered, I was simply underwhelmed. 2022 was not a good year for the superhero genre.

Black Adam is the latest film in the DCEU, and boy, it packs a punch. Explosions, flying superheroes, magic, lightning and beautiful armour follows the Justice Society, and of course Black Adam.

The film centers around a god-like ancient human being who was gifted his powers in a time of darkness and enslavement. After being defeated and unseen for over a 5000 years, he returns, his goal being unknown. With the powers he has a group of superheroes, the Justice Society, deems him to be a threat, and performs an attempt to lock him up, unknown of the real danger.

It is better than people say. Although at first glance it seems to be a film simply made for the action and explosions, it does have a story, strong dialogues and character development. The visual effects are astonishing in every single way, and people who have watched Avengers: Endgame will love the visuals in this film.

My personal rating? A 10/10. My rating based on realism, plot and other factors? An 8 or a 9/10. If I'm going to be honest, the worst thing about this film was some unrealism like characters being able to survive a lot more than possible, and some being quite dumb in terms of their actions.

As for my conclusion: Black Adam is a great, visually wonderful film with lots of action violence and lovable characters. Watch it in the cinema for a lifetime experience.

I had no knowledge about Black Adam prior to seeing the movie, haven't watched the latest trailers nor had any high expectations before going to the movie.

But wow, I was oh boy taken by surprise by the movie!

Okay, it's not the best super hero movie out there and doesn't have an overwhelmingly deep story. But it doesn't try to be that either.

It was fun, enjoyable, fights where amazing, soundtrack was great, just a well-made hero movie where you can see superhumans dish out in fight!

And considering the quality of the MCU we have received recently, I would definitely recommend this one to avid super hero fans!

Black Adam certainly has its problems, from it's generic third act (are we really still doing sky beams), terrible villain and very hit and miss humour, however it's still a really fun superhero film thanks to some solid explorations of morality, brief deeper meaning and some ridiculously entertaining superhero fights.

Dwayne Johnson gives a great lead performance, restraining his trademark charisma to give a more sombre performance that works. Quintessa Swindell and Noah Centineo have charming chemistry and are both likeable which makes up for their characters lack of depth or development.

However, it's Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate who is definitely the standout with superb dry wit and suave screen presence as well as a surprisingly earnest bond with Aldis Hodge's Hawkman whose stoic and commanding performance makes him inspired casting.

Juame Collet-Serra's direction is really good, it lacks an overall voice but makes up for it with plenty of stylish slow motion, needle drops and dynamic camera work. The CG is mostly solid with a fair few weak spots and the music by Lorne Balfe is also really good, extremely epic and operatic in the ways that make everything way more enjoyable.