The problem with Black Adam is that Black Adam doesn’t feel like the main character of his own movie. Now don’t get me wrong, his name is in the title, and he’s in almost all of it. Everyone in this movie is talking about him. They’re telling us his story. They’re telling him who he is and what they expect from him. But as a character, he has no real agency or purpose. Awakened after a 5000 year slumber, Black Adam shows up, kills a whole bunch of bad guys, and then spends the rest of the movie angrily staring at various people.
The best and worst thing I can say about Black Adam is that it isn’t a car crash. It is, however, the very definition of status quo. A movie made by an incredibly risk-averse studio, starring Hollywood’s most bankable star, that plays out exactly the way you think it will. Mostly because Dwayne Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Serra have essentially mashed up and remade The Scorpion King and Man of Steel.
The Scorpion King Redux
The movie goes a little something like this. It opens in ye olde ancient times where a slave is granted magical powers, rises up against an oppressive King, and is worshipped as a hero by his people. Statues are built. Stories are told. His name is Teth-Adam and legend states that he will return to save the fictional nation of Khandaq when he is needed the most. Which might be right this minute in 2022 because Khandaq is a failed state that is overrun by a merciless terrorist organization called Intergang. Think ISIS, but without the religious fervor.
Enter Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi), who might be an academic, or a freedom fighter, or something, we don’t really know, it isn’t very clear. She is on a mission to find and retrieve one of the movie’s MacGuffins, a mystical crown that is steeped in evil. She finds the crown in a cave in the desert, is involved in a skirmish with Intergang, and awakens Teth-Adam from his long sleep.
Suddenly an uncontrollable new power that no one understands is revived in North Africa and unleashed upon the world. America, as manifested by Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller (remember her?) freaks out and sends in the cavalry to put a stop to it. The cavalry in question are the Justice Society of America, that is made up of Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). (Why doesn’t she just send in her disposable Suicide Squad on what is clearly a suicide mission? Start asking those kinds of questions and the movie just falls apart.)
The JSA show up in Khandaq. There is a lot of bishing, bashing, and boshing, and unfortunately very little else. Black Adam is all action all the time. It’s non-stop. It’s wall-to-wall. But nothing about it is particularly memorable. There is no one moment here that has you holding your breath. Nothing that makes you want to pump your fist in the air. Jaume Collet-Serra doesn’t really stray from the Zack Snyder school of filmmaking. Most of the movie is made up of relentless CGI fights where massively powerful supermen pound at each other with little to no stakes.
All Your Favorite Heroes, Now in 2D
Mostly, however, Black Adam gets crushed under the weight of some truly bad writing. We have no idea what the motivations are with any of these characters. Almost all of them feel like comic book archetypes that have been placed there simply to get from one point of the story to the next. In fact, the whole thing is so haphazardly stitched together that you can practically pick out all of the ADRed exposition.
The villain of the piece is barely in it. His henchmen are just faceless fodder to be swatted away by the man in black. We’re not sure who Adrianna is or why she’s looking for that crown. Her son is just there to play John Connor to Black Adam’s Terminator. Hawkman’s only reason for trying to stop him seems to be rooted in the notion that “good guys don’t kill people.” (Which, if you’ve seen Zack Snyder’s Justice League, isn’t really a consistent point of view.) And Black Adam himself spends almost all of the movie brooding and saying very little.
Which is truly baffling. How do you make a movie with Dwayne Johnson and not lean into the very thing that has made him so beloved? How do you not weaponize that charm? God knows mopey Dwayne is not something that any one wants or needs.
In fact, the only thing that works in this movie are the Justice Society of America. The dynamic between its members feel familial and fun. With Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan stealing every scene that they’re in. So much so that I spent the majority of Black Adam wishing it was a JSA movie instead.
What Is Black Adam Anyway?
The one thing I couldn’t figure out is what Black Adam was trying to be. The Dwayne Johnson hype machine pitched it as a new beginning for the DCEU. His key talking points while marketing this movie was all about how the hierarchy of power within the universe was about to change. The sad fact of the matter is that this movie isn’t that new thing we were promised. In fact, it spends so much time trying to fit into DC’s existing narrative that it forgets to tell a compelling story of its own.
And there is potential here. Not just by focussing on a villainous lead character. But also with the many, many underdeveloped themes that run throughout the movie. Is it a commentary on the Middle East? Is it a critique of American interventionism? Is it a rebuff of superhero cinema? All of it feels accidental. None of it really comes to the fore.
The one thing that did stand out, however, was the overarching message of the movie. And it is a curious one. By the end of this movie, Black Adam is declared the protector of the failed state of Khandaq. He is a champion who does whatever it takes to protect his people and their cause. He believes in the biblical sense of right and wrong. He has no faith in the system that has failed his country. He has little regard for due process or the rule of law. He is ruled by emotion. He doesn’t really listen to logic or reason. He is a radical, full of anger, violence, and hate.
He is also the hero of this movie. And unlike, Joker for example, his extremism here is depicted as something noble. It holds appeal. It is something that serves the disenfranchised. It presents an overly simplistic view of politics where one, all conquering hero, is all it takes to save society. (It’s not like Hawkman’s incessant whinging about how “good guys don’t kill” actually achieves anything.)
Black Adam is Robert Mugabe. He is Idi Amin. He is Daniel Ortega. He is Joseph Estrada. Who cares about a little extrajudicial killings if it gets the job done. Black Adam is a MAGA Republican. Which isn’t really as crazy as it sounds. It’s easy to see how this movie can be skewed and appropriated by that specific political class to serve their needs. Which, let me tell you, is particular jarring in a movie starring potential future President of the United States of America, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
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