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| Images courtesy WB/DC |
After several years of former wrestler/mainstream action star Dwayne Johnson campaigning to headline a live action Black Adam film, it will officially arrive in theaters tomorrow night to what will most likely be a united groan and loudly spouted "meh".
Despite some great looking special effects and a few massive action set pieces, DC has drawn a gleaming line in the Kahndaq sand that keeps this Black Adam away from being anything unique or dynamic for their ever expanding brand. It's just another dumb visual spectacle that has no pulse and almost no stakes whatsoever. Yet, Johnson definitely ups his game by playing the character as the coolest and most calculated of his career, keeping the quips and smart ass comments at a minimum as he finds balance as an actor and star of his first comic book film.
Johnson slyly moves into new territory as an actor in that aspect. But the story arc as a whole and the heroes that he's teamed with have no heart other than Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate and Aldis Hodge as Hawkman. The central villain and plot are interchangeable with any other mainlined comic book movie or DC film in general. And that's the biggest problem with Black Adam. There's just nothing to care about, which becomes old hat at a frenetic pace that doesn't really equate well with its runtime. Instead of expanding into new territory, this is more playing it safe for general audiences. The running themes of gods and warring super powered humans isn't given any type of deep dive but is another symptom of a guarded property where a director isn't allowed to extrapolate on any of the greater ideas at hand.
Just punch, fight and blow things up. Give them what they want.
The massively budgeted action-centric comic book movie that has been touted by The Rock as a type of reset for the DCEU is just another in a long line of mediocre attempts at cashing in on their lineup of heroes and villains. For all the drama surrounding Zack Snyder and his Justice League film, the creative team behind Black Adam certainly attempted to lift his cinematic style, visual elements and slow motion fight sequences going all the way back to his 2009 production of Watchmen. Black Adam is another two hour lesson in comic book movie repetition that really doesn't do anything to help the confused DC line up of films.
For all intents and purposes, this latest DC/WB team-up is a flailing return to the massive mistakes they've made along the way. Black Adam really isn't another symbol of studio toiling or bad executive decisions. It's just that it's a flat line across the board. The script is lackluster and no one seems too involved in their characters other than The Rock, Brosnan and Hodge. A good superhero team-up requires broad creative strokes and humor to back up the doom and gloom.
Black Adam simply doesn't fill the expectations of a movie about embattled gods. Director Jaume Collet-Serra seems better suited to smaller thrillers and dramatic fare like his past works, The Shallows and Orphan. Huge comic book movies and fight scenes seem outside his creative wheelhouse.
-CG
