“Tell them the Man in Black sent you.”
In ancient times, Teth-Adam was chosen as Champion and granted the powers of the gods to free the enslaved nation of Kahndaq. But after instead using his powers for vengeance, Teth-Adam was imprisoned for nearly 5000 years. But after being released from his tomb, he find Kahndaq still enslaved, now by a group of mercenaries. After using his powers to deal out his unconventional form of justice against the mercenaries, the Justice Society of America is called in to stop him.
Was Black Adam necessary? No. But it certainly was fun. Black Adam was an entertaining installment in the DCEU that didn’t take itself too seriously. For the most part, it was a “popcorn movie” featuring The Rock beating up a bunch of mercenaries with superpowers. And with the current state of uncertainty in the DCEU, that was really all it needed to be.
What stood out most was the movie’s impressive special effects. Everything from Black Adam’s lightning and strength to the bullets disintegrating against his face, the special effects were rock-solid. Another positive aspect was the costume design. Costumes can be especially tricky to get right in superhero films with the debate between leaning toward comic-accuracy or going more modernized. Black Adam struck this balance perfectly with the Black Adam suit and the Justice Society’s costumes, including Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). Cyclone’s (Quintessa Swindell) suit didn’t stand out next to her counterparts, but that was more than made up by the visually-stunning spectacle of her rainbow-tornado powers.
Most of the film took place in Kahndaq, a fictional country located between Egypt and Israel in the DC Universe. One of my gripes was that the city seemed extremely bland. Yes, it had ancient ruins within the city, but other than that, it could have been any Middle-Eastern city. The film shared similarities with Black Panther (2018), namely having a precious resource only found there that can be used to enhance technology in seemingly magical ways. While Wakanda successfully leaned into this idea by showing how their city was futuristically upgraded with Vibranium, Kahndaq did not show any signs of change from its Eternium. No one in Kahndaq had access to Eternium after thousands of years, except for the mercenaries who had been only been there the last twenty.
In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised with what Black Adam had to offer and would rate it 3 ½ out of 5 stars. Going into this movie, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but it turned out to be a fun and entertaining addition to DC’s movie universe. What’s next for Black Adam? No spoilers here but be sure to stay for the post-credits scene for a teaser.
Black Adam is available everywhere in theaters.
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