Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods-and imprisoned just as quickly-Black Adam (Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.
Pam says:
What a convoluted story to introduce Black Adam/Teth Adam/Shazam to super hero audiences. So convoluted, in fact, that I am still unsure as to how this Shazam and the hilarious Zachary Levi version co-exist. I’ll get you up to speed the best I can. Long before the ancient Roman Empire and other worlds both real and mythical, was a land called Khandaq. The people have been enslaved to mine for a special resource that gives energy, power and life. As an old man’s life is sacrificed, a young boy attempts to save his people only to suffer the consequences of the evil powers that rule the land. Fast forward to the current Khandaq and this richly sourced area that is still being governed by evil humans. Until one day, when a professor (Sarah Shahi) finds the lost crown, she utters the word SHAZAM to bring back to life an entity called Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson).
Whew! I’m exhausted just recounting the beginning of the story all of which took place amidst rapid fire explosions, chase scenes, and killings. Enter The Justice Society. No, that’s not a typo or an error on my part. It was initially known as The Justice Society comprised of Maxine (Quintessa Swindell) who sprinkles a rainbow of colors through the air (I’m not sure what her power was other than adding beauty to the sky), AI (Noah Centineo) who grows much like The Hulk and the resemblance between Centineo and Ruffalo is uncanny, Carter (Aldis Hodge) who soars like an eagle impervious to battle wounds, and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) who can see the future with his mighty helmet. All of these characters are lead by Amanda Waller (Viola Davis)–think back to “Suicide Squad.” Their goal? To stop Teth Adam. The juxtaposition Teth Adam has is a simple one: he’s not a hero, he’s not a villain, he’s just attempting to right a wrong from his past and perhaps be a “champion” for the people of Khandaq. (If only the writers had focused on this with their too-late flashbacks.)
Sarah’s teenage son gets wrapped up in the midst of things as he attempts to save his mother and the crown, finding that his family isn’t who he thought they were and the story becomes an even more convoluted one as the “heroes” now have to save the boy AND the world. Again, by the time we get to this part of the story, more battle scenes than a “Star Wars” movie have already taken place, countless people have died, and I have squirmed in my chair enough times to make the woman to my right give me evil gazes.
What went wrong with this movie? Let’s start with Johnson being a one-note wonder. Where’s his personality? People will come to see this movie because of him and it’ll be nothing but a disappointment. His faraway glaring is his forte and while he nails this, there’s not much more. Super hero movies, especially of the DC nature, are typically violent and dark, this one finds a home in this space as it punctuates its ability to portray battle scenes. Using special effects, it ranges from believable to laughable, particularly as Teth Adam/Black Adam rises in the air and flits from one place to another, our visual field is constantly bombarded. That brings me to the musical score for which the composer should have been paid overtime as there are only fleeting moments of silence. Every scene and almost every bit of dialogue is underscored by music. Perhaps the loud, overbearing score is to mask the fact that there’s not much to see in this film.
Where did it succeed? There was a glimmer of humor using sarcasm and the artists had one opportunity to make a fight scene into something pulled straight from a comic book. If we had had more of this, and a story, “Black Adam” might have been tolerable.
“Black Adam” is a repetitive bore lacking any substance with only hints of a story. Had the writers, and there are several, taken the time to develop the story and its characters as opposed to making sure that 95% of the movie is action, we might have had a meaningful super hero story. And with the violence and truly scary images, those kids in the audience at last night’s screening will be having nightmares for weeks. This is NOT a kids’ movie.
1 Star
“How long we gonna keep doin’ this?” – Hawkman
Sometimes, a line of dialogue is spoken in a movie that perfectly sums up the feelings you’re having while watching it. Such was the case as I was enduring the long slog that is Jaume Collet-Serra’s “Black Adam,” yet another massive misstep in Warner Brothers misguided attempt to bring their stable of DC Comics heroes to the big screen. I’d be hard-pressed to think of a corporation that continually shoots itself in the foot the way they do. A prime opportunity to restart their perpetually misguided superhero universe, Collet-Serra and a trio of writers thoroughly botch this assignment, giving us a film with little in the way of story and far too much in the way of overlong, bloated actions scenes. This is a movie that bludgeons rather than entertains the viewer.
For the uninitiated, Black Adam is to Shazam what the Joker is to Batman. Initially seen as a one-note villain, he’s since been recast as an anti-hero, the defender of the fictional Middle Eastern country of Khandaq, basically a stand-in for Egypt. This is the approach we see the film take, as via flashback we see the slave Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson) receive his powers from a council of gods. They come to regret this decision once they see their champion in action, realizing they’ve created a weapon they can’t control. So, they imprison him, where he’s trapped for 5,000 years until a group of rebels awaken him while searching for a mystical relic of, you guessed it, great power.
What ensues is nothing but a series of scenes of mass destruction, as helicopters explode, buildings collapse and vehicles are tossed ad nauseum. This constant barrage of action soon wears out its welcome, the initially spectacular becoming repetitious and numbing. The amount of action overkill is perhaps the biggest flaw that’s emerged in the superhero genre, the DC Comics films erring on the side of excess more often than their counterpart. Like so many of the movies in this universe, the “more-is-more” approach results in a dull spectacle of excessive carnage and mayhem.
Much of the action revolves around the appearance of the Justice Society of America, the members of which have been deputed to reign Black Adam in. These heroes would be Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo). They can destroy things, cast spells, control the weather and grow real big, respectively. That’s all we know about these heroes, each of whom have an intriguing history, none of which is explored and explained.
This is just one of many missed opportunities that are sacrificed in the pursuit of empty bombast. Each of the performers are quite appealing in their roles and it’s a shame they’re not given more to do with, oh I don’t know, character development through quiet conversations and interactions?!? Call me “silly” or “old-fashioned” but I need these elements in a film in order to care about the characters, become somewhat emotionally engaged with them and then be concerned about their fate amidst all the tumult that ensues. But what do I know?
One of the bigger mistakes Collet-Serra and Johnson make is the muting of the star’s natural charisma. Perhaps the most important thing that has made Johnson such an appealing and popular performer is his self-effacing approach. He’s never taken himself too seriously and goes out of his way to let the audience know they shouldn’t either. That’s not the case here, the actor giving a one-note performance that quickly becomes tiresome and what few attempts at humor there are, fall flat, though Brosnan has a nice deadpan moment or two.
Though running a bit over two hours, “Black Adam” feels MUCH longer. The tedium that ensues from repetitious action and narrative inertia has a way of doing that. The theme of whether to maintain a sense of law and order as well as moral balance or adopt a policy of violent expediency in the face of an immediate threat is at the core of the film, as is a swipe at American interventionism. Yet, these issues are treated as nothing but soundbites, lame attempts at relevance that are quickly brushed aside to blow something up real good. In the end, this is simply an empty, loud tantrum of a movie no one should be subjected to.
2 Stars
