Black Adam. Dwayne Johnson do it again!
Oct 24, 2022
If the passing of the years has already certified that the subgenre of superheroes is essential to keep the box office afloat, it is equally verifiable that it is becoming increasingly difficult to detect any originality in it. This feeling of rediscovering clichés and understatements, not to mention familiar sequences, also surfaces throughout Black Adam.
I am sure that the most faithful readers of DC will be able to exchange winks seeing various members of the Justice Society of America on screen: Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). They will also obviously enjoy the presence of the main character, Black Adam (Dwayne Johnson), a supervillain created by Otto Binder and C. C. Beck in 1945, reformed on the big screen with the manners of a twilight champion. But beyond these joys, the film continues to be a canonical adventure of masked titans, a repeat offenders in all the commonplaces that this formula offers.
I guess it's already too late to alter these types of products. The question, basically, depends on the dose of humor that is added to the potion and how effective the filmmaker is. The rest (the back and forth of digital fights and chases, the hereafter that invades the hereafter, and the crossover with other films) is easy to identify in almost any product of this line. And Black Adam is no exception to the rule.
Fortunately, director Jaume Collet-Serra knows how to balance the narrative in such a way that an instruction manual is not necessary. It takes on Zack Snyder's style traits (slow motion, muted colors, blue-green filters, stylized action...) and inherits details from his imagery.
Although Dwayne Johnson's performance is not (and is not intended to be) a revelation, the actor has enough charisma and craft to command respect. And the somewhat underutilized supporting cast plays to the trump card of including Pierce Brosnan, who dazzles veteran audiences every time he recites his lines or raises an eyebrow.
As a novel point, the action takes place in a fictional place in the Middle East, Kahndaq, tyrannized by an army of mercenaries. Although an anti-imperialist reading can be found there, the film does not leave the established track, halfway between an action comedy and a magical story of dark kingdoms and prodigious talismans. After all, this is not The Battle of Algiers (1962), but a story that begins when an archaeologist, Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), discovers a supernatural crown made of a substance called eternium.
As long as the viewer does their part, they can be entertained and enjoy themselves from start to finish. For the rest, this is a vehicle at the service of Dwayne Johnson, and although it seems that his character has an evil side, we all know that it will not be long before he finds his moral compass.
Once again, it is clear that Johnson is a frankly effective actor, aware of his virtues and very adept at exploiting them.
Synopsis
Nearly 5,000 years after the Egyptian gods gave him almighty powers and imprisoned him just as quickly, Black Adam (Johnson) is released from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique brand of justice on the modern world.
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