After being bestowed with all the powers of the Egyptian gods, a former slave is imprisoned and entombed by a team of powerful wizards. 5000 years later he is awakened in the present day by Adrianna Tomaz. She sees this man (who becomes known as Black Adam) as the only hope to overthrow the brutal regime that their society is currently living under. Upon hearing of Black Adam's rejuvenation, a small team of superheroes known as the justice society are dispatched to put a stop to what they deem as his 'reign of destruction.'
It's pretty hard to fathom what is going on for most of the time in this film; it seems that the justice society are the good guys (which it turns out that they are) and Black Adam is also a good guy so we effectively have 2 sets of good guys fighting against each other for most of the film; hmmm that's a weird set up??? Eventually when both Black Adam and the justice society discover a common enemy and a young boy's life is at stake they all decide to band together to save him...
Although having 2 sets of good people fighting against each other is an odd narrative device this isn't actually the worst thing about this film. The bigger problem lies with the tone; as was established a few years ago with the Fantastic Four reboot a serious dark tone to a superhero film seldom works (unless you're Christopher Nolan). Superhero films should be fun, the characters should be fun and there should be some humour - at least in my opinion though this is clearly a subjective viewpoint. Black Adam takes itself far too seriously and the characters themselves are rather weak; The Justice Society represent possibly the worst ensemble of superheroes I think that I've ever seen; they are so colourless and devoid of personality that it becomes impossible to care about anything that they say or do; I genuinely can't remember one interesting or amusing thing that came out of any of their mouths. Atom Smasher seems to be dressed up in a Deadpool costume, but has the same powers as Ant-Man. He's meant to be the comic relief guy, but every time he spouted what were meant to be funny lines I kept being reminded at how good Ryan Reynolds was as Deadpool - in other words Centineo was a distraction more than anything else. The girl is some kind of computer whizz, but I don't remember this skill ever been relevant to the plot. Pierce Brosnan wow what the hell was he doing here? Very strange casting choice. I thought Aldis Hodge was the best of a bad bunch, but this is faint praise when all is said and done. Dwayne Johnson does the best he can here, but he's proven himself to be fairly good at comedy and had this film had a more light-hearted tone I think that this would have benefitted his style of acting a little more.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this film lies with the choice of director; don't get me wrong Jaume Collet-Sera is a good director and has directed several films that I have enjoyed such as Orphan, Unknown, Non-Stop and Shallows, but these are all horror/thriller/action films and he's never directed a superhero film. Whilst I understand his desire to get his toe in the water with a superhero film - they usually make big bucks at the box office so given the opportunity I can see this as a no brainer to most directors, but he really is out of his depth here. He directs the film too much like an action film and not a superhero film; humour and characterisation is not quite as important in film genres that Sera is skilled in, but the absence of those things here pretty much sink the film. He's a good director and with the right advice I could see him eventually being good in this area, but he's got a long way to go in my humble opinion.
Overall I found Black Adam to be a bit boring and a very hard film to care about; as I've said the flat characterisation, the serious tone and the messy narrative don't do the film any favours. It's a shame as I've liked a lot of the director's previous films, but I think he needs to adopt a different approach to this kind of material if he is to direct any sequels or other superhero based films.
DISHONOURABLE MENTION: Shameless product placement; the boy drops loads of comic books on the floor at the start of the film, but the wonder woman comic book lands face up and prominent to the camera, several Batman & Superman posters are shown in plain view as well. I think at one point a Spider-man poster gets sliced in half which could have upped this to an honourable mention had the film not been so terrible and if the DC product placement had been toned down a bit.
It's pretty hard to fathom what is going on for most of the time in this film; it seems that the justice society are the good guys (which it turns out that they are) and Black Adam is also a good guy so we effectively have 2 sets of good guys fighting against each other for most of the film; hmmm that's a weird set up??? Eventually when both Black Adam and the justice society discover a common enemy and a young boy's life is at stake they all decide to band together to save him...
Although having 2 sets of good people fighting against each other is an odd narrative device this isn't actually the worst thing about this film. The bigger problem lies with the tone; as was established a few years ago with the Fantastic Four reboot a serious dark tone to a superhero film seldom works (unless you're Christopher Nolan). Superhero films should be fun, the characters should be fun and there should be some humour - at least in my opinion though this is clearly a subjective viewpoint. Black Adam takes itself far too seriously and the characters themselves are rather weak; The Justice Society represent possibly the worst ensemble of superheroes I think that I've ever seen; they are so colourless and devoid of personality that it becomes impossible to care about anything that they say or do; I genuinely can't remember one interesting or amusing thing that came out of any of their mouths. Atom Smasher seems to be dressed up in a Deadpool costume, but has the same powers as Ant-Man. He's meant to be the comic relief guy, but every time he spouted what were meant to be funny lines I kept being reminded at how good Ryan Reynolds was as Deadpool - in other words Centineo was a distraction more than anything else. The girl is some kind of computer whizz, but I don't remember this skill ever been relevant to the plot. Pierce Brosnan wow what the hell was he doing here? Very strange casting choice. I thought Aldis Hodge was the best of a bad bunch, but this is faint praise when all is said and done. Dwayne Johnson does the best he can here, but he's proven himself to be fairly good at comedy and had this film had a more light-hearted tone I think that this would have benefitted his style of acting a little more.
Perhaps the biggest problem with this film lies with the choice of director; don't get me wrong Jaume Collet-Sera is a good director and has directed several films that I have enjoyed such as Orphan, Unknown, Non-Stop and Shallows, but these are all horror/thriller/action films and he's never directed a superhero film. Whilst I understand his desire to get his toe in the water with a superhero film - they usually make big bucks at the box office so given the opportunity I can see this as a no brainer to most directors, but he really is out of his depth here. He directs the film too much like an action film and not a superhero film; humour and characterisation is not quite as important in film genres that Sera is skilled in, but the absence of those things here pretty much sink the film. He's a good director and with the right advice I could see him eventually being good in this area, but he's got a long way to go in my humble opinion.
Overall I found Black Adam to be a bit boring and a very hard film to care about; as I've said the flat characterisation, the serious tone and the messy narrative don't do the film any favours. It's a shame as I've liked a lot of the director's previous films, but I think he needs to adopt a different approach to this kind of material if he is to direct any sequels or other superhero based films.
DISHONOURABLE MENTION: Shameless product placement; the boy drops loads of comic books on the floor at the start of the film, but the wonder woman comic book lands face up and prominent to the camera, several Batman & Superman posters are shown in plain view as well. I think at one point a Spider-man poster gets sliced in half which could have upped this to an honourable mention had the film not been so terrible and if the DC product placement had been toned down a bit.