Black Adam: A DCEU Retrospective (Part 12)
Rating – 1.5/10
**SPOILERS**
What makes a truly terrible movie? Is it poor acting? Is it bad writing? Is it ugly visuals?
Personally, I believe that even these have a level of merit to them. Some movies are so bad they’re funny, making them an excellent time with friends. Some display some level of effort, but suffered studio interference that ruined decent work (should sound familiar to readers of this series). Some just have ambitions they couldn’t quite reach, but still reflect a good idea. But at the end of the day, if I watch a movie and find some way to appreciate it, to make the experience valuable, it can’t be all bad.
No, I find that the true mark of a genuinely bad film is one that has no impact. One that doesn’t try to make an impression, but rather attempts to do the bare minimum. One that completely overlooks the idea of film as an artform, and just makes a bland attempt to appeal to the widest audience possible, not too complicated, nothing disagreeable or challenging, only meant to be simple entertainment. Nothing remarkably good, nothing memorably bad. A half assed, meaningless jangling of keys that ultimately does nothing more but waste time, some bright lights to distract people from anything that actually matters. A cinematic Instagram reel.
Black Adam is the cinematic debut of the titular anti-hero, promising a darker, morally complex story about a protagonist whose willingness to take lives and immense power puts him at odds with more traditional heroes. It was announced in 2014 with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson attached to star, and would spend 8 years in development. During this time, Johnson would go into overtime building up hype for Black Adam, constantly declaring that the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe was about to change. As will be explored in a bit, Johnson was determined to make his character a cornerstone of the DC Extended Universe, and put in tons of effort to make the film an event that demanded to be seen, in part by promising a future filled with crossovers for the character, most notably with Henry Cavill’s Superman (who had been MIA since Justice League). So, how did that go?
Well after Johnson got booed at ComicCon a few months before the films release (for not directly announcing Cavill’s involvement, meaning that bit of hype building backfired a little, huh), writing was kind of on the wall. Black Adam did not break even at the box office (which Johnson hilariously was in denial of and even reportedly skewed numbers to make the film seem more profitable to investors). But that does not reflect its quality of course, great films bomb all the time.
Yeah, no. This is not an example of that.
I’m going to be totally real here, I despise this movie. Seeing Black Adam in theaters was the closest I have ever gotten to walking out of a theater, and I sat through Morbius, all three Jurassic World movies, and Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. The problem with Black Adam is that it is so aggressively average. It’s so steadfast in its refusal to break away from the superhero movie formula, so committed to being standard “entertainment” and nothing more, so exceptionally okay, that it ultimately infuriates me. At least Batman v Superman was a mismash of bold, decidedly creative swings that didn’t work. At least Suicide Squad appeared to have some level of inspiration and thoughtfulness put into it that was stripped away by Warner Bros. Black Adam is just bland, with nothing much to say, and really not much of an identity that isn’t derivative of other, better movies.
The main cause of this isn’t the director or writers however. The main cause is Dwayne Johnson himself. Johnson famously has a “no-lose” clause in his contracts, meaning during cinematic fight scenes, Johnson’s characters must always win or at least deal as much damage as they receive. It’s a blatant ego driven clause, and boils Johnson’s performances down to just ways to make him look good. Naturally as a result, the titular Black Adam becomes an extremely disengaging character, openly written to be so overpowered that no character has any real means of defeating him. Action scenes exist so Johnson can just beat up and electrocute random bad guys, and naturally completely lack stakes.
All this being said, overpowered characters can be done well with strong writing and emotional arcs, or at least some entertainment value. However, for some reason Johnson decides to bring nothing but moody stoicism to the role. He spends half his screen time brooding, with very little distinct personality, and rare moments of humor come from a repetitive misunderstanding of modern day customs (oh yeah Black Adam is a few hundred centuries old), all delivered with the same monotonous, stoic tone, which is shocking coming from Johnson, who typically has enough charisma to make up for some of his faults. As for a strong character arc, the only real question facing Black Adam is whether or not he will choose to be a hero (he’s an antihero remember, so he doesn’t feel obligated to protect people). However, anyone slightly aware of how trope ridden this story is, as well as Johnson’s image conscious nature, won’t have to think very hard to figure out what choice he makes. Black Adam doesn’t exist to be a complex character, he’s just the manifestation of Dwayne Johnson’s need to look cool.
Of course, terrible writing doesn’t apply to only the character of Black Adam. The film’s script is nothing but rough dialogue and a hastily written script designed to take us from one fight to the next. No one puts effort into any sort of themes, which don’t get any deeper than “is it wrong for heroes to kill?”, and occasional allusions to thoughts on imperialism without any concrete opinions on it other than “it’s not great”. The dialogue is abysmal, frequently sounding like it was meant to be temporary before no one bothered to write a second draft of the script. This includes heavy handed exposition, lazily written to get information to the audience quickly to make more time for fighting, jokes that sound like they were taken straight from the Marvel writers’ room, and bland lines lacking personality or uniqueness, just common phrases said by a thousand different actors in a thousand different movies. Dialogue in Black Adam isn’t written or delivered in a way that expresses distinct personality in its characters. They’re all robotic statements of information for the audience or what needs to happen for the story to progress, completely lacking any natural elements.
Much like how the script carries a low effort, by the numbers vibe, the direction of Black Adam is also unremarkable. Director Jaume Collet-Serra leaves a downright anonymous mark on the film, with nothing suggesting a singular vision or inventive decision. It feels like a film that could’ve been made by a committee basing its choices off of what's most popular. There aren’t really any stand out moments or memorable shots, as Collet-Serra’s direction is just so workmanlike. In fact, at some points it feels as though he’s trying to rip off Zack Snyder’s style (most obviously in the slow motion shots, which lose any tastefulness Snyder might’ve brought to the table and rapidly become excessive).
The only thing that really does stick out in the memory is the frequently terrible CGI. I’ve criticized the CGI a lot in this series, but I feel I’ve often used Suicide Squad as the benchmark for the worst CGI in the franchise. I take it all back. We have a new benchmark. The single worst visual effect I’ve seen in the DCEU thus far has to be the final villain, Sabbac.
If that read like a transition to a paragraph on Sabbac, it wasn’t. There’s really nothing to him outside of being a bad effect. Which is pretty on brand for Black Adam, frankly.
There is also one of my least favorite parts of the film: Bodhi Sabongui. He’s basically the standard kid character that befriends Black Adam, and I know it’s generally not cool to hate on child actors, especially those that don’t seem to have a lot of acting experience. However, his line readings are painfully wooden, giving the vibe of an actor in a Disney Channel Original movie who didn’t memorize his lines and has to go off cue cards.
So is there anything I like about Black Adam? Well, the costumes as always are good. I really like how Black Adam’s suit looks like it’s covered in symbols and other markings. Also, the Justice Society (not the League, don’t think about it too hard I guess), a team of superheroes called in to stop Black Adam’s violence and clash with his willingness to kill. They aren’t super special and suffer from the poor dialogue and effects, but they’re more entertaining than anything else. I do genuinely like Pierce Brosnan as magic user Doctor Fate, who just brings a laid back and sardonic, yet warm performance. I liked him. Honestly I’d be willing to see more of these guys. Also there’s a character named Cyclone who fights with wind or something, and the actor (Quintessa Swindell) studied dance techniques to give their action scenes some graceful, flowing choreography. That was a nice touch (when you can see it through the green mist effects that cover their every move).
Other than that, Black Adam really doesn’t have much going for it. It’s a movie made for the sole purpose of giving Dwayne Johnson superpowers and letting him fight things, and if that works for people, fine, but I just can’t stand this waste of my time and slap in the face to the artform of filmmaking. It really shows me that for all of Johnson’s efforts to be an actor, he still views it as a way to boost his image and entertain the masses, and nothing more. At the end of the day, he never really left the WWE, and his turn towards more dramatic fare for later this year has not changed my mind on the matter. It’s easily the least interesting film in the DCEU. Blockbuster filmmaking can amount to more than this, but Dwayne Johnson never lets his films do so. I just can’t tell if that’s because he doesn’t know he can or if he doesn’t care enough to do so.
However, in the background of Black Adam, the DCEU faced another major shakeup. In April 2022, Discovery Inc. completed its acquisition of WarnerMedia, with former Discovery CEO David Zaslav becoming the new president. Zaslav would shift the DCEU’s focus back towards a more interconnected storyline, seeking a 10 year theatrical release plan and a new leader to oversee the franchise.
Johnson caught onto the search for a new DECU creative director, and envisioned a future in which he and Black Adam were cornerstones of the franchise, getting several crossovers and chances to fight other characters (and presumably win against all of them, thanks to that contract clause). Johnson was still enthusiastic about the chance to show himself beating up Henry Cavill’s Superman, and after getting booed at ComicCon, successfully convinced Warner Bros execs to book Cavill for a cameo in the post credits scene of Black Adam. He did this after the request was rejected by Hamada, and the subsequent overruling was a factor in his eventual stepping away from the DCEU.
Dwayne Johnson would continue vying for more power over the DCEU, but the financial disappointment of Black Adam and Warner Bros and Discovery’s reluctance to give into his demands would cut this scheme short (sort of explaining why Johnson was so determined to downplay the box office failure of his movie). There were no plans to go forward with the character . Meanwhile, poor Henry Cavill was fired as Superman just days after announcing he was permanently back in the role.
As bland of a movie as it is, Black Adam remains an odd footnote in the DCEU history, masking a surprising power struggle for the future of the franchise. The idea of a Dwayne Johnson controlled DCEU however is a strange one, and I’m certain it would ultimately be a short lived ego trip for the wrestler turned actor, as more bland movies about Black Adam getting into fights that he can’t lose would quickly turn more people against the franchise. I feel as though we dodged a bullet here, although in the end, Black Adam is simply the prelude to the DCEU’s slow demise.
