'Black Adam' movie review: A topsy-turvy origin story

Updated On: 20 October, 2022 04:24 PM IST | Mumbai | Johnson Thomas

The comic book origins are clear but the cinema world requires more character build-up and that’s severely lacking

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Still from Black Adam

Film: Black Adam
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 125 min

Imagine seeing the WWE superstar Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson in a superhero avatar, wearing spandex accentuating sculpted cuts that make his heavy-duty pounds look even more lethal? Well, you don’t have to look deep or far…Just go to a movie theatre near you. ‘Black Adam’ the origin story for this brand new addition to the DC comic book - cinema universe links that explosive lethality to a 5000-year-old legacy when the Gods anointed Teth Adam protector of Khandaq, an ancient country that is today being ravaged by the Intergang. 4600 years after he was imprisoned in an earthly tomb, he is called back to life by a widow - an archaeologist, Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), and her son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), who are hell-bent on protecting a powerful artifact. The opening (narrated prologue) meant to encapsulate the origins of the title character, is rather disjointed and jumbled up. We get to see a series of scenes set in the ancient city of Khandaq but there’s no real clarity on what happened then.

This superhero genre flick is replete with elements and tropes that come across as flashy, blast-happy, loud, and discordant and the movie owes most of its stunt action to CGI. Fist-fights, pyrotechnics, and explosive blinding gold and silver whites signify weapons of destruction as Adam seeks to gain supremacy over his rivals. The Justice Society of America –constituting the Leader, Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) all who look like a low-rent Avengers/X men outfit, can’t seem to figure out what their role is in the scheme of things. So there’s a whole lot of unnecessary haranguing and blindingly flashy and loud pyrotechnics before the audience can make a guess.

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