REVIEW: Black Adam

This latest offering from DC Films has many of of the right elements, but struggles to ground itself in humanity.

Re-envisioning its title character as an antihero,¹ Black Adam is a star vehicle for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, for whom it was reportedly a passion project. It’s certainly darker than his usual fare, though I’d argue the film suffers from a lack of opportunity to let its leading man flex his mighty comedic chops.

Set in the fictional North African nation of Kahndaq, which is under the oppressive rule of a generic mercenaries called Intergang. The fact they mostly seem to have English accents is a clue to Black Adams anti-imperialism commentary, which it shares with another similarly-titled Marvel superhero franchise.² Resistance leader Adrianna Tomaz (an underutilised Sarah Shahi, who I adored in Person of Interest)³ awakens the long-dormant saviour of Kandhaq, Teth-Adam (Johnson), who immediately and brutally wipes out any aggressors. DC has a reputation for being more “adult” than Marvel, but, even so, it’s unexpected seeing your supposed “hero” fry an unwitting henchman to a skeleton.

There’s an ancient, infernal MacGuffin called the Crown of Sabbac, which currently threatens the future of the world and with which Adam has a history, and director Jaume Collet-Serra makes the most of Adams’ combative nature and immense power for panoramic set pieces of destruction; occasionally set to very on-the-nose song choices.⁴ There’s a precocious, not-too-annoying, skateboarding kid, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), who may just convince the recalcitrant Adam to be a hero, and, also in opposition, the so-called Justice Society; sort of Justice League meets the X-Men ⁵: Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), gold-winged and mace-wielding; Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), a premonitionary, gold-helmed magician; and new team members, size-changing Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and weather-wielding Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell).

The parallels with Marvel are obvious – Hawkman = Falcon, Doctor Fate = Doctor Strange, Atom Smasher = Ant-Man⁶, Cyclone = Storm.⁷ But, in a symptom of DC’s chronic Synder Syndrome, there’s an over-reliance on slow-mo, on gods and monsters, on a malevolent antagonist who is almost literally the devil. For my money, the character who comes closest to achieving an equanimity of tone is Brosnan’s wry, self-deprecating mystic – even if the film itself doesn’t quite appreciate the distinction between sarcasm and irony.

Black Adams’ darker-is-better approach to superherodom essentially lands on “murder is okay” if it’s the Arab Spring, and I, as a Brit⁸ am not in much of a position to argue with that. Even so, I might wish for a bit of subtlety in DC’s handling of grand themes.

Black Adam is now showing exclusively in cinemas

1. His comic-book origin story is actually more akin to that of the villain Imhotep from The Mummy.
2. Whose second instalment is due out next month. More on this to come…
3. Here’s hoping Black Adam 2 introduces her superhero persona, Isis. Failing that, her clambering around in ruins has me clamouring to see her as the next Lara Croft. Casting a Persian actress in the role would definitely provide a new angle on a globe-trotting English aristocratic raiding tombs.
4. Shades of Suicide Squad in this regard.
5. Complete with super-jet and junior team members
6. With Deadpool-style mask, complete with expressive white eyes.
7. Whose control of the weather comes in rainbow hues, with a bit of Tony Stark or Shuri thrown in for good measure.
8. I say as a, perhaps arbitrary, distinction to being “English”.