I just watched black Adam again for the second time. And it was less epic than the first time.
Honestly, I miss times when trailers appears less epic than the movie, allowing the magic of the movie to continue to persist. Imagine releasing about three trailers for a two-hour movie that has about one hour and forty-five minutes of talk, and comical antics. It feels like they forget the true purpose of this movie which is to show ruthless aggression in all scenes. Apart from the one popular scene that can easily be found in the trailers, I don't think there was any ruthless aggression in this movie.
Then again there is the problem of acting, not that the actors are bad or anything, it is just that the movie greatly suffered from what I would like to call the Rock effect. It's a situation where all who know and have seen Dwyane Johnson's movies expect him to do something superhuman with his God-like physique just like how we have seen him do in his past movies like the fast and the furious franchise, Hobbs and shaw and so on. The problem with this effect is that just like most visual effects we have seen it over and over again to the point that it is a norm. My thought before seeing this movie was that they were going to push the boundaries between the Rock and ruthless aggression and how I felt this could have been done was with more hand-to-hand combat instead of another Shazam "lightning show".
Character clash.
Everybody already knows Dwayne Johnson and The Rock, but nobody knows black Adam aside from some animated reference to him and his comic book background, so a live adaptation of black Adam simply infers that a fleshing out of the character is in order. And although Dwayne Johnson is and always will be the right cast for the character, his alter ego, on the other hand, is not.
Whenever Dwayne is cast in a film you can be a hundred percent sure that the Rock will show up, and as we already know, the Rock Is a worldwide entertainment hero that has already been fleshed out as a being with well develop muscle and God like body, a powerhouse that sends his opponent straight to hell with his signature finisher, The Rock bottom. The most electrifying wrestler turned entertainer. But then, who is black Adam? Honestly, I still don't know. Apart from the fact that his costume is black when compared with that of Shazam', I don't think he appeared in the movie.
But I did see the Rock cosplaying as black Adam, that was very evident from his perfectly bald head, his smoldering intensity, his powerhouse fighting, and his seemingly friendly and happy acting. And even though he was very good at it, he still wasn't able to bring the character to life. What I think the production crew should have done was to put a mask on the Rock, it would have allowed for Dwyane Johnson's acting to be perceived as authentic and not another The Rock cosplay. The best way to do this is to add a costume which the product team handled very well, next would be to hide the Rock/Dwayne's face in a black Adam mask. Not the type seen in mission impossible, just a normal non-permanent facial alterations like the addition of hairs and possibly pointy ears(not necessary). He already has the looks and the physique, his electrifying acting skills and history as a wrestler would go well with black Adam's magic lightning powers.
Rivalry.
Hmmm, this part is a bit tricky because no one quite rivals the Rock/Dwayne like Kevin Hart. But as Kevin is not superhero material, I guess we will have to make do with Aldis Hodge (Hawk man). I compliment Hodges on his take on the infamous Hawk man character, honestly, I haven't seen who hawk man is without his counterpart in a live-action take on the role. And although I struggled to grasp the need for this character's addition to the black Adam's roster, I have to say that, I am extremely impressed with Aldis's performance. It could be because I have never watched any of his films, or simply the fact that they didn't do a backstory on his character. Either way, Aldis delivered the unrelenting rivalry towards the man in black spectacularly. It was very clear that the two characters ( Black Adam and Hawkman) had chemistry and a never-ending power grabble that lasted the entire film.
Although he wasn't the villain, he made more sense than the actual villain who didn't exist.
Other characters.
Noah Centineo who plays Atom smasher also impressed me. I know you probably wondering why? Well, I have come across Noah Centineo on so many other movie projects that are quite far from the superhero genre, movies like To all the boys I've loved before and other Netflix romantic comedy movies where he plays the pretty boy who eventually gets the girl are usually movies I am accustomed to seeing him in. But, I am happy he stepped outside his comfort zone at least I can now picture him as a hero, one with actual power which is better than the bow and arrows used in the shadow Hunters series which starred Noah Centineo. As for Noah's performance in the black Adam movie, I think I will liken it to Ryan Reynold's portrayal of the Deadpool character.
Pierce Brosnan who plays Doctor fate is also a new actor to me but unlike Aldis, I am quite unsatisfied with his performance. It felt as if they went even trying with him despite the massive efforts made to make him appear cool. Honestly, I was expecting very much from Doctor fate, like for example I was expecting him to have at least an encounter fight with the man in black but instead, Warner bros studio decided that it was better to do random gaming tricks that put him on defense instead of attack. I'm a huge fan of the lord of order(Dr.fate) but I'm not impressed with how they handle his case. But I did like how Pierce Brosnan delivered his lines, it felt like voice acting only that it was real with a lot of acting.
At least I now know that Dr. Fate is useless when compared to Dr. Strange.
Every actor who contributed did their best for the film so I would love to give a big shout-out to them despite my lack of appreciation for the film. So here are some characters and their role, Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz
Bodhi Sabongui as Amon Tomaz
Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkel
Marwan Kenzari as Ishmael Gregor. Thank you all.
Villain.
I would have loved to skip this because the thought of how the movie handled this part is just infuriating. I mean, when you have The Rock and black Adam as your hero or anti-hero, the villain should have qualities similar to Brock Lesnar and Thanos or at least should be able to match half the hero's strength physically or mentally. But they didn't even try to flesh out the villain, instead of allowing him to go head to head with the hero on several occasions, they hid him away from the story and used his presence as a plot twist all through the movie. I just hate this whole section and I would like to pretend it doesn't exist.
CGI.
Hahaha...very incredible, honestly I think the CGI is very fantastic, it shows quality and effort but at the same time, it was heavily overused. I believe when Dwayne Johnson stated the " hierarchy of power in the DC universe is about to change..", he was referring to the light bills because the CGI images is so well crafted it probably required tonnes of equipment and gadgets which also probably consumed a lot of energy and electricity. I love it all, except that of the Villain(SABAC).
Finally, if you are looking forward to watching the black Adam movie, all I can say is that the movie despite its many rough edges is amazing. With storylines that are partly true in comic accuracy but also epic, intense, dramatic, action packed, funny, and lively. It heavily relies on the star power of The Rock, Black Adam, and Dr. Fate. In the end, It's a Dwayne Johnson film, which means, there is never a dull moment.
Rated- 🌟⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐🌟7.0/10