Black Adam
Dwayne Johnson kicks off a new franchise as a vengeful, homicidal slave re-born as a god – to considerably tedious results. So the Justice Society flies in to try and stop him….
Rage machine: Dwayne Johnson
In order to explain the treacherous downturn in box-office receipts of late, cinema chains have been blaming a lack of suitable blockbusters. In hushed tones, they’ve been praying for a saviour with the commercial clout of, say, Dwayne Johnson. The title Black Adam has been chucked around the corridors of power as a foreseeable stopgap in the haemorrhaging of multiplex profits. That is, before the onslaught of such year-end certainties as Matilda the Musical, Avatar: The Way of Water and Disney’s Strange World. Of course, there’s no such thing as a safe bet these days, unlike in Hollywood’s golden age of Shirley Temple and Mickey Rooney. However, there is Dwayne Johnson, who has triumphed as a contemporary icon because his films have provided larger-than-life entertainment value, with lashings of action, spectacle and humour.
DC Films’ new franchise lift-off, Black Adam, though, is a change of gear for The Rock. Unlike Shazam! which was a funny and jubilant affair, this spin-off is a grim, largely humourless concoction with a lot of bashing and wholesale destruction. And Black Adam himself – aka Teth-Adam – is even more problematic. Awakened from a five-thousand-year nap, he proves impervious to high-velocity bullets, can catch a rocket in his hand and tosses helicopters around with nonchalant disdain. Id est, he is virtually indestructible. Furthermore, he repeatedly stipulates “I am not a hero” and spends a lot of his time dashing up into the sky with a miscreant in each hand, before dropping them to their death. Aptly, he is dubbed a “weapon of mass destruction.” Any way you look at it, he is not good news.
This is Dwayne Johnson in the Terminator mode of Arnold Schwarzenegger, before Arnie became a joke. There are some feeble attempts at humour but they barely leaven the crushing mood of familiar CGI devastation. In ancient times, you see, Black Adam was a slave but has been reborn a god thanks to the meddling of tomb raiders who have inadvertently raised Cain in Adam’s homeland of Kahndaq, which has now been under military occupation for 27 years. And as Adam wreaks his spectacular brand of havoc, the Justice Society flies in to stop him. But, of course, they are no match for his phenomenal powers.
All this is very wearying, accompanied by the usual big sound-effects and endless music, while the whole thing feels like it has been edited by a garden strimmer. As buildings topple and the various members of the Justice Society exhibit their astonishing (if ineffectual) skills, one loses any sense of interest, let alone awe. The bigger and grander the effects, the less the impact they deliver. As the Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) grows six storeys tall and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) vanishes into thin air, the really impressive skill belongs to Bodhi Sabongui’s 13-year-old rebel Amon, whose omnipresent skateboard seems like a fifth limb – and which obeys the relatable laws of gravity. He is the one human attribute in the mind-numbing video game-like monotony. The CGI effects, though, are pretty damn good.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, Mohammed Amer, James Cusati-Moyer, Pierce Brosnan, Jalon Christian, Viola Davis, Jennifer Holland, Henry Winkler, Djimon Hounsou, Henry Cavill.
Dir Jaume Collet-Serra, Pro Beau Flynn, Dwayne Johnson, Hiram Garcia and Dany Garcia, Screenplay Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani, Ph Lawrence Sher, Pro Des Tom Meyer, Ed John Lee and Michael L. Sale, Music Lorne Balfe, Costumes Kurt and Bart, Sound Harry Cohen, Bill R. Dean, Erick Ocampo, Ann Scibelli and David Werntz, Dialect coach Cara Reid.
New Line Cinema/DC Films/Seven Bucks Productions/FlynnPictureCo.-Warner Bros.
124 mins. USA/Canada/New Zealand/Hungary. 2022. UK and US Rel: 21 October 2022. Cert. 12A.
