“BLACK ADAM” REVIEW: A MISS AND A MESS

“Black Adam” was pretty terrible in my opinion. It was one of the most awful movies I have ever seen. I love superheroes and villains in all their forms; from DC to Marvel to random Webtoons, I love it. There was even a Catgirl movie, and I thought that was pretty enjoyable. I swear I am not a harsh critic, but “Black Adam...”

This movie had the potential to be much better if they had changed a couple of aspects. The main character, played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, did not really shine.

While The Rock is a talented actor, he was not the right choice to play Teth-Adam. I enjoyed a lot of his past movies, but this role was not suited to him.

The majority of the time, when I see a superhero movie it’s someone relatively unknown or not as popular. It tends to be someone who is finally getting a chance to show their acting abilities on a broader screen.

This time, it wasn’t the case – it was someone everyone knows. You know him as a famous wrestler, actor or musician. He was already popular.

I’m not sure if DC was like “Yeah this movie is going to be a hit – we have Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson” or what, but it didn’t work.

His acting was mediocre, and honestly, I’m unsure if it was 100% his acting that threw me off. If you watch the movie, which I’m not sure if I want to recommend to you, you can see that he was doing his best. No matter how skilled the actor is, they can’t make up for a terrible story.

The story was a failure because they hinted at certain things and never gave us any information later. For instance, one of the main characters, Isis, has a necklace that her grandmother gave her.

She finds Adam and revives him. At a later point in the movie, you see that Adam’s wife has the same necklace. That leads the viewers to think that Isis might be a descendant of Adam’s, but we never really know for sure.

Then there’s the Justice Society. First off, Adam hasn’t done anything yet. The people of the fictional place in Kahndaq are oppressed and almost all of them are slaves.

Adam refused to help free the people because he is not a hero. A lot of stuff happens, but someone in between Adam kills the “bad guy,” and the Justice Society comes to stop him.

They do not try to free the people or stop all the terror happening around them. Instead, they just want to take all the powerful people and keep them in line. After the villain is killed, Adam says, “take me to jail then,” which they proceed to do.

He’s underwater, in chains and more. Then all of a sudden, there is this evil demon named Sabbac who appears.

With the Justice Society (ironic if you watch the movie) you have Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone.

One grows really big, one controls the wind, one can fly and see the fusion among other things and one can fly and has a hammer thing. While they have nice powers, they can’t compete with a dark Shazam. They lost the fight and there was a fatality.

In the end, Adam somehow breaks out and saves the day. The fight between Sabbac and Adam was cool but only lasted 5-10 minutes. I wanted to see more. In the end, the Justice Society lets Adam go, saying that the world needs more heroes who are willing to get their hands dirty.

Adam says he isn’t a hero. Good, great. The end. No, it isn’t. The Justice Society then threatens him. Adam is like if you have a problem come get me. Then Superman appeared.

Now that is all the story. It wasn’t just terrible acting, but overall faulty cinematography. There were some scenes I was confused about and the way so much was given in such a short time was confusing.

I think they should have introduced Adam in another movie beforehand and then made this movie. They also should have read the script and asked themselves....is this good? That could have helped.

“Black Adam” is part of the Shazam community. Just watch “Shazam!” and “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and forget this movie even exists unless you’re curious about it.

BY ZYKEYAH EASTER