Our review of Black Adam, a DC cinecomic starring Dwayne Johnson and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra.
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
The long-awaited Black Adam will finally debut in Italian cinemas on Thursday 20 October, a comic book film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Jungle Cruise) and produced and starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, here the protagonist of a film project that the actor has been pursuing for a long time and with great passion. The DC Entertainment comic book film partially manages to keep its promises, giving its audience a great visual and audio spectacle where, however, the narrative structure tends to fail in a sometimes disastrous way.
A real shame for what was launched as the comic book film that would have revived the disastrous fortunes of the DC Cinematic Universe but which, as we will see in our review of Black Adam, on balance finds itself instead having to face the same construction problems, the same defects of form of a way of conceiving entertainment cinema that is very close to complete saturation.
The plot: Once upon a time in Khandaq
Five thousand years ago, a man who had been reduced to slavery in the imaginary state of Khandaq, received the powers of Thunder from the Wizard Shazam, but immediately used them to kill the evil ruler and to take revenge for the death of his family; the wizard Shazam, worried about how he would use his new powers, defrauds Adam of his extraordinary abilities and imprisons him in a tomb for five thousand years.
Centuries later, archaeologists discover the buried tomb and bring Teth Adam (Dwayne Johnson) back to life; the superman thus awakens in a historical era that is no longer his, still full of anger and resentment towards those who had imprisoned him. To ensure that the God of Khandaq does not inadvertently sow death and destruction, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) hires the Justice Society, a team of assorted superheroes on the side of good, who will attempt to stop Teth Adam and avoid the destruction of the state of Khandaq.
From these exciting premises comes Black Adam by Jaume Collet-Serra, the first foray for the Spanish director into the world of comics and second collaboration with Dwayne Johnson (here also in the role of producer) after directing him in 2021 in the adventurous Jungle Cruise for Disney. A passion project, that of Black Adam, which the main actor had locked away in his dream house for many years, and which he now finds himself realizing in practice, starting however from not too solid foundations.
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
Frenzy of action
The antihero created by Fawcett Comics in 1945 and then merged into DC's royalties only later, has been the "victim" of countless revisitations and rejuvenations in step with the changing times; for this reason, it seemed appropriate that the cinecomic by Collet-Serra and co-written by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani was heavily influenced by the storyline published in the comic series "The New 52" during 2011; there DC Comics was intent on modernizing many of the origin stories of its greatest heroes and villains, and Black Adam also passed the test of revisiting in a contemporary key.
Drawing heavily from the colorful books of 2011 meant for the three screenwriters placing the blockbuster within a setting with clear contemporary geopolitical references: in fact, it is impossible not to think of the current Middle Eastern situation when mentioning the imaginary state of Khandaq, even if it is a little less pleasing to note that the comic book film with Dwayne Johnson sacrifices much of its potential charm and ambition in the name of a frenetic film full of muscles, machismo and bombastic action sets.
A soulless carousel
By sublimating the ideas, origins, and psychologies of the various characters in this way in favor of a thin plot, Collet-Serra, and the film writing team fall into the trap that had entangled (albeit in different ways and contexts) the previous chapters of the DC Cinematic Universe pre and post-Zack Snyder. All things considered, Black Adam hits the target of its target audience, targeting and retaining potential viewers with a show to be fully experienced only in the darkness of a huge cinema; It's a shame, however, that the repetitiveness of the exquisitely action element within the film produces in all respects a real soulless carousel, probably destined not to make its way into the hearts of moviegoers.
And it is precisely here that all the problems that made the DC unitary project a substantial failure emerge once again; here too we try to fall into the usual mortal sin of the amusement park with worrying reiteration: the customer of the amusement area will always choose to pay handsomely for a ride on the roller coaster rather than other attractions, preferring the adrenaline-filled emotion of the moment to reflection, good nature art of knowing how to create light yet balanced cinematic entertainment. Qualities that unfortunately Black Adam lacks like air.
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
Luckily, Pierce Brosnan is there
Fortunately, the supporting cast of Collet-Serra's film manages admirably to complete the task failed by the protagonist himself: if Dwayne Johnson in the role of the antihero confirms his predisposition to take on the role of granitic and emotionally enigmatic characters, to raise his Behind the weight of the depth of writing is Pierce Brosnan's Doctor Fate, the ideal captain of a team of superheroes with the mission of neutralizing the thousand-year-old demigod.
The excellent Brosnan, surrounded by performers of the caliber of Noah Centineo in the role of Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell in that of Cyclone, and finally the energetic Aldis Hodge in the role of Hawkman, surpasses his own rescue team in aplomb and charm, ending all things considered to lift the feature film from annoying echoes of tedium and disheartening narrative repetitiveness.
This a fatal sin that demonstrates how the formula adopted by DC Entertainment is probably reaching a point of saturation this time no longer justifiable by the legitimate excitement towards a post-credits sequence that promises sparks but then, punctually, does not deliver.