Simply stunning it is to see DC Comics surge on with their Extended Universe malarky as it crashes and burns time and time again, Black Adam does little to revive the spirit. Hopes of competing anywhere close to the machine-like economic war plan Marvel put in place are long gone. Instead, there must be the hope of independent, story-driven adaptations working their weak magic into something, anything, that can contain quality and uniqueness. Black Adam manages neither. Generic whataboutisms and a red herring backstory explained about as poorly as can be for a feature that has two hours to flesh out a backstory, uncover a villain and resolve it all at once.
Forward planning is not on the mind of Jaume Collet-Serra, whose directing dud streak continues. Dwayne Johnson’s musky masculinity and brazen fear of using emotion in his performance is as horrendous as it is dull. Emotionless superheroes with a distant and wild past are articulated so poorly with small talk leading to big revelations about the history of these characters. Attempting to conjure up that Marvel strategy does see a schism in consumer culture and how popularity contests rely not on engagement but online buzz and the storm around it. Henry Cavill rumour mills, article after article on what comes next without actually understanding or analysing what has already happened. Nothing much, if anything, happens in Black Adam though.
Discoloured fight scenes that look washed out and underwhelming are saddled with the awful Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan) establishment. Darker moments played out for comedic effect. An injured electrician told he will die through his work, played off as some joke ran through boardrooms and rewrites. Future-telling helmets, Aldis Hodge and Brosnan banter back and forth, most of the time on some nondescript, futuristic-looking vessel that has as much heart as the rest of these grey and dullard features. Every DC feature in the past decade, as well as that of Marvel too, has seen a series of completely ill-defined and generic villains scuttle around the screen as a means of padding the running time. Black Adam pays lip service to fans with little commitment and less direction regarding where it is going or what it defines as its heroes and villains. Pop culture references, musical booms and the jangling of keys in front of a simpler audience.
There is wisdom in the casting, but there is an embarrassment in the delivery. Seeing a favourite superhero hop onto the big screen for the first time is, presumably, still a rewarding experience for some that have experienced the same shape-shifting special effects for over a decade. Black Adam is a nondescript and lacklustre piece that has shades of early Iron Man. Not in quality but in close-ups of Brosnan in some sort of space suit. Its CGI is grim, its performances underwhelming and reliant on a horrendous level of slow-motion that make this feature feel like a step back to the days of X-Men Origins: Wolverine than anything else. Embrace the conformity of the dullard, Black Adam is more of what comic book nerds want, but without the quality of even the most fumbled and indifferent filler slots of the never-ending superhero catalogue.
