Black Adam
October 24, 2022
By NZB3
The DC Comics film Black Adam is out and continuing the same very basic level cinema as all of the other attempts in the DC Universe. In a nutshell the criticism others have also made is apt. The Protagonist Dwayne Johnson has played the same character in the same movie yet again. Instead of creating a film where the actor portrays a character it’s another one where a character, and entire canon, is made to portray an actor.
We’ve had Baywatch Rock, Fast and Furious Rock, Jungle Rock, Jumanji Rock, Rock Rampage, Rock Fairy, and many others. Now it’s time for Rock Adam. Superhero Rock apparently didn’t work out for sequels after Hercules (2014) so we give The Rock a shave and a change of scene and go again.
The support cast superheroes call themselves The Justice Society. Very bad at their job which was to stop Rock Adam. Nothing but violence and ultimatums beginning to end. They made Rock Adam an offer he couldn’t accept until, inexplicably, he just did! Their literal mantra was ‘Bad Planning’ and Dr. Fate died a pointless death (because we have to kill our darlings yada yada..)
Movie expects us to think Dr. Fate and Hawkman are competent and wise. Why? Their fancy hairstyles? They only know how to rush in and start bashing people. To offer a jail cell right off the bat. Anyone under such assault has nothing to lose by putting up a fight even it it were a useless one which, as was always obvious, Rock Adam’s fight clearly was not because he could have licked the entire team no problem. Then, these supposed good-guys simply drop their global-level priority assignment to contain Rock Adam because…one child is in danger! It’s ridiculous.
Child’s mother unearths ancient powers nobody else has located for 5000 years and hands them over to the bad guys as well as unleashing Rock Adam. Why? Because she’s so egotistical she thinks her hiding place will be an improvement. No wonder she integrates so well into the Bad Planning Society and it doesn’t occur to them to hold her responsible. It’s ridiculous. Many times these days we see an old white man tampering with forces this way and he will be killed for it in Act 1. In Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) the villain appropriates ancient god powers too and that’s the Big Bad thing everybody on planet Earth in 1984 learns through painful personal experience to renounce. The DC Universe clearly does not give a damn for continuity across its films nor for a consistent ethic. Except that, in our era, a consistent ethic you can rely on is that a brown women can do anything wrong and still get away with it. Ref. also The Woman King (2022.)
Why didn’t it occur to Black Rock to Shazam after his first breath? Lucky his slaveman martial arts could defeat 3+ armed guards (immediately on the spot) so his prone body could float above submarine depth so he could say the magic word before decompression sickness killed him. Plotted drama constantly put ahead of logic and reason in this film. As was the nausea of CGI vs CGI fight scenes.
The moral of the story was pro violence. The kid was saying from the get-go to say the catchphrase then kill and that’s the idea that won out. No more heroes and a false definition of heroism as non-lethalism. Flashbacks advertise the mantra ‘we need heroes’ then changes to ‘not heroes, freedom’ which is weird; You’re not supposed to be able to redact flashbacks just because plot. Was obvious Rock Slave was the flashback kid’s dad from the get-go from the voice and hidden face. Audience IQ estimated as pretty low and I for one enjoy a movie less when I’m being insulted by it.
Like Comment Share
