Black Adam

Black Adam

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan, Noah Centineo

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

Everyone loves a good hero, but everyone also loves a good anti-hero. Ryan Reynolds proved this with his antihero Deadpool in two amazing films (and a third on the way), proving that sometimes doing bad is as good as doing good, crossing that moral line that most heroes - like Batman, Captain America, and the like- would never cross: killing bad guys. While it's morally right to keep the bad guys alive and have them face justice, it seems better for the world if they weren't in the picture at all, because in comics it's always a given that they'll escape their chains and return to doing what they do best, and all-too-often at the cost of innocent lives that would've still been alive if they had shuffled off this mortal coil. To that end, "Black Adam" re-defines the DCEU and introduces us to their first anti-hero, a god who is neither good nor evil, but lives in the grey line that lies between the two.

In 2600 BC in Kahndaq, an evil king desires the Crown of Sabbac, a demonically-created crown that gives the wearer unlimited power. He's defeated by Kahndaq's hero Teth-Adam. In present time, the nation of Kahndaq is under outsider rule, and freedom fighter Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) seeks out to find the Crown before it falls into wrong hands. After being caught in a trap, she inadvertently releases Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) from his slumber, and he sets out to kill all the people who attacked her and her son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui). While Adrianna and Amon claim Adam is the savior of Kahndaq, he doesn't see it that way - he's got no home left, and doesn't want to be considered as a hero.

News reaches Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), and she forms a team to take Adam down before he wreaks havoc on a global scale. Led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), the team consists of magic wielder Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) who can grow to great size, and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), who can control the wind. Upon arriving in Kahndaq, they attempt to bring in Adam peacefully, but he doesn't agree to their terms. Soon, however, they all learn they'll have to band together to prevent the Crown of Sabbac from falling into the wrong hands, ushering in a new evil that could destroy not just Kahndaq, but the world as well.

When it was announced that Dwayne Johnson would be joining the DCEU as Black Adam, I felt that it was an odd casting choice. In the comics, Black Adam was more a villain than a hero, going up against the likes of Shazam on multiple occasions before recently being retconned into a more of an anti-hero than a villain. Still, his power set and his demeanor didn't seem to match Johnson's strengths on the big screen, seen more as a lovable beefcake than someone who kills without remorse. Still, he managed to exceed my low expectations and deliver a performance that - while still had glints of classic Johnson humor - was darker and more complex than most of his other work, and raising to one of the top five best DCEU films (although that's not saying much).

"Black Adam" centers its focus on what it means to be a hero, and whether or not it's alright to kill the bad guys for the greater good (personally, I find nothing wrong with that, because more often than not, if you keep the bad guy alive, they won't change their ways). It's a very strange superhero movie because the plot includes everything from a fabled search for a MacGuffin (in this case it's the Crown of Sabbac), but it also doesn't really feature a major villain until the final act, and when that happens the film devolves into your generic CGI-ridden battle between good and evil. Still, to get to that point, you get some compelling and really great performances.

Dwayne Johnson is best known for his goofball films like "Jungle Cruise" and "Hobbs & Shaw," but here he sheds the good guy persona to play someone more layered and complex. Adam isn't a hero by any stretch of the imagination, but he's not a villain either - he lives in the grey, where he feels it's alright to kill the bad guys, and to act like he doesn't care about humanity, even though he comes to the aid of Adrianna and Amon time and again. Showcasing god-like powers of flight, speed, electricity, and strength, Adam is unstoppable and a loose cannon, someone that could either end up as the world's destroyer, or its savior. Johnson doesn't mince his performance, and really pulls off a great character despite his stoic nature, and shows hints of his classic comedic timing as well.

The supporting cast also does well in their roles, especially the Justice Society members sent in to bring Adam to justice. Aldis Hodge plays Hawkman with a sense of honor and justice, and goes against Adam more times than not when it comes to killing the bad guys. Noah Centineo plays a younger Atom Smasher with humor and heart, and while he hasn't fully grown into his superhero role, you see glints of what he could be. Quintessa Swindell's Cyclone is the least developed, and exists moreso as a romantic possibility for Atom Smasher and for projecting winds than anything else.

Apart from Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan gives the best performance as Kent Nelson, who dons the Helmet of Fate and becomes Dr. Fate. As Dr. Fate, he has the ability to see into the future and perform feats of magical powers unlike anyone in the DCEU, but as Kent he's an old man who's lived a longer life thanks to the helmet, but also wants to find peace in the midst of everything. He also showcases deadpan humor, introducing Adam to the concept of sarcasm, and has some of the best action sequences in the film.

When it comes to said action sequences, it's all confined to the country of Kahndaq, and for the most part are rather whelming - not overwhelming, but not underwhelming. They're fine and perfectly shot by frequent Liam Neeson collaborator and director Jaume Collet-Serra (who also directed Johnson in last year's "Jungle Cruise"). They're exciting and fun to watch, but nothing that'll be remembered or included in anyone's lists of the most amazing fighting sequences in superhero film history.

When it comes to the DCEU, there's not many films to really hail as the best, so "Black Adam" didn't really have to do much to reach the higher echelon, but it managed to do so not just by being alright, but by offering a compelling anti-hero character with a slew of strong supporting cast members that elevates it to something more than the sum of its parts. In a world of superhero fatigue, it's refreshing to focus on someone who's not necessarily a hero, but also not a villain - but, like most people in the world today, someone who lives in the in-between. It's not fun to be someone who's morally heroic all the time, and it's not advantageous to be an unstoppable killing machine - "Black Adam" finds that sweet balance between the two and is heightened by a surprisingly dark performance by Dwayne Johnson.

The Score: A