Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s debut in the DCEU couldn’t be more The Rock than this. As we are often accustomed to with the American actor’s film, also in Black Adam, which will arrive in Italian cinemas starting from 20 October and directed by Jaume Collett-Serra (Jungle Cruise), his egomania and his egocentrism are also central in this. 

Story of the origins of an anti-hero who had all the credentials to become an interesting exploration of good and evil, of light and shadows, resulting in the end just an agglomeration of action scenes, without a real structure, which continues almost exclusively by inertia, holding almost and exclusively on the one post-credit scene. Below is our opinion of the film after attending the Italian premiere.

In ancient Kahndaq, Teth-Adam was given the almighty powers of the Gods. Once he used his powers for revenge, he was imprisoned and became Black Adam. About 5,000 years have passed and Black Adam has gone from man to myth to legend. Free today, he discovers that his only form of justice, born of anger, is endangered by the heroes of our times: the Justice Society made up of Hawkman, Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone.

Dwayne Johnson, who in addition to playing the protagonist is one of the producers of the new Collett-Serra film, had declared that the DCEU should have started from Black Adam, the figure of an anti-hero between light and shadow who would have laid the foundations for a new narrative within a cinematic universe that has made its highs and lows its stylistic signature. 

The new cinecomic certainly has all the potential to be a story that would have rewritten the fate of a fluctuating cinematic universe, given its potential and given the charisma of the leading actor, but unfortunately, the victim of almost completely absent writing, a rhythm deranged and an unjustifiable amount of action scenes, it ends up being completely an end in itself, losing that initial innovative streak.

After the first scene narrating the origins of Teth Adam, the Champion of Kahndaq, his encounter with the higher entities, and the battle with the tyrant who enslaved his land, the film takes a leap forward fifty thousand years, arriving in the present day when Kahndaq is still devoid of freedom. From this point on, the narrative is based exclusively on fights, duels, and action scenes based on a pompous, excessive, and anti-climatic soundtrack that completely invades the scene.

Basically, a film by Zack Snyder, without being by Zack Snyder, in which the immense use of CGI makes the scenes artificial, impregnated with acid and jarring color correction. Almost completely devoid of an identity of its own, of its authorship, Black Adam ends up being a film in which the entire action is an end in itself, also and above all nullifying the characterization of its characters, which is a flaw not to be overlooked since in front of a fully choral film, in which some new characters who would have deserved a much better treatment are inserted and presented to the audience for the first time. 

The introduction of the Justice Society, which includes Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Quintessa Swyndell) is all too sudden, and the only characters who are reserved a best treatment are Hawkman and Doctor Fate, played by a very fresh Pierce Brosnan who deserved a better study. Atom and Cyclone remain almost entirely in the shadows, intervening only in some scenes, victims of really bad writing and characterization.

The same direction by Jaume Collett-Serra is devoid of a real identity, completely subject to the action in which the abuse of slow motion is really annoying. The action scenes are certainly more understandable and less chaotic, but you know, slow motion is not always the right choice and was probably used so heavily to lengthen the length of a film that has very little writing. 

The same charisma of Dwayne Johnson thins almost disappears in the face of the chaos of the scenes, and the only ironic moments of the film are due to a few funny jokes and the many over-the-top and excessive moments that elicit a few laughs. Once again, the great flaw of Black Adam is the lack of characterization of his characters which hardly, a non-reader of comics, will remember at the end of the screening. The choral nature of the film is thus completely lost resulting in only a set of characters with completely wasted potential.

Black Adam should have been the turning point for the DCEU but ends up being yet another film with interesting premises and not quite enough production. With no real identity of its own, it seems to be the combination of many, too many things already seen, for history and staging. 

The chorus of the film fades after the first few minutes and the characters are extremely victims of a thunderous, deafening, and slow-motion action that instead of giving more dynamism to the action makes it static and heavy. The script, only hinted at, makes the story proceed only and exclusively by inertia, based on an action entirely for its own sake. The premises were interesting, but unfortunately, the pomposity of the realization took over, ruining the final result.