The DCEU has had a problem with finding their tonal center for a long time now, really since their inception. Are they dark and serious? Are they light and upbeat? That being said, I can tell they didn't quite know how to make this movie work. It feels so much like an X-Men or Guardians of the Galaxy movie that I had to stop and remember that it was DC, not Marvel. Black Adam has some great moments, especially toward the end when it remembers it is supposed to be an action movie. There are too many jokes here, and it's played in a way that kills scenes like slamming on the brakes in a car going at top speed. Another misstep is the music... it doesn't fit 90% of the time. If you strip away all the forced goofiness, this is a grim story, and it needed to be, but the music wants to convey fun or heroism before it has reached the appropriate time. I really liked our superheroes, and wish more time would have been spent with them, but the story focused around a city and the people therein; in particular, one family. To put it plainly, I never began to care about anyone aside from our heroes. The tragedy here is I liked Black Adam as a character, he's very interesting, and Johnson was great in the role. I didn't need the Terminator 2 relationship between Black Adam, and Amon. The villain was lackluster, and shows up way too late to be defeated so easily. I like some of the director's other movie, so I am going to blame studio interference for this.
Review by BronsonBlockedParent2023-02-16T05:32:05Z
The DCEU has had a problem with finding their tonal center for a long time now, really since their inception. Are they dark and serious? Are they light and upbeat? That being said, I can tell they didn't quite know how to make this movie work. It feels so much like an X-Men or Guardians of the Galaxy movie that I had to stop and remember that it was DC, not Marvel.
Black Adam has some great moments, especially toward the end when it remembers it is supposed to be an action movie.
There are too many jokes here, and it's played in a way that kills scenes like slamming on the brakes in a car going at top speed.
Another misstep is the music... it doesn't fit 90% of the time. If you strip away all the forced goofiness, this is a grim story, and it needed to be, but the music wants to convey fun or heroism before it has reached the appropriate time.
I really liked our superheroes, and wish more time would have been spent with them, but the story focused around a city and the people therein; in particular, one family. To put it plainly, I never began to care about anyone aside from our heroes.
The tragedy here is I liked Black Adam as a character, he's very interesting, and Johnson was great in the role. I didn't need the Terminator 2 relationship between Black Adam, and Amon. The villain was lackluster, and shows up way too late to be defeated so easily.
I like some of the director's other movie, so I am going to blame studio interference for this.