'Black Adam' holds hits and misses aplenty, but I think I got enough out of it by the time the credits rolled.
The most standout part of this 2022 DCEU flick is its humour, albeit weirdly. What I mean is that I found the comedy to actually be fairly amusing, much more so than I was anticipating, but the way it is placed into other events onscreen is very messy and almost forced.
It's as if they made the whole movie without humour and then went back and placed bits throughout. Like I'd be watching a gag and it would make me at least smirk, though it would be surrounded by more serious moments so it comes across as unconnected. It's weird, perhaps just a me thing.
Lorne Balfe's music is good, I particularly enjoyed "The Justice Society Theme" in the end titles - added it to my playlist already! As for this film's other elements, I found the action to be well done - and as such the editing. The special effects at the beginning for Kahndaq's backstory isn't great though, I've seen a lot of films (early 2010s, mind you) use that sorta effect and it rarely comes out positively.
Cast-wise, I have no negatives. Dwayne Johnson fits the titular character as you'd expect, I wouldn't say his performance is anything all that great but what he gives is enough - when coming to terms with Amon's superhero ideas, Johnson plays off the 'learning on the job' angle well.
Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Shahi are solid. Mohammed Amer offers good comedic relief, definitely the one that got the most chuckles out of me. The characters of Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell feel derivative, though Marwan Kenzari is thankfully more villainy here than he is in 2019's 'Aladdin'.
A more thorough execution and I may have loved this. In the absence of that, I'd simply class it as passable.
Review by r96skBlockedParent2023-11-17T21:22:50Z
'Black Adam' holds hits and misses aplenty, but I think I got enough out of it by the time the credits rolled.
The most standout part of this 2022 DCEU flick is its humour, albeit weirdly. What I mean is that I found the comedy to actually be fairly amusing, much more so than I was anticipating, but the way it is placed into other events onscreen is very messy and almost forced.
It's as if they made the whole movie without humour and then went back and placed bits throughout. Like I'd be watching a gag and it would make me at least smirk, though it would be surrounded by more serious moments so it comes across as unconnected. It's weird, perhaps just a me thing.
Lorne Balfe's music is good, I particularly enjoyed "The Justice Society Theme" in the end titles - added it to my playlist already! As for this film's other elements, I found the action to be well done - and as such the editing. The special effects at the beginning for Kahndaq's backstory isn't great though, I've seen a lot of films (early 2010s, mind you) use that sorta effect and it rarely comes out positively.
Cast-wise, I have no negatives. Dwayne Johnson fits the titular character as you'd expect, I wouldn't say his performance is anything all that great but what he gives is enough - when coming to terms with Amon's superhero ideas, Johnson plays off the 'learning on the job' angle well.
Aldis Hodge, Pierce Brosnan and Sarah Shahi are solid. Mohammed Amer offers good comedic relief, definitely the one that got the most chuckles out of me. The characters of Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell feel derivative, though Marwan Kenzari is thankfully more villainy here than he is in 2019's 'Aladdin'.
A more thorough execution and I may have loved this. In the absence of that, I'd simply class it as passable.