A somewhat entertaining superhero

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Friday, October 28th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Myrna Brown.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: a new superhero movie. Last weekend, Black Adam made $67 million.

It may be enough to revive the slumping box office, ​​but is it good enough to revive DC Comics' struggling film franchise? WORLD Arts and Media editor Collin Garbarino isn’t so sure.

Black Adam: My powers are not a gift, but a curse. Born out of rage.

COLLIN GARBARINO: Disney has had runaway success with its Marvel Studios superhero movies. Warner Bros. Pictures on the other hand? Their DC Comics franchise has languished, despite featuring fan favorites like Superman and Batman. DC films often suffer from self-importance—they just take themselves too seriously. Black Adam, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is supposed to help launch the franchise into a new era. But despite some attempts at levity, the movie feels a lot like DC's other dreary films.

Soldier: Let me see your hands.

[electricity firing]

Soldier: Open fire!

Black Adam is set in Khandaq—a fictional Middle Eastern country oppressed by a multinational criminal organization known as Intergang. Adrianna is an archeologist with anti-colonialism views. And she thinks she can free her country by digging up magical relics. Instead, she unleashes an ancient being with godlike powers, Black Adam. Adrianna and her son try to convince Adam to help Khandaq before their oppressors use those ancient relics to become all powerful.

Amon: We could really use a superhero right about now.

Black Adam: I’m no hero.

And then the United States government complicates the situation by sending the Justice Society of America to neutralize this new superhuman threat.

Amanda Waller: He’s been asleep for 5000 years.

Hawkman: You find a cell that can hold him, we’ll take care of the rest.

Amanda Waller: Who’s on the team.

Now don’t confuse the Justice Society of America with the Justice League of America. There’s no Batman or Superman here. Hawkman and Dr. Fate lead the Justice Society, and Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan give pretty solid performances in those roles.

Hawkman: Fate and I will take the lead. Listen, you two hang back till we call you. We’re the anvil. You’re the hammer. You’re ready.

Atom Smasher: Um. He just dropped them.

Dr. Fate: Be prepared.

Black Adam is somewhat entertaining, but the movie feels like a missed opportunity. There’s a good film hiding in this mess somewhere, but Warner Bros. just couldn’t find it.

The movie falls into the same trap as earlier DC films. It wants to say something important—never a good idea when it comes to the superhero genre. We get rhetoric blaming the world’s problems on colonialism. Good characters say Khandaq needs freedom, especially in the face of what’s portrayed as police brutality. The villain says Khandaq “used to be something better than free”—he wants to make Khandaq great again. And The Justice Society and Adam have to work through their own moral quandary about the proper use of force.

Hawkman: I know it got lost in all the confusion, but we still got some issues to settle here. There are only heroes, and there are villains.

Black Adam: You think yourself a hero, but you would let these criminals go free.

Hawkman: Heroes don’t kill people.

Black Adam: Well, I do.

Adam’s body count gets pretty high—for a PG-13 movie there’s a good bit of gore and violence. But Adam intervenes on behalf of the oppressed. The Justice Society doesn’t. The movie tries to offer some political lessons, but the moral gets muddled in the clumsy script.

The inept political subtext isn’t the only thing that hurts Black Adam. Despite the action, the movie gets boring. It spends too much time on lore and backstory with tedious voiceover-laden flashbacks and exposition. And the action sequences sound only one note—big. The big battle at the end isn’t really any bigger than the big battle at the beginning or the big battle in the middle. But I guess the battles have to be big because when the hero has unlimited powers, it kind of lowers the stakes in fight scenes.

Dr. Fate: Black Adam.

Hawkman: We’re here to negotiate your peaceful surrender.

Black Adam: I’m not peaceful, nor do I surrender.

I hate to say it because I’m a fan of The Rock, but the biggest problem with Black Adam is probably Dwayne Johnson. This movie has been something of a passion project for him. Johnson wants Adam to be the complicated character who can carry the weight of the struggling DC franchise. But Johnson is a bad fit for the part. He’s spent his entire film career crafting the image of a likable, good-natured hunk who spouts witty one-liners. In this grim, pretentious movie, he makes a few feeble attempts at humor, but they fall flat.

Hawkman: I told you, stop killing people.

Black Adam: They look alive to me.

Hawkman: Because I saved them.

Black Adam: That’s why I waited until you were there. I got the information I needed. No one died. I did it your way.

Dr. Fate: He does have a point.

Johnson growls and glowers throughout Black Adam, and it just doesn’t feel right. Maybe The Rock can lighten up in the next installment—because of course there will be a sequel. The DC franchise needs someone to save it.

Black Adam: The world needed a hero. Instead it got me.

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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