Movie Review: Black Adam a grab bag of bits from superhero movies

Moving Pictures: Black Adam (Collet-Serra, 2022)

By Mo Burford
It is a strange time to be a movie critic.
With the rise of aggregators like Rotten Tomatoes, critics are often, at best, reduced to one or two lines about a film, and from there it is decided—somehow—whether that indicates the movie is good or bad. It is doubly interesting that a site like Rotten Tomatoes has a Critic Consensus and an Audience score. As of writing this, Black Adam is hovering around 40% (rotten) for the Critical Consensus and 90% for the Audience Score. Add to that the fact that the movie opened to $67 million—one of The Rock’s highest to date—and has already brought in over $140 million, and it becomes clear that quality is more subjective than we think.

My reading of that data is that Black Adam is a bad movie, but lots of people like it anyway or, at the very least, are willing to pay to see something that isn’t very good. Which, in my experience of it, checks out.

As a movie, Black Adam is a mess, but it’s also fine. I didn’t dislike it any more than I disliked Thor: Love and Thunder or Jurassic World: Dominion. Honestly, I liked it more. Black Adam is admittedly all over the place: there are lots of plot points that are over-explained and over-developed, while the inclusion of the Justice Society, a group of superheroes who came out of nowhere and with no introduction, was completely lost on me.

In terms of performances, The Rock gives perhaps his least interesting of his career. The decision to make Black Adam essentially charmless does not play in The Rock’s favor. But I actually liked Hawkman’s (Aldis Hodge) performance, while Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate was a treat and brought some much needed charm and grounding to the movie. Though the CGI for the big baddie at the end is unforgivable—think Diablo II.

The movie is mostly a grab bag of bits from superhero movies that came before it, but which ultimately doesn’t cohere so much as splatter. This results in a movie that is forgettable but not unenjoyable. Maybe my brain is clouded from watching so many of these movies, but part of what I enjoyed about Black Adam was just how broken it was; that is, I was engaged by the act of trying to understand just what the movie was trying to accomplish. Is Black Adam an anti-hero or a boring hero? Is part of this movie about colonialism, or not? Where the heck did the Justice Society come from?!

Upon exiting the theater, one of the ushers asked a guest what they thought of the movie, and the person replied, “It was fine, but it’s hard not to feel like they’re just ripping off Marvel.” I wish I had asked them to elaborate because I couldn’t disagree more heartily. If anything, the Marvel movies are completely overdetermined in what they’re doing. I don’t know what DC is up to, and I’m not sure they do either. Which in a way is kind of fun, or at least reminds me of actually reading comic books as a kid: you like one artist or writer but not another one, you read Batman but can’t stand Superman—styles, stories and mileage may vary. At the end of the day, I’d rather watch something messy and open-ended, a movie that lets me ask questions and wonder about things, than one that is over-determined and without any room for mystery.

Black Adam

• ★ 1/2

(two and a half stars)

Black Adam is now showing at Columbia Cinemas and Hood River Cinemas (and pretty much everywhere).

Spooky Movie Extra
Lastly, in honor of spooky season I wanted to highlight a few monster and horror movies that are Moving Pictures Approved™ (JK):

The Fog (1980) - An underrated John Carpenter film that is the perfect mixture of camp and great filmmaking, which really doesn’t exist anymore. I watched it for the first time this year and it’s already a favorite of mine.

Poltergeist

Poltergeist (1982) - One of my all-time favorites. The pacing in this movie is perfect; just when you think you’ve seen the craziest scare, there’s always another bigger one around the corner.

Childs Play

Child’s Play (1988) - I was really scared of Chucky as a kid, yet as an adult, I have a weird fondness for the little psycho. I love this movie, and if you haven’t seen it in a while, you should. 

The Ritual

The Ritual (2017) - A modern monster movie that takes place in the Scandinavian wilderness. A simple but super spooky and effectively made horror film.

Prey

Prey (2022) - Not a horror movie per se, but the recent entry in the Predator series that looks to the past, as Comanche warriors take on the ultimate hunter. I honestly loved this movie and just want you to watch it too.