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FILM REVIEW: Black Adam

Visually stunning but bland dish Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bo...


Visually stunning but bland dish

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge, Noah Centineo, Sarah Shahi, Marwan Kenzari, Quintessa Swindell, Bodhi Sabongui, Pierce Brosnan, Viola Davis

Rating: 3/5

Warner Bros’ ‘Black Adam’ is a visually stunning but overall bland film that tries to be both an MCU fun and light film and a DCEU dark and gritty film but ends up sadly failing being both. It seems like they still haven’t learnt their lesson from the awful Justice League back in 2017!

The story goes like this: Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods — and imprisoned just as quickly — Teth Adam is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world and Sabbac along with the Justice Society group.

Dwayne Johnson stars in and produces this “spectacle” which is bland and boring but a treat for hardcore DCEU fans. Others will find it a pretty basic entry to the superhero genre. One of the few superhero films which haven’t been optimized for IMAX cinemas, ‘Black Adam’ answers the question (yet again): What if the MCU and the DCEU collaborated? And the answer is, a recipe for disaster!

Johnson gives his basic “stoic” performance here as well, as it is beyond him to express any facial emotions whatsoever no matter what the circumstances. It’s pretty evident that he being the producer, added the comedy segments because he wants to please everyone in the audience. The film tries really hard to be a gritty “Zack Snyder-esque” film (which is pretty evident from the desaturated and heavily colour-graded flashback sequences).

While the visuals and the narrative structure work, the main and strongest detractor is the wafer-thin silly plot with the end and the whole crown thing seeming a lot like “Aladdin”. The ‘plot’ here wanders into a silly section of finding Amon during the second act. One of the few good scenes is the homage to “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” which is done brilliantly.

Jaume Collet-Serra’s direction is basic as is expected from most superhero film directors and leads the film to doom with the silly screenplay by Adam Sztykiel, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani. The cinematography by Lawrence Sher is good but just too basic for a superhero film. Performances are average with the highlight being the witty and adorable Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate who possesses the charisma to make a character like his likeable.

PS: Don’t miss the post-credits, you will be in for a treat.

 

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