Black Adam (2022) (1 Viewer)

[JamesSmith]

Can we still argue about Superman Returns, or is there another thread for that

--jthree

 

[Tino]

Can we still argue about Superman Returns, or is there another thread for that

--jthree

Superman Returns (2006)

Title: Superman Returns Tagline: You’ll Believe A Man Can Fly Again! Genre: Science Fiction, Action, Adventure Director: Bryan Singer Cast: Brandon Routh, Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Eva Marie Saint, Marlon Brando, Kal...

www.hometheaterforum.com

 

[Wayne_j]

I just got back, it was a giant CGI crapfest. Maybe it would have been better received if it was made 15 years ago when The Rock first wanted to make it. The best part was the mid credits scene. Only 4 people in my theater.

 

[JimmyO]

I just got back, it was a giant CGI crapfest. Maybe it would have been better received if it was made 15 years ago when The Rock first wanted to make it. The best part was the mid credits scene. Only 4 people in my theater.

Yikes.

 

[Edwin-S]

Well, DC still can’t make a good movie.

I am convinced the only reason this didn’t get cancelled like Batgirl is because Dwayne Johnson is in it.

Their animated DC superhero films are good for the most part.

 

[Patrick Sun]

The script is pretty poor in connecting the action set pieces together.

I still have to wonder if some universal language translator spell was in effect for Black Adam to be able to converse with the rest of the English-speaking characters in the film. I know, just suspend that bit of disbelief.

Lots and lots of slow-mo, if you are wanting more of that Zack Snyder cinematic style.

There is a mid-credits bonus scene, but no bonus scene at the very end of the credits.

 

[Thomas Newton]

My show starts at six tonight, so about 5.5 hours. Zero expectations and I have no idea who Black Adam is (aside from the short with Shazam and Superman which was released over a decade ago). We'll see what happens.

The wizard who chose Billy Batson to be his champion Shazam, in the current day, chose Teth-Adam to be his champion, and to receive similar powers, thousands of years ago.

Unfortunately, Seth-Adam proved to be unworthy to receive the powers. For some convenient reason, the wizard couldn't simply take the powers away, and so had to settle for imprisoning/exiling Black Adam in the hopes that he wouldn't soon return. Throughout most of the "Captain Marvel" / Shazam comics, I believe Black Adam is portrayed mostly as a villain, and specifically as one of the most powerful, closely-matched members of "Captain Marvel" / Shazam's rogue's gallery. Certainly a much tougher villain than Mr. Banjo!

There was a story line where Black Adam got engaged and married, settling down to being a benevolent dictator of a fictional Mideast country (Khandaq). Unfortunately, the dictator of another fictional Mideast country attacked Khandaq and killed Black Adam's wife. Black Adam went berserk and started slaughtering people indiscriminately, which put a crimp on his getting tolerated/accepted by the world's superhero community.

 

[Thomas Newton]

I still have to wonder if some universal language translator spell was in effect for Black Adam to be able to converse with the rest of the English-speaking characters in the film. I know, just suspend that bit of disbelief.

The "Shazam" powers supposedly come from mythological figures – with each letter of the name referring to one set of powers:

• S for the wisdom of Solomon (where was that when Billy Batson was misusing his powers during the first part of his movie?)
• H for the strength of Hercules
• A for the stamina of Atlas
• Z for the power of Zeus
• A for the courage of Achilles
• M for the speed of Mercury

Not sure where the "universal translator" comes from, except maybe (with a very long stretch) from the "S" or the "Z".

 

[Alex...]

Seen this last night unfortunately. Horrible film imo, too heavily reliant on cgi. Honestly I don't care too much for The Rock... him and John Cena need to stop acting, and go back to that fake wrestling that made them famous.

This gets an F rating.

 

[TravisR]

Admittedly, I had almost no interest in this movie so I was unlikely to see it but if the folks at HTF (a group that I tend to find to be reasonably positive) are trashing the movie this bad, it sounds like I made the right choice.

 

[Jason_V]

Their animated DC superhero films are good for the most part.

I would have agreed with you five or six year ago. Even the animated product has gone off a cliff for me, going from "oh wow...that was pretty awesome" to "eh...whatever." I still watch all of them, though.

Aside from just saying "I didn't like it," I've been trying to find the words to explain why I had that reaction. I enjoyed Shazam! well enough. I even stayed engaged through Birds of Prey. So what's wrong with Black Adam, or me, to get a negative reaction on the movie?

I know this is a bit of exaggeration, but I swear the movie runs through the same three or four sets for its entire 2 hour running time. Apartment, street, jet. We take a detour under the sea for no apparent reason and stay there for a grand total of "blink and you miss it" seconds. Seeing the same things over and over again made this feel, to me, low rent and a budget movie. In fact, there's a scene late in the movie where I just said to myself "this is CW Arrowverse crossover level stuff, just with more action."

Why does this have to be the Justice Society? Two heroes, in name, who the audience has probably heard of and two who do absolutely, positively, 100% nothing. Zip, zero and zilch. At least when Marvel started to add "new to you" characters to their movies, they actually contributed to the overall plot.

Also, I know Dwayne Johnson wanted this role. Got it. But it doesn't show off any of his charisma and talent. He has a few times to actually be funny (admittedly, I did laugh over the sarcasm conversation), but, by and large, he's scowling, brooding and un-Johnson. The script tries to inject humor here and there, but by the time it does, the movie is too far gone.

This needed to be some kind of mini-series or limited series in HBO Max. There's a lot of story to tell here, which goes from olden times to present day to flashbacks and flashforwards and it gets mushed in between extra long CGI fights. (I didn't care for what happens in flashback late in the movie, either.) Remember how much some people complained about Superman destroying cities in Man of Steel? Well, buckle up...

The villain is as flimsy as you're going to find. Sure, Marvel has had the same thing happen, but at least they've always gotten a good actor in the role. Here? Yeah, okay...whatever. You're evil. Roger that.

There is a bigger, more important story here that a character mentions in passing. The idea of "outside" people coming in to take care of a problem in Kahndaq. We have parallels to that in our own world and the movie puts it's toe into the story only to run away from it. We don't need the JSA here. Black Adam doesn't need the JSA here. Black Adam is their protector. After a little check in to see what's happening-maybe a cameo?-the JSA should have left. That's a story worth telling.

The biggest problem?

Spoiler: SPOILER

I went to a 6 pm showing, pretty packed theater. There wasn't any excitement when Johnson shows up on screen. None when the JSA pops in, not during the fights, not during the iconic pose of Black Adam in this throne at the end. The reaction came in the mid-credits sequence when Henry Cavill shows up. The minute you see his silhouette in the smoke and hear the Superman music, the crowd goes nuts. That is a problem for this movie and the property in general.

WB and DC Comics didn't do anything to prep the audience for who this character is. So this movie has to do all that heavy lifting, tell it's own story, have the required 18 CGI fights in it, drop "fan favorite" characters and lead into another movie all on its own. No live action DC movie has successfully done that since, what, Batman Begins? (Again, little exaggeration, but still...I am looking forward to Fury of the Gods, though.

 

[jayembee]

I am convinced the only reason this didn’t get cancelled like Batgirl is because Dwayne Johnson is in it.

DJ being the star is a powerful point, from a business perspective, but the reason Batgirl was cancelled involved it being "too expensive" for a direct-to-streaming film and not grandiose enough for a theatrical release. Black Adam was always planned as a theatrical release, and is certainly grandiose. It wouldn't have been cancelled regardless of who the star was, just as The Flash is still going ahead despite Ezra Miller's shenanigans being a marketing liability.

 

[Jason_V]

DJ being the star is a powerful point, from a business perspective, but the reason Batgirl was cancelled involved it being "too expensive" for a direct-to-streaming film and not grandiose enough for a theatrical release. Black Adam was always planned as a theatrical release, and is certainly grandiose. It wouldn't have been cancelled regardless of who the star was, just as The Flash is still going ahead despite Ezra Miller's shenanigans being a marketing liability.

Sure, powerful point that it's DJ. No question. But Black Adam isn't good enough for streaming or theatrical. You have Dwayne Johnson (who appeals to women and to men) in a comic book movie (which appeals to young people) set in a place with a majority non-white cast (which presumably appeals to that segment of the population) and you create a turkey of epic proportions.

The Arrowverse on the CW has had better crossovers and arcs than Black Adam.

He is not going to save this film or the supposed universe they're trying to jump start here.

 

[jayembee]

I won't argue those points. But when a studio dumps a shitload of money into a film, they need a damn good justification for throwing it in the trash. Whatever its weaknesses may be, Black Adam was believed to be a jump-start for the DCEU, it had its scheduled release date pinned for a long time now, with probably nothing to replace it with. Batgirl didn't have any of that going for it. Cancellation just wasn't in the cards for Black Adam, Rock or no Rock.

 

[Jason_V]

Like you, not arguing any of this, really. And agreed, nearly $200 million, plus P/A, is very hard to throw away.

 

[dpippel]

Like you, not arguing any of this, really. And agreed, nearly $200 million, plus P/A, is very hard to throw away.

Not if you need a tax write-off.

 

[Malcolm R]

Thursday previews were $7.6 million. Audience reaction seems much better than critics, as RT's audience score is currently around 88% (critic rating is 42%).

 

[jayembee]

Thursday previews were $7.6 million. Audience reaction seems much better than critics, as RT's audience score is currently around 88% (critic rating is 42%).

And the IMDb rating is 7.3/10.

 

[Edwin-S]

Like you, not arguing any of this, really. And agreed, nearly $200 million, plus P/A, is very hard to throw away.

They didn't gave a problem throwing almost a hundred million in the garbage can when they canceled Batgirl for a tax write off. Imagine the pay off if they canned this film for a quick fix.

 

[Malcolm R]

We've discussed the "why" of the Batgirl situation several times and how it's different from Black Adam (or The Flash).

And as a pet project of star Dwayne Johnson, one of the bigger drawing stars in the world that WB likely wants to work with in the future, this was never going to be considered for a write-off.