Dwayne Johnson stars in Warner Bros.’ “Black Adam.”
Warner Bros.
Even Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson couldn’t save Warner Bros.’ newest addition to the DC Extended Universe.
“Black Adam,” which premieres Friday, failed to impress critics, scoring a meager 53% on Rotten Tomatoes as of Thursday afternoon from 102 reviews. While the film is expected to gross between $55 million and $75 million in its opening weekend, poor word of mouth could dashed the hopes of the rumored $200 million film before it has a chance to take off.
The film centers on Black Adam, a man bestowed with the omnipotent powers of the gods, but uses those gifts in vengeance. Imprisoned for nearly 5,000 years, he emerges in modern times to administer his own unique form of justice.
Unlike his traditional superhero counterparts – in this film it’s the Justice Society, not the Justice League – Black Adam is not averse to the use of deadly force.
Here’s what critics had to say about Black Adam ahead of its theatrical debut:
Kristy Puchko, Mashable
“Watching an action movie shouldn’t feel like a chore, but Black Adam does,” wrote Kristy Puchko in her review of the film for Mashable. “Amidst a series of publicly damned decisions, Warner Bros. has released a DC Extended Universe film that’s more grueling than exciting, reeling boring plots alongside ugly action for a muddled mess of a film that lives up to its big budget and promising star power wasted by Dwayne Johnson, Aldis Hodge and Noah Centineo.”
Puchko noted that through the introductions of Cyclone, Atom Smasher, Hawkman, and Doctor Fate, “Black Adam” rushes “so fast it’s actually funny”.
“In their rush to ‘meet the team,’ the writers babble on more hasty narratives that are difficult to understand given the many introductions and quirky cameos (which I have to admit are a thrill),” she said. “‘Black Adam’ is in such a rush to throw this group of C-list heroes into their battle with the protagonist that it makes your head spin.”
Read Mashable’s full review.
Mark Kennedy, Associated Press
“‘Black Adam’ isn’t bad,” said Mark Kennedy in his review of the film for the Associated Press. “It’s just predictable and color-by-numbers, stealing intellectual property from other films like a supervillain.”
Kennedy noted that Johnson was a natural choice to play Black Adam, able to blend “power with humor,” but ultimately his performance and the film as a whole were “let down by a derivative and baggy script.”
“[The film] goes from one violent scene to the next like a video game to dub a plot that’s both undercooked and overcooked,” he said from Hell, which is exactly what we wanted.”
Read the full Associated Press review.
Pierce Brosnan and Dwayne Johnson star in Warner Bros.’ “Black Adam.”
Warner Bros.
Alonso Duralde, The Wrap
For The Wrap’s Alonso Duralde, Black Adam felt like “too much and not enough,” a film in which the “narratives are supported by a muddy visual style that’s either distractingly artificial or dauntingly sombre, except if it succeeds in being both.”
“The cast is doing what they can with the material, but no one is going to incorporate that into their later life success films,” he said. “There’s an irritating four-quadrant casting at work here – Brosnan for the parents! Centineo for the teenagers! Skateboard Kid for the Tweens! — that reads too obviously as a marketing strategy rather than casting characters who would actually interact in the circumstances.”
Like many other critics, Duralde said the film tries to correlate the sudden appearance of the Justice Society in Kahndaq, a fictional Middle Eastern country, with past US imperialism, he comes close to making a meaningful statement.
Read The Wrap’s full review.
David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Critics also limited themselves to the narrative choices of “Black Adam”. The superhero film attempts to brand its titular character as a vengeful, dark antihero, but does nothing story-wise to improve or redefine the genre.
“‘Black Adam’ is so desperate to be a darker and crunchier version of the same hamburger that audiences have been served up again and again for the last 15 years, but Johnson – who is also the film’s producer and part-time architect of this cinematic universe in addition to our own – can’t stand the idea of doing something that would leave even a viewer behind,” said David Ehrlich in his review of the film.
He called “Black Adam” “exhaustively derived” and noted that the film felt like it had been “audience tested within an inch of its life”.
Not even the main antagonist of the film could inspire critics.
“They team up to battle what might be the most unforgettable villain in comic book movie history, which is a wild statement about a giant hell demon with a pentagram scar all over his chest,” Ehrlich wrote.
Read IndieWire’s full review.
Dwayne Johnson is Black Adam in Warner Bros.’ latest DC movie “Black Adam”.
Warner Bros.
Matt Singer, ScreenCrush
Johnson has been associated with the character Black Adam for at least 15 years, Matt Singer explained in his review of the film for ScreenCrush. The project has won and lost directors and writers for years, but the former WWE wrestler has always been connected.
“Unfortunately, 15 years of work has produced a pretty mediocre film, one that doesn’t seem to reflect what must have taken hundreds of hours of writing and countless drafts of the script,” he said.
“Instead, Black Adam plays like a committee-made product designed to revitalize the stagnant DC Extended Universe with a massive star and a slew of new heroes to spin off into future films,” Singer said. “After two hours of sullenly setting the table, you have a clear direction for DC’s cinematic future – and a lot less interest in actually seeing it.”
Read the full ScreenCrush review.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Rotten Tomatoes.