I’m very tired of the antihero storylines. With the current global crises and seeing the world the way it is now – with an ongoing war in the Ukraine and populist presidents winning elections in so many countries – I feel that the antihero narrative in commercial and mainstream movies needs to take a step back as we need to somehow revitalize our sense of idealism and optimism. I would prefer to leave my thoughts on nihilism and cynicism to independent films. In these very challenging times, I don’t want to cheer for antiheroes in a big-budget blockbuster superhero movie.
This is why I was very skeptical after seeing the trailer of Black Adam. To take one of the most charismatic superstars like Dwayne Johnson and dress him up as (from the little I know about the Shazam comics) the villain Black Adam made me very resistant to seeing this film.
To my utter surprise, there’s a whole lot in ‘Black Adam’ that I really enjoyed. There are camp moments in the film – take note of a wonderful, short homage to a Spaghetti Western and the over-the-top super-heroic battles across the fictional city of Kahndaq – that are really the highlights of this movie. When the film leans into its comic book genre, the film is so enjoyable. Director Jaume Collet-Serra makes full use of long shots that helps create a feeling of scale for the sheer, immense power that the character Black Adam possesses. He also uses freeze frames, extreme close-ups, and other heavy special effects moments that for some reason remind me of Zack Snyder’s ‘300’ but done better because he doesn’t take it too seriously.
It’s this camp aesthetic that really works in this film because the power levels of Black Adam are just through the roof. So when it makes attempts at seriousness – the relationship between a teenager named Amon (Bodhi Sabongui) and his mother Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), who awakens Black Adam from his slumber and Amon and Black Adam himself – are the weakest moments of the film. It doesn’t help that Sabongui is not the best and most engaging of actors but the characterisation of Amon runs contrary to the other aspect of the film that I really enjoyed.
Amon (and consequently the way Sabongui portrays him) feels very Americanized despite coming from Kahndaq, a fictional city of what appears to be of middle eastern origins (though the comics has Black Adam being of Egyptian origin). The film depicts Kahndaq as a city taken over by a criminal gang called The Intergang. And while the visual imagery is that of a war-torn middle eastern city, the people of Kahndaq speak English (with an accent) and Amon is very Americanized (as seen when his bag opens and you can see he grew up reading comic books of Wonder Woman and Superman).
While Black Adam resurfaces and begins to wreak havoc in Kahndaq, he speaks the languageof Kahndaq, that I can’t decipher, maybe Egyptian at the start but then quickly speaks in English despite having been asleep for 5000 years. There’s an underlying story of colonization and liberty that is at the undercurrent of this film. As Black Adam appears to be a global threat because of his power, members of the Justice Society fly to Kahndaq to stop him. This creates a wonderful discussion on the ideals of moral authority. Adrianna defends Black Adam, who has begun to take out the Intergang while protecting Amon, and throws back at Hawkman and Dr. Fate of the Justice Society and asks them where were they when the Intergang took their city and enslaved their people.
The politics of this situation – is Black Adam good or bad, are his methods right or wrong (he is from a different time afterall and his ideas of justice are shaped by that), and what right does the Justice Society have to fly into whatever situation they deem is a threat but ignore other global calamities such as the taking of Kahndaq – creates a gray area that the film sort of explores (that very few other superhero films ever get to do like ‘Captain America: Winter Soldier’ and ‘Captain America: Civil War’). For these discussions alone – and not painting the Justice Society immediately as the good guys – makes ‘Black Adam’ refreshing and different and new.
Yes, he is an antihero and while the methods and morality that he uses are questionable, it is contextualized by the individual situation of Kahndaq and Black Adam’s own history. I was not expecting this at all and it made the film quite enjoyable for me. It’s not afraid to stay in the gray areas and if it leaned in more into its campy side, I think it would have balanced everything out completely.
But for a comic book movie, I got plenty of great superhero battles (the visualization of Dr. Fate and Cyclone is just wonderful and thrilling to see on IMAX) and I got to see Dwayne Johnson evoke his charm without relying too much on dialogue. He’s using a completely different skill set here.
Don’t be bogged down by the weakness of its extended opening exposition. When Black Adam makes his first appearance, it’s all uphill from there. Enjoy the excessiveness and indulgences of the film, which is the campy aesthetic I wish it leaned into more heavily. There’s a lot to enjoy here, and most especially the mid-credit end scene. It got the most cheers and with good reason.
My Rating:
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Black Adam is now showing in cinemas nationwide. Buy your tickets here.
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