Black Adam‘s Loud, Clueless and Messy Spectacle Highlights the Worst the DCEU Has to Offer

The DC Extended Universe has struggled to find a consistently successful identity almost since its creation. There have been a few bright spots; Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Shazam!, Birds of Prey and The Suicide Squad spring to mind. More often than not, however, the DC films have come off as dour, convoluted experiments that fail to grasp the formula that turned Disney’s MCU into an inescapable juggernaut: Clear world-building, distinguishable characters and a commitment to a singular brand identity. Say what you want about their homogeneity, the Marvel films are nothing if not consistent. Black Adam isn’t going to change the DCEU’s sputtering trajectory. If anything, the latest entry highlights the DC franchise’s worst traits, then doubles down on the incomprehensibility. Dwayne Johnson’s first outing as the ancient super-powered antihero is a clanging dud that swaps out internal logic and compelling characters for poorly-executed spectacle and hopes you won’t notice the difference.
We’re first introduced to Black Adam through legend. In the ancient city-state of Kahndaq, Black Adam is given powers by a council of wizards—the same ones who bestowed superhuman abilities on Billy Batson in Shazam!—and rises as his enslaved people’s champion. After a battle with Kahndaq’s power-mad king, Black Adam is put to rest for five millennia, during which time Kahndaq is overtaken by a series of tyrannical invading forces. He’s re-awakened by Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), an archeologist who wants Black Adam to fight off the Intergang, Kahndaq’s current oppressors. Black Adam’s resurrection also catches the attention of the Justice Society of America, led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), who employs his newly-assembled team to get the volatile meta-human under control.
It’s easy to watch Black Adam and feel you’ve missed an important entry somewhere that introduced all the characters, or at least gave us some context for them. You haven’t, the film just doesn’t have the patience to do that work. Not only for Black Adam and Hawkman, but the rest of the Justice Society of America: Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell). The result is two hours of mounting conflict between characters we have no reason to care about, with motivations so unclear that the movie has to grind to a halt every 20 minutes so the characters can explain what’s going on.