BLACK ADAM used to be a villain in DC Comics but he was later redefined to clear his name in comic book series like “Justice Society”, “Villains United” and “Infinite Crisis”.
In last year’s “Infinite Frontier”, his character was relaunched as Tethon Mighty Adam or Teth-Adam in preparation for the live action movie, “Black Adam” in DC’s Extended Universe (DCEU).
His inclusion will no doubt help expand the current list of DC heroes that include Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman and the Suicide Squad to make them more competitive with the Marvel superheroes.
Black Adam is an origin movie (just like The Joker, another villain turned into a hero) and he is played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who earlier played him in a digital guest role in “Shazam (2019)” and also voiced the character in the animated film DC League of Superpets earlier this year.
It is directed by Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet Serra who earlier helmed The Rock in the period adventure-action film, “Jungle Cruise”.
The movie starts in 2600 BC in the ancient Middle East kingdom called Kahndaq.
Its abusive king Akh-Ton gets his power from the Crown of Sabbac.
A young slave boy who encourages his people to rebel against their tyrannical king is given his own powers by the Council of Wizards. He gets to kill Ahk-Ton.
The action then shifts to the present. Kahndaq is controlled by Intergang and archaelogist Adrianna Tomaz (Shara Shahi, who bared her all in the series “Sex/Life”) believes the missing Crown of Sabbac can help them fight their oppressors.
She gets to find the crown inside a mountain, but the Intergang soldiers appear to steal it from her.
She reads a passage written on the floor of the temple and this awakens Teth Adam (The Rock), who was put to sleep by the wizards as he has become too powerful.
The newly revived Teth Adam kills the Intergang cohorts singlehandedly.
A U.S. official, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), thinks Adam is a villain and calls on the Justice Society (the very first team of superheroes created by DC way back in 1940) to help fight him: Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quinteza Swindell).
They tell Adrianna that Adam is not a savior but a bad guy who was entombed alive to stop him from being destructive.
Ishmael (Marwan Kenzari), who earlier was helping Adrianna to get the crown, turns out to be the real villain as he is a descendant of the evil king, Akh-Ton, and he wants to get the crown to make himself all powerful.
He kidnaps Adrianna’s son, Amon (Bodhi Sabongui), who is keeping the crown. It becomes the responsibility of Adam and the Justice League to rescue him.
In the process, Adam reveals who he really is. It’s his son Hurut who was really given special powers and he is the father of Hurut.
“Black Adam” is a big hit worldwide so it’s not surprising that they’ve announced that there will surely be a sequel.
And in preparation for that and his integration with the other DC heroes, there’s an end credits preview which shows The Rock meeting Henry Cavill as Superman.
Movie critics are not as friendly to “Black Adam”, tearing up the film to pieces and calling it garbage.
But audiences like it. And why not? It’s really action-packed with plenty of well choreographed fight scenes on the ground and slambang chase scenes on the air, plus lots of bombastic spectacular CGI explosions.
The film’s momentum rarely wanes and someone like Black Adam is what the Ukrainians needs to help protect their country from the greedy Russian that Putin is.
The Rock is displayed here in full glory, like he was born to play the role of Black Adam with so much serious vibes.
Noah Centineo will help pull in the young crowd of viewers, even if his role as a superhero who can turn himself into a giant is not that impressive.
But the cute kid who plays the skate-boarding Amon should appeal to younger kids and tweens.