Shirt-sleeved, muscular, always with a casual grin: That’s how the world knows the Californian Dwayne Johnson, who went from wrestler to Hollywood’s most reliable box office magnet.
For everyone who believed that the 50-year-old would cultivate his “Mr. Nice Guy” image in the cinema forever, the father of three daughters has a message: stop it. Johnson’s film “Black Adam” can be read as the only announcement. In it, there’s no juvenile equivalent of an “Uncle Sam” hero, but the dark version of a killing machine – like crossing a drugged Batman with Arnie’s Terminator.
“Black Adam” leads to the futuristic city of Kahndaq in Egypt, which is caught up by its founding myth. Like 5000 years ago, she is subjugated. Once king/dictator Anh-Kot, the terrorist occupiers of Intergang are taking it to extremes. At that time, an enslaved boy arose who was endowed with divine powers to mature into the giant Teth-Adam who destroyed the king. The latter had a crown made of the precious material Eternium bestowed evil power.
Now archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) and her teenage son Amon (Bodhi Sabongui) want to save the crown from Intergang and awaken Kahndaq’s former liberator (Johnson). Adherents of the auteur film naturally shake their heads at such a plot, for comic cinema fans it harbors the fundamental DNA of the genre. Unfortunately, in the direction of the Spaniard Jaume Collet-Serra (“House of Wax”), it is also staged at the beginning, as you already know: the tried and tested is quoted. “Black Adam” initially resembles a bland mix of “Indiana Jones” scavenger hunt and the raw Spartan film “300”.
He takes no prisoners
With Johnson’s appearance, however, creative forces explode. The Hollywood star puts on his usual tight-lipped one-man show, catching bullets and rockets like he’s playing ball with three-year-olds. Bombastic effects, cracking sound and heavy hitting choreographies are combined with bone-dry humor, along with “Paint It, Black” by the Stones. The Liberator joins Adrianna and Amon in the fateful struggle for Kahndaq.
The fact that he doesn’t want to take any prisoners calls the Justice Society into action – a kind of morality police made up of superheroes. From here it gets really interesting. Because the question of whether the end justifies all violent means has not been asked so clearly in any comic film of this size (budget: 195 million dollars).
A twisting story unfolds. Predictability is radically broken, complemented by well-developed characters and surprises like Pierce Brosnan as the superhero grande. In the finale you can expect everything that a blockbuster can offer: pompously programmed backdrops, insane speed, a melodramatic game of everything. It is reminiscent of “Endgame” (2019), the last mega hit from Marvel, the dominator of comic cinema. In addition to Johnson, the US comics publisher DC, which owns the rights to “Black Adam”, also has a message: it is attacking Marvel. Good this way.
“Black Adam”: USA 2022 125 mins, in cinemas now
OÖN rating:
The trailer for the film:
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Source: Nachrichten
