Hero and villain
12A ★★★ In cinemas now
Bang, crash, wallop, bish, bash, boom. Here comes Black Adam laying waste to everything and everybody in his way. He’s in a hell of a mood, having been stuck in a cave for 5,000 years and someone will have to pay.
Dwayne Johnson is spectacular as the superstar super-duper hero, the Super Dirty Harry who cares only about results.
It’s the moral ambiguity at the heart of this DC Universe outing that becomes more troubling with each thoughtless human slaying.
Frankly, the film is a mess, despite Johnson’s million-watt charisma.
Freedom fighters searching for a magic crown find him in a cave in Kahndaq (sort of North Africa) where he has been caged for 5,000 years after a run-in with the evil dictator of this ancient land. The people of modern-day Kahndaq are still oppressed, now by Western bad guys intent on stripping the country’s natural resources.
Adam, known then as Teth-adam, can fly at incredible speed, catch missiles, bullets bounce off him and his strength and agility are off the scale. He uses his super powers to defeat a superpower. No regrets, no doubts.
But there’s moral ambiguity to a hero content to kill thousands of people to achieve his goals.
And The Justice Society swoops in to put Adam on the straight and narrow. They are led by Hawkman (Aldis Hodge, always good) and others including Pierce
Brosnan’s Doctor Fate. It’s hard to keep up with the rest and it will need a sequel or two – yes, they are coming – to explain the story.
Still, the popcorn-munching masses won’t care a jot what critics scribble about the nonsensical plot, the misfiring attempts at humour, the relentlessness of the blaring, headache-inducing soundtrack. Good luck to them.
They will glory at the magnificence of Johnson who dominates every scene he’s in. Quite a feat when there are so many CGI fireworks going off. He lands the biggest punches, gets all the love from the camera, and provides the only laughs.
Enjoy it but try not to think too deeply. It’s just a film, isn’t it? Isn’t it?
Johnson lands the biggest punches, gets all the love and provides the only laughs