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We Don’t Need Another Hero — Black Adam

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We Don’t Need Another Hero — Black Adam

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We Don’t Need Another Hero — Black Adam

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Published on January 11, 2023

Screenshot: Warner Bros.
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Screenshot: Warner Bros.

From August 2017 – January 2020, Keith R.A. DeCandido took a weekly look at every live-action movie based on a superhero comic that had been made to date in the Superhero Movie Rewatch. In this latest revisit we’ve covered a few older films—Barbarella, Vampirella, and Sparks,—and the recently released Thor: Love and Thunder, Samaritan, and now Black Adam.

In 1945, Fawcett Comics debuted The Marvel Family #1. The Captain Marvel features in Whiz Comics were already popular enough to spin off into the Big Red Cheese’s own title, Captain Marvel Adventures, in 1941, and his supporting cast—Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Uncle Marvel, etc.—were popular enough to get their own title four years later. In the debut issue of The Marvel Family, Otto Binder and C.C. Beck created CM’s arch-nemesis, Black Adam.

Five thousand years prior to giving Billy Batson the ability to transform into a superhero, the wizard Shazam gave an Egyptian named Teth-Adam the same powers. But rather than protect the people of Egypt, Teth-Adam overthrows and kills the pharaoh. Livid that he took on the role of despot, The Wizard renamed him Black Adam and banished him to the far side of the universe.

It takes Black Adam five millennia to return to Earth, where he encounters the Marvel family. They defeat him by tricking him into saying “Shazam,” at which point he transforms back into his mortal self.

That was the character’s only appearance while Fawcett controlled the rights to the character. Once DC took over (check out the rewatch of Shazam! for the entire story there), they brought Black Adam back. In a nice touch, Black Adam was established in DC’s run as gaining his powers from Egyptian deities rather than figures from Greco-Roman one (and one Jewish king). So for him, “Shazam” stands for the stamina of Shu, the strength of Hershef, the power of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti (an alternate name for Thoth), the speed of Anpu, and the courage of Menthu.

When Shazam! was first in development in the early 2000s, Dwayne Johnson was approached to play the title role, but he was more interested in playing Black Adam, especially once it was clear to his fans that they’d sooner see him in the latter role. (Johnson bears some resemblance to the character as drawn in the comics.) Initially intended to be part of the Shazam! movie that finally came out in 2019, Black Adam was spun off into his own film, at least partly due to Johnson’s growing star power. Jaume Collet-Serra, who directed Johnson in Jungle Cruise, was tapped to helm the film, which had a screenplay by Adam Sztykiel that was then rewritten by Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani.

Other bits from the comics include the nation of Kahndaq (retconned into being Black Adam’s home in the comics instead of Egypt), Eternium (a powerful element that can only be found in Kahndaq), Nth metal (an alien alloy, and what all of Hawkman’s stuff is made out of), Intergang (an international crime syndicate that has technology from Apokolips), and the Justice Society. This movie is the latter team’s debut in the DC Extended Universe. The first-ever “super-team,” created in a 1940 issue of All-Star Comics written by Gardner Fox, the Justice Society of America brought several existing heroes together to team up, forming the template for later teams like the Justice League and the Avengers.

Two original JSA members appear in this film: Hawkman and Doctor Fate, played, respectively, by Aldis Hodge and Pierce Brosnan. They’re joined by Cyclone (a descendant of Red Tornado in the comics, here played by Quintessa Swindell) and Atom Smasher (played by Noah Centineo as the nephew of the original Atom, with Henry Winkler making a cameo as his uncle).

Back from The Suicide Squad are Jennifer Holland as Emilia Harcourt (by way of the Peacemaker series) and an uncredited Viola Davis as Amanda Waller. Back from Justice League is an uncredited Henry Cavill as Superman in a mid-credits scene. Back from Shazam! is Djimon Hounsou as one of the wizards.

Debuting in this film, besides Johnson, Hodge, Brosnan, Swindell, Centineo, and Winkler, are Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz (a non-powered version of the hero Isis, here a university professor and rebel against the mercenaries ruling Kahndaq), Bodhi Sabongui as Tomaz’s son Amon, Mohammed Amer as Tomaz’s brother Karim, Marwan Kenzari as both Ahk-Ton (the Kahndaqi tyrant Black Adam destroyed five millennia ago) and his descendant Ishmael, Jalon Christian as Teth-Adam’s son Hurut, and Odelya Halevi as Teth-Adam’s wife Shiruta.

The future of all the characters in this movie is in doubt as of this writing, given both the film’s disappointing box office and the assignment of James Gunn and Peter Safran to take over DC Studios. (Among other things, it was announced after this film was released that Cavill would no longer be playing Superman, which renders the mid-credits scene rather moot.)

 

“Tell them the man in black sent you”

Black Adam
Written by Adam Sztykiel and Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Produced by Beau Flynn, Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia
Original release date: October 21, 2022

Screenshot: Warner Bros.

We open with a flashback to 2600 BCE, Kahndaq. A thriving city-state, it’s taken over by a tyrant named Ahk-Ton, who enslaves the populace and forces them to mine for Eternium, the powerful metal that only can be found in Kahndaq. One slave finds a bit of Eternium, and when he hands it over to one of the guards, he’s killed as his “reward.” A young boy runs to defend the old man, but his father takes him away before the boy can be killed as well.

However, the boy will not be silenced, and he runs away with the piece of Eternium and holds it up before the slaves, who hold up their hands as if holding something in return. The boy is captured and sentenced to death, but at the last minute he’s taken away by a group of wizards (one of whom we’ve seen before in the present day in Shazam!) who grant him the stamina of Shu, the speed of Heru, the strength of Amon, the wisdom of Zehuti, the power of Aten, and the courage of Mehen. He later confronts Ahk-Ton and destroys his palace. The champion is buried with the destruction of the palace.

In the present day, Kahndaq is run by Intergang. We see a kid skateboarding through the capital city and sassing the Intergang thugs at a checkpoint. The van at that checkpoint is allowed through without being thoroughly checked thanks to the kid’s distraction. Turns out the van has a fugitive hiding in it: Adrianna Tomaz, a college professor who is accused of sedition. The skateboarding kid is her son Amon, whom she berates for getting involved, and she sends him home.

The van—which includes Tomaz, her brother Karim, and two colleagues, Samir and Ishmael—heads into the mountains. They believe they’ve located the Crown of Sabbac, a demonic crown that was a tool of Akh-Ton’s rule, and they need to keep it out of Intergang’s hands. However, Intergang is right behind them—even as Tomaz finds the crown, Intergang sends a crew into the mountains to take them out and remove the crown. Samir is killed, and Tomaz is about to be next when she reads the inscription on a tomb that releases Teth-Adam, the champion of Kahndaq.

Teth-Adam is invulnerable, so Intergang’s bullets bounce off him. “Your magic is weak,” he says in ancient Kahndaqi and proceeds to massacre everyone. Ishmael is buried under rubble at some point in the chaos. Tomaz and Karim manage to escape to the van. Teth-Adam catches a missile in his bare hand, but it’s powered by Eternium, and it is able to wound him. However, he takes out the last of Intergang’s thugs before he falls unconscious.

Amanda Waller assigns Hawkman to gather a team of Justice Society members to deal with Teth-Adam: Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone. This is Atom Smasher’s first mission after taking over from his uncle, who has the same growing/shrinking powers. Said uncle urges him to not mess up the costume (“It’s vintage!”) and to do what Hawkman tells him to do.

Teth-Adam wakes up in Amon’s room and he uses his lightning powers to blast his Superman poster. Amon tries to bring him up to speed on the modern world and on how to be a superhero, which Teth-Adam barely pays any attention to. (He also speaks modern English, er, somehow.) There’s a very old statue of the Champion of Kahndaq in the center of town, and Teth-Adam flies to it.

Intergang then attacks him, probably pissed about the massacre in the mountains, and he makes short work of them. Then the Justice Society shows up and Teth-Adam beats the crap out of them, too.

Doctor Fate, however, takes Tomaz aside and explains that the Justice Society has access to ancient texts that show that the legends of the Champion of Kahndaq aren’t the entire story: Teth-Adam didn’t fight for justice, he fought for vengeance and destroyed Ahk-Ton’s palace out of anger. In retaliation, the wizards punished him. Tomaz didn’t release him from a tomb, she released him from a prison.

Tomaz confronts Teth-Adam with this new knowledge, at which point Teth-Adam repeats what he told Amon: he’s not a hero.

To the people of Kahndaq, however, he’s a hero, and they cheer him on, to Hawkman’s consternation. Tomaz tartly explains that the Justice Society was nowhere to be found when Intergang took over their country, but now they want to invade and take their champion?

Amon goes home to hide the Crown of Sabbac only to find that Ishmael is alive and well and is one of the bad guys. He’s holding Karim at gunpoint and wants the crown. Karim distracts Ishmael long enough for Amon to escape, but is shot for his trouble. Despite Teth-Adam and the Justice Society fighting off the Intergang thugs, Ishmael is able to take Amon. The Intergang thugs go off in various directions, and Hawkman and Teth-Adam both try and fail to find Amon. Fate points out that they can interrogate a prisoner much more easily than they can a corpse, so maybe don’t kill all the thugs? Hawkman captures two, and Teth-Adam threatens both of them—whoever tells the truth about where Intergang is headquartered won’t be killed.

Hawkman and Teth-Adam proceed to get into another fight—which Fate decides to just stay out of—and over the course of the fight, find where Amon has hidden the crown.

Teth-Adam, the Justice Society, and Tomaz head to Intergang’s headquarters. Tomaz has translated the crown’s inscription as “life is the path to death.” Tomaz offers the crown in exchange for Amon’s life, to which Hawkman vigorously objects, but Teth-Adam says it’s her son, her choice.

However, Ishmael takes the crown and then shoots Amon anyhow, because he’s the bad guy and bad guys don’t keep their word, which you’d think Tomaz would’ve known. Furious, Teth-Adam destroys the entire headquarters. The Justice Society and the Tomazes barely survive, which is more than can be said for Ishmael or any of Intergang. However, Amon is badly hurt. Devastated, Teth-Adam flies off. Hawkman goes after him, and Teth-Adam reveals that the legends are even more wrong than they thought…

Teth-Adam was the father of the boy who became champion, whose name was Hurut. Hurut did so much harm to Ahk-Ton that the tyrant sent his soldiers to kill Hurut’s family. Hurut’s mother Shiruta is killed and Teth-Adam is wounded. Hurut transfers his powers to his father to save his life—but right after that is killed by an arrow from Ahk-Ton’s soldiers. Livid, Teth-Adam destroys Ahk-Ton’s palace.

That’s why the wizards imprisoned him, and why he’s no hero. His son was the champion; Teth-Adam is just an angry-ass father. He says the word “Shazam” and changes back into his mortal form and gives himself up to Hawkman.

The Justice Society takes him to an underwater black site run by Task Force X, where he’s imprisoned and gagged so he can’t say “Shazam” again.

In the meantime, Tomaz realizes that she translated the crown’s inscription wrong, and it’s really “death is the path to life.” Ishmael was killed in order to be made into a new champion of the demons. Sabbac is also an acronym for the most powerful demons in hell: Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus, and Crateis, and they turn Ishmael into a powerful monster.

Fate has the ability to see possible futures, and he admits at one point that he sees Hawkman’s death. Only later does he reveal that he’s seen two futures: the other is where Fate himself dies. He distracts Sabbac while also working to revive Teth-Adam from his prison, and is eventually killed. Teth-Adam then arrives in Kahndaq and he and Hawkman team up to fight Sabbac, eventually destroying the demon.

Changing his name to Black Adam, he refuses to take the throne of Kahndaq, but he will serve as the nation’s protector. The Justice Society departs, satisfied with that. Later, Waller sends a drone that acts as a video phone. She makes it clear that, if Black Adam won’t stay in her prison, Kahndaq is now his prison, and he’d best not set foot outside it. When Black Adam reminds her that no one on Earth can stop him, Waller counters that she knows lots of folks not from Earth. After Adam blows up the drone, Superman steps out of the shadows, saying they should talk.

 

“I guess we’re gonna stick with the very bad plan”

Screenshot: Warner Bros.

There’s a lot to like about this movie. For one thing, there are hardly any white people in it. It’s about a Middle Eastern nation, so most of the cast should be people of color. The only straight-up WASPy white people are Doctor Fate (who wears ascots and dressing gowns, just to reinforce that he’s an older white dude) and some members of Intergang (an international gang of mercenaries who don’t usually take over countries, but whatever). Atom Smasher and his uncle are Jewish, and the rest are POC, from the half-Samoan Dwayne Johnson on down.

And boy, Johnson is having a blast. Johnson is one of the most likeable action heroes extant. Even when he’s in really terrible movies—and he’s been in plenty, including his last collaboration with director Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise—he’s always fun to watch, and that continues here.

The supporting cast is generally pretty good. Nobody ever went wrong casting Sarah Shahi, Mohammed Amer is genuinely funny in the comic relief role, Bodhi Sabongui manages to avoid being too terribly annoying in the annoying-kid role, and Jalon Christian is earnest and believable as Hurut.

But what absolutely makes the movie are the performances of Aldis Hodge and especially Pierce Brosnan, who knock it out of the park as two of DC’s most venerable heroes. I first noticed Hodge in two episodes of Supernatural he guest-starred on, and he has since gone on to be amazing on Leverage and City on the Hill and any number of other places, and his Hawkman is superb. And that’s as nothing to how perfectly Brosnan inhabits the weary sorcerer. I especially like the rapport between the Hawkman and Fate—you immediately realize that these two have been friends, colleagues, and teammates for a very long time, and the comfortable bond they share is a joy to watch.

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If only it was in service of a better movie. The script is all over the place, pacing-wise. The emotional climax of the movie comes in the confrontation against Ishmael, with Teth-Adam’s surrender as the denouement—only there’s still half an hour of movie to go with an additional climax tacked on, complete with an unconvincing sacrifice by Doctor Fate (wouldn’t it have made more sense for the whole team to take on Sabbac instead of Fate by his lonesome?) and a simply endless sequence of Teth-Adam breaking out of prison and veeeeeeeeeeeeery slowly floating to the surface so he can finally say “Shazam.” Plus we get Sabbac animating zombies so that the people of Kahndaq can engage in mob violence, which serves absolutely no function.

I didn’t mention Noah Centineo or Quintessa Swindell in the list of good supporting performances, which isn’t really fair to them, as they both are charming and personable and fun. But Atom Smasher and Cyclone serve absolutely no function in this movie whatsoever. They’re so unimportant that they disappear from the action for lengthy periods of time, and you don’t notice or care, because they’re completely irrelevant to the entire movie.

Speaking of disappearing from the action, we have Ishmael, whose betrayal is revealed early on, and then he too disappears for some time, to the point that when we see him holding Karim at gunpoint, we’ve forgotten he exists. Plus, he’s completely uninteresting as an antagonist, and becomes even less so when he’s turned into a demon.

The dialogue is fine, though it feels like the screenwriters went through and made sure they painstakingly checked all the boxes of what makes an early-twenty-first-century action movie.

But the biggest problem with the movie is how it treats heroism.

Superhero movies have always had to deal with the struggle between the tropes of action movies—which almost always end with the bad guy(s) being killed, usually in a manipulatively cathartic manner—and the tropes of superhero comics, which is that the heroes are, y’know, heroes, not killers. One of the reasons why costumed vigilantes work in society in most superhero stories is at least in part because they won’t take another life.

The entire theme of Black Adam is “yeah, fine, it’s okay if you have someone who kills people sometimes.” A better script might have used the fact that Kahndaq has spent most of its history being conquered by outsiders going after their Eternium as a reason why you need Dirty Harry more than you need Superman, but aside from one awkward (albeit justified) rant by Tomaz directed at Hawkman, it hardly comes up. Indeed, the Justice Society’s going after Black Adam is pretty much a U.S. invasion of a foreign nation, since they’re sent by Amanda Waller. (Why Waller is running the Justice Society, not to mention how she’s got Superman at her beck and call, is left as an exercise for the viewer.) But the whole notion that, eh, sometimes you need someone to kill people is morally repugnant, and feels like an excuse to up the body count. Instead of truly examining the theme, the movie just says he’s an antihero and hopes for the best. (The two Venom movies have similar issues.)

Despite the problems, it’s still a fun movie to watch, though it doesn’t hold up as well the second time, as rewatching it just exposes more of the flaws that are easier to overlook when you’re enjoying the spectacle. And it proves that a Hodge-led Justice Society film wouldn’t be untoward…

 

Next week, we conclude the latest semi-annual revisiting of this feature with Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.

Keith R.A. DeCandido has three works coming out in the early part of 2023: Phoenix Precinct, the latest in his fantasy/police procedure series; “Ticonderoga Beck and the Stalwart Squad” in Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2022, a two-fisted tale about a team of adventurers in 1938; and “This Little Light of Mine” in Phenomenons: Season of Darkness, the second volume in the shared-world superhero anthology series.

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido

Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido has been writing about popular culture for this site since 2011, primarily but not exclusively writing about Star Trek and screen adaptations of superhero comics. He is also the author of more than 60 novels, more than 100 short stories, and more than 70 comic books, both in a variety of licensed universes from Alien to Zorro, as well as in worlds of his own creation, most notably the new Supernatural Crimes Unit series debuting in the fall of 2025. Read his blog, or follow him all over the Internet: Facebook, The Site Formerly Known As Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, YouTube, Patreon, and TikTok.
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2 years ago

I think my problem with Black Adam is that it really shouldn’t be a black Adam movie.  It should be a Justice Society movie.

It’s clear who Kent Nelson/Dr. Fate and Carter Hall/Hawkman are and it’s clear what their objective is.  They have a plan (albeit simple and probably none too smart) and they execute it.

I have no strong idea what Black Adam’s character is, what he wants, and how he is going to achieve it.  He’s there mostly to beat up on Intergang and the JSA.

 

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2 years ago

And to add insult to injury, Waller (ie: the US government) uses Superman in an extraterritorial way to say that Kahndaq’s superhero must be confined to his own country.  What a terrible look and awful way to use Superman.  How can I believe he would put up with that?

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J Town
2 years ago

I agree with vinsentient here. Black Adam is a supporting character for a reason. Introducing him in his own movie, as the protagonist (ish) is just a vanity move by Johnson and it kills the movie. How do you NOT work Black Adam in via a Shazam movie? Why a standalone with almost zero ties to Shazam?

And let’s not get started about how a modern day Justice Society just magically exists in a world that already has the Justice League yet has never been brought up previously at all, ever. Also Amanda Waller should have nothing to do with them, nor would Superman. Black Adam is a Shazam thing and I really think they went wrong in trying to shoehorn any of those characters into the DCEU at large as presently constituted. Although it looks like they’re shaking up the existing DCEU anyway, so apparently it’s all for naught. What a waste.

I like multiple elements of this movie, especially Pierce Brosnan, but the movie itself shouldn’t exist. The characters would have been better used in connection to other projects. Which is a shame.

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2 years ago

Because of where it cuts off, I don’t think it’s clear that Superman is there at Waller’s behest. Superman doesn’t seem hostile (in fact his demeanor is probably the most positive the Cavill Superman has ever been, and wearing the brightest colors of his career), and he doesn’t reveal himself till Waller’s drone is destroyed.

(It’s at least as possible that Waller has something like Doomsday, a Starro remnant, or something Apokoliotan as her extraterrestrial ace in the hole, and Superman wants to feel Black Adam out about the situation.)

Waller being able to give the JSA orders is another matter.

 

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

If I do ever get around to seeing this movie, it’ll be for the sake of seeing Shahi, Hodge, and Brosnan, since the story holds little interest for me and doesn’t seem to make much sense. I mean, Intergang ruling a country? What the hell? Intergang is organized crime. There’s certainly plenty of precedent for organized crime being involved in government, but usually they do it through figurehead politicians they have in their pockets rather than being openly in charge. Not to mention that Intergang works for Darkseid in most versions, and subtle infiltration and corruption is Darkseid’s standard MO.

I love the idea of Sarah Shahi as Isis, though it’s too bad she didn’t have superpowers here, and too bad that political events of the past decade or so have made DC/WB unwilling to call the character Isis anymore. Isis, of course, was created by Filmation Associates in the 1970s as a spinoff of their Shazam! series, with Joanna Cameron playing schoolteacher Andrea Thomas, who gained the powers of Isis from an Egyptian amulet she discovered and used her virtually omnipotent control over the elements, gravity, matter, and time itself to confound petty thieves, rescue lost children, and deal with other low-stakes Saturday morning perils. DC later reintroduced her as Adrianna Tomaz, pairing her with Black Adam instead of Shazam, and from what I read, she was put through some really dark, violent, extremely adult storylines that seem incongruous for a character created for a wholesome Saturday morning kids’ show. As a childhood fan of the original, I found that kind of disturbing to learn.

Of course, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow did their own, even more altered version of Isis, calling her Zari Tomaz (and again avoiding her hero name), which they later retconned to the more authentically Iranian Zari Tarazi, the backstory being that her family changed their name in the dystopian future she originally came from, but kept it in the new timeline that resulted when that dystopia was headed off. So they kept moving her farther and farther from the character’s origins.

Anyway, I wish they’d included Christian Kane in the movie so his character could’ve said “Dammit, Hawkman!”

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2 years ago

“They defeat him by tricking him into saying “Shazam,” at which point he transforms back into his mortal self.”

And immediately dies of extreme old age, because he’s a 5000 year old mortal.  Every appearance since then has of course retconned that ending.

I did appreciate that even with the Captain Marvel power set, it took five thousand years of constant flying to get from “the farthest star” back to Earth.  That’s still a remarkable multiple of c worthy of Doc Smith, but it makes the universe a bit bigger than superhero comics typically do.

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2 years ago

I saw this movie and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever the same day and in the same theater.  (I took a popcorn break between the two movies.)

One thing that struck me about this movie, especially in comparison to Black Panther, was how little actual conversation this movie had.  Yes, there are movies in which conversations are basically superfluous — I’m looking at you, Cliffhanger — but this one really needed more human moments.  The more inhuman the character, the more effort you need to put in making them relatable.

Needless to say, I enjoyed PBWF much more.

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2 years ago

OK, I may be the odd one here, but I enjoyed it.  Full disclaimer: I’m not a stickler for the comics vs the movie.  I just like watching larger-than-life characters interacting in out world and with each other.

What I particularly enjoyed about this vs “Shazam” is how Black Adam was completely comfortable with his powers: it was almost like breathing, he just didn’t even consider them.  It was almost like watching Dr. Manhattan interacting with the world: matter doesn’t matter.

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2 years ago

I haven’t actually seen this because in some ways, the drama surrounding DC seems more interesting to me than their actual movies (so I actually appreciate these reviews so if I do ever watch one of the movies I have some context), but one thing that jumped out at me – but I’m guessing wasn’t really explored in the movies – is this concept of Black Adam as an ‘angry ass father’ as the actions he is taking still don’t prevent the kid character from being shot (and maybe even contribute to Ishmael getting demonified) – it seems like that could be an character interesting beat to follow.

I also agree it’s weird that (despite what we see in plenty of other superhero movies) this particular superhero is ordered to stay in their country. But I’d like to think Superman was there to get him on his side, not to enforce a prison sentence.

 

 

 

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2 years ago

– plus, they use the Williams theme (I did go and look up the scene) which I feel is typically a more heroic/straightforward take on the character. 

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Austin
2 years ago

Anybody else have The Rock-fatigue? HE PLAYS THE SAME CHARACTER IN EVERY MOVIE—HIMSELF! *Ahem* Now that I got that out of the way, if there any Sarah Shahi fans out there, you should check out this show she has on Netflix, if you haven’t already…

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EP
2 years ago

You had the Justice Society this whole time? Why didn’t you call them out when Zod was causing problems? (MOS) *Dunno*

Why didn’t you call them out during that thing with “Doomsday”? (SvB) *Dunno*

Why didn’t you use them against the Enchantress instead of those criminals? (SS) *Dunno*  How about that big starfish? (TSS) *Dunno*

Where were they when all these aliens were attacking? (JL) *Dunno*

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jeffronicus
2 years ago

To damn with faint praise, the movie wasn’t as bad as my wife and I had been expecting.

The frustrating premise is that Intergang took over a whole country and none of the superheroes has done anything about it in the months or years. I could maybe see that if they presented it as Intergang moving in to provide security after a coup they had engineered, so they hadn’t been “evil” obviously enough for Superman to swoop in. But there’s none of that, just people yelling at the Justice Society for not getting involved for unexplained reasons.

Another thing was that Doctor Fate, Atom Smasher, and Cyclone all get introductions and explanations of their powers, even if just in passing. But there’s nothing for Hawkman. All we know is that he’s a guy with a secret lair beneath his mansion estate who has his own plane and high-tech gadgets who dresses up in armor like a flying creature and has a rule against killing people. Is his mother also named Martha?

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Mr. Magic
2 years ago

I did enjoy Lorne Balfe’s score — especially his theme for the JSA.

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By DCEU standards, this was a decent entry. Since I went into this not knowing any of the Black Adam backstory, I was genuinely surprised to find it was directly connected to the Shazam! lore. The pre-release marketing didn’t touch on this aspect of the story at all.

Not as good as the 2019 Shazam!, but I still liked Johnson as Adam. Very much an Eastwood-esque take. To me, Brosnan more or less stole everyone’s thunder as Dr. Fate (and of course, I had no idea he was the original Dr. Strange before Marvel poached the concept). A captivating performance, conveying the full range of the hero’s journey of sacrifice.

As far as theme is concerned, the movie is very much a criticism of the way the U.S. steps uninvited into other nations. And while Black Adam himself often feels like a side character in this story, with less agency over the plot that he should, I do appreciate the steps the film takes to make Kahndaq a living, breathing place with a long history of oppression through its characters.

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ED
2 years ago

 I have some issues with this film, but overall I liked it good deal (especially seeing the Justice Society in action and watching non-superhumans getting a chance to make a useful contribution, even without putting on a super-suit, even when they’re not named characters*).

 I’m also especially pleased by how easy it is to imagine the JSA members in this film filling the gaps in the Society depicted on STARGIRL (and vice versa), a show for which I have a soft spot. 

 

 *Hence those scenes of ordinary Kahndaqis wrecking zombies, which makes it plain that these people and their country aren’t just a background detail or a playground for the costume set – it’s THEIR world too, even though the Justice Society play a key role in saving it.

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ED
2 years ago

 I am, however, still a little salty that it was Big Blue and not the Big Red Cheese popping in for that little cameo (especially with hindsight, given the ongoing rumblings in the DC cinematic arena).

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K. Jered Mayer
2 years ago

A Tor post that still allows comments! A rare beast these days.

Anyway, I object to the notion The Jungle Cruise is a terrible movie; I thought Blunt and Johnson had great chemistry, and it felt like the first fun, pulpy supernatural film I had seen since maybe The Mummy.

As far as Black Adam goes, I described it to my friends as a 7/10 film that I had a 10/10 time watching. It’s unafraid to FEEL like a goofy comic book movie, even with Black Adam’s self-seriousness. Aldis Hodge did the impossible in making me actually like Hawkman, and Pierce Brosnan was perfect as Fate. I’ve always found the JSA to be more interesting than the JLA, so to even have a smaller version and to have them butt heads with Black Adam was a delight for me. I’m genuinely excited to see what Gunn’s long-term plan for cohesive DC storytelling ala the MCU is going to look like, but at the same time, it’s a bummer we won’t get to see more spin out from this film.

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Ellynne
2 years ago

This movie perfectly captured the feeling of being a kid and picking up a comic with everything already underway. Take ten minutes to quickly explain 5,000 years of history for a country you’ve never heard of and are still wondering where to find on a map. Here’s it’s current situation. Here’s an archeological site outside the city, all cleared away, with no guards and no big piles of dirt or debris in the areas we’ll need to be looking at.

These things aren’t flaws. This is the pure, distilled, Platonic ideal of old comics. There are always 5,000 year old countries you’ve never heard of that will be summarized at light speed. There’s always a dire situation with thugs in charge. There’s always an archeological site just outside the city limits (or in it) with everything cleared away that archeologists will stumble into so they can release something that perhaps shouldn’t have been released.

And, here comes the superhero group we’ve never heard of with the complicated back stories no one made a dozen movies to explain. Hold on and go with it! That’s the way this ride works!

The second part/sequel felt exactly like the moment where a comic writer must have said, “Hey, the villain we had over this story arc seems popular. What say we bring him back?” So, before the ink is dry him being locked up, they are already busily drawing his break out.

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Mr. Magic
2 years ago

@16,

Keith, I’ve been a comics reader most of my life…and I’m still embarrassed to admit that I never really noticed or thought about how Bruce and Clark’s Mothers have the same first name before that scene.

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

@23/Ellynne: “There’s always a dire situation with thugs in charge.”

Yeah, but usually they’re situationally appropriate thugs. Corrupt politicians or dictators rule a country, gangsters terrorize a city’s business owners or private citizens. Having Intergang rule a country is just incongruous. Why make it Intergang instead of something more appropriate?

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EP
2 years ago

@24 That was actually a Silver Age retcon. Superman’s mother was originally MARY KENT  and his father was just JOHN KENT.

@25 Because they own the rights to Intergang?

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

@26/EP: The name “Mary Kent” was used only twice, in Superman #1 in 1939 and again in issue #53 in 1948, which was also the only use of “John Kent.” The names most commonly used for the Kents in the 1940s were Eben and Sarah, introduced by George Lowther in the 1942 novel The Adventures of Superman and also used in the radio series (for which Lowther was head writer) and the premiere episode of the George Reeves TV series (which was a remake of the radio script). The name Martha Kent debuted in the 1948 Superman film serial, with Eben Kent as her husband. “Jonathan” was introduced in a Superboy story in 1950, and the comics adopted “Martha” (spelled “Marthe” the first time it was used) in 1951. The 1952 TV series premiere was the last gasp of the names Eben and Sarah Kent. It wasn’t until the 1960s that John and Mary were codified as the names of the Earth-Two Kents.

 

“Because they own the rights to Intergang?”

Huh? They own the rights to every DC character and concept, because they own DC itself. The point is that there are plenty of DC Universe villains who would’ve been more appropriate choices than Intergang.

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

@27/me: What I should’ve said in my first paragraph above is that the names Mary and John Kent only appeared briefly in the comics before the 1960s. I added that line at the end without realizing how it contradicted the earlier part.

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EP
2 years ago

Thanks for the comics history lesson! I’m sure there is some universe out there that has Been and Sarah as Clark’s parents still!

 

Since what I tried to post earlier must have crossed some sort of line, I’ll water it down: Since they can’t use real life bodies, they have to use the organization they have total control of -Intergange.

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2 years ago

(and of course, I had no idea he was the original Dr. Strange before Marvel poached the concept)

 

I’ve always had problems with claims that use of common tropes and concepts constitutes “poaching,” “stealing,” or “ripping off.” Dr. Fate and Dr. Strange are sorcerers (or wizards, or magicians, or whatever you prefer). The concept has been around for millennia. Other than being sorcerers, and having “Doctor” as part of their names, Dr. Fate and Dr. Strange are very different characters.

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EP
2 years ago

@28 (Myself) I didn’t notice when I posted what autocorrect did to “Eben” and “badies” (I should have said villains).

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2 years ago

Krad is right. Intergang did not make sense in this context. Sure, they are pawns of Darkseid, but they are used to direct and control criminal elements. Taking over a country isn’t in their wheelhouse. There are lots of other villains/organizations that would make more sense and would have access to the technology to use Eternium. A connection to Darkseid isn’t even required here. (unless the point was to interweave with the events of JLA. And Intergang still wouldn’t be the logical villains here.)

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EP
2 years ago

This is going to sound really weird, but after rewatching it on HBO…I kind of liked it better the second time around.

Maybe because I didn’t have any high expectations at all?  So i was just able to let the bad stuff wash over me, rather than look for things to pick apart?

ChristopherLBennett
2 years ago

I finally got around to subscribing to HBO Max, and I discovered they had this. I was iffy on whether I wanted to see it, so I reread Keith’s comments here, and they convinced me to go ahead and watch it. I actually liked it quite a bit, to my surprise. I don’t think this was the best showing for Johnson, since his character was so closed off and hardened that he was kind of a monotone, but Shahi, Hodge, and Brosnan were all terrifically charismatic and effective, and the rest of the cast was good too. The visuals were pretty impressive too — heavy on the slow-motion CGI, but in a way that was more creative and somewhat less incomprehensibly cluttered than usual for modern movies. I found the effect of Cyclone’s powers particularly beautiful (though not as beautiful as Cyclone herself, who’s simply stunnin).

I agree with most of Keith’s positive comments, and I disagree with a lot of his criticisms. To wit:

“(wouldn’t it have made more sense for the whole team to take on Sabbac instead of Fate by his lonesome?)”

No, because Fate could see the future and knew that nobody could survive taking him on except Teth-Adam. So Kent made sure he was the only one sacrificed.

“a simply endless sequence of Teth-Adam breaking out of prison”

Necessary to make the time for Fate’s sacrifice, the JSA to end up on the ropes, etc., and to build suspense for his heroic entrance.

“Plus we get Sabbac animating zombies so that the people of Kahndaq can engage in mob violence, which serves absolutely no function.”

On the contrary — it gives Amon his big hero moment rallying the people like Adam’s son at the beginning, paying off the parallel, and also paying off the theme of the Kahndaqi people having to stand up and be their own heroes rather than relying on others to save them, which is an idea woven throughout the whole story.

“But Atom Smasher and Cyclone serve absolutely no function in this movie whatsoever. They’re so unimportant that they disappear from the action for lengthy periods of time, and you don’t notice or care, because they’re completely irrelevant to the entire movie.”

Aside from Smasher providing comic relief, his first attempt at battle helps illustrate the theme I just mentioned, a pretty literal symbol for the clumsy, heavy-handed intervention of giant superpowers seeking to protect Third World countries but usually just doing more damage. He and Cyclone are also useful as audience surrogates for exposition about the JSA, Hawkman, and Fate.

“Speaking of disappearing from the action, we have Ishmael, whose betrayal is revealed early on, and then he too disappears for some time, to the point that when we see him holding Karim at gunpoint, we’ve forgotten he exists.”

I didn’t forget. His treachery was clear as soon as he lied to Adrianna about the other guy having a claustrophobic attack after we’d just seen him fatally fall off a cliff, so it was easy to guess that he survived the tomb collapse, and I was waiting for him to return. (It’s been long enough since reading the plot summary here that I’d forgotten the details.)

As for the theme of needing a darker hero sometimes, I don’t like it when heroes kill, but I think it’s more nuanced here than Keith says. Certainly Teth-Adam is hard to sympathize with at first, since he’s killing people gratuitously and rather pettily, but that’s a clue to the revelation that he’s not a hero but a vengeful father. The story is about his journey to become willing to fight for something more constructive than rage. He’s still an antihero, but he and Hawkman have somewhat met in the middle. I mean, they set up that whole conversation about heroes wearing capes, and then Black Adam shows up with a cape added to his costume. That’s pretty overt symbolism.

Oh, and as for how Black Adam speaks modern English, I assume the magic is translating, since when he de-Shazams and becomes his skinny self again, he speaks ancient Kahndaqi.

 

I do have my own criticisms, but mostly about how poorly the film fits with the rest of the DCEU. Where has the JSA been all this time? Why would they work for Waller? And why in the world did nobody send in the Shazam Family to deal with the guy who has the exact same powers that they do? I mean, there are six of them to one of him.

But then, the entire DCEU has been lacking in continuity between movies. They seem to reinvent the universe with every film, and I can’t really blame them because most of the first few were disasters. So it’s a minor issue. What really matters is how well the film stands on its own, and I’m surprised by how successful I think it was in that regard.

Although around the time that Kent said his farewell to his old friend Carter, I found myself thinking that I really wanted there to have been four to six previous movies about their adventures together before this. It would’ve been a better payoff if we’d actually seen the history underlying it. And I’d like to see sequels with the current JSA team too.

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J.U.N.O
1 year ago

Dude, you could make hundreds of books around the JSA.