Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has landed himself another lead role. Shocking, right? This time, he’s in the superhero genre, or anti-hero, rather. Black Adam follows the story of Teth Adam after he is reawakened by a woman hunting for an ancient relic. Said woman and her son become friends with Teth Adam. It turns out however, that Teth Adam has a bad record and the Justice Society (similar to the Justice League), wants to stop him because they believe he will cause destruction. Throughout the film, he proves time and time again that he is a worthy protector of Kahndaq (the city in the film) until eventually the Justice Society has trust in him enough to be the protector of the land. The Blue & White has seen, researched, and analyzed the film, and at the end of the article a proper review will be provided. Major spoilers to the plot going forward.

Black Adam has made over $300 million in the box office and its reviews online are as follows: Google ratings give Black Adam 4.5 stars out of 5. Rotten Tomatoes critic score is currently at 40%; however, the audience score rests at 89%, a staggering 49 point difference to the critics. It seems the film was “better than expected,” according to most audience reviews of the film. Critics say that as a standalone experience, the film is a “wildly uneven letdown.” Let’s decide for ourselves what rating this film truly deserves.

We can start with the setting of the film. It takes place modern day, in the city of Kahndaq, which is located somewhere in the Middle East. The film only visits a couple of other locations, but this isn’t much of a problem as Kahndaq is a vast city that we explore pretty thoroughly in the film. The costume design in all honesty is pretty mediocre for a superhero film. The most notable costume has to go to the character, Sabacc (seen below), portrayed by the talented Marwan Kenzari. Kenzari also played Jafar in Aladdin 2019.

The star of the film, Dwayne Johnson, calls Black Adam his “passion project.” Becoming the character Teth/Black Adam is something that Johnson has discussed for over a decade and now it’s finally come true. You can tell in the film the amount of effort that has been displayed by Johnson into his acting. The other actors/actresses are worth mentioning too. They go as follows:

• Noah Centineo (Atom Smasher)
• Pierce Brosnan (Doctor Fate)
• Aldis Hodge (Hawkman)
• Marwan Kenzari (Sabbac)
• Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell)

The characters involved in the film were all charismatic and funny for the most part. It was interesting to see some of the Justice Society members interact with each other and with Teth Adam. Doctor Fate’s character was intriguing due to the fact that the hero can see into the future. He ends up dying at the end of the film at the hands of Sabbac while protecting his fellow Justice Society members, and simultaneously stalling for his new ally, Teth Adam, to arrive to the fight. Teth Adam’s power is described in the film as being comparable to that of Superman himself. Both DC characters possess superhuman strength, speed, hearing, healing, and stamina. The film’s resolution is satisfying and ties all loose ends together excellently.

After taking everything into account we’ve come to a consensus. The setting is good. The costume design is subpar to your average superhero film. The characters, however, were great, and the actors were excellent. The ending was satisfactory. We give the film a 7.5/10, or 75%. The movie leaves us with a good interpretation of the work as a whole. We can say that the theme of this film is this: it’s okay to want freedom, but sometimes you need to fight to maintain that freedom and give that freedom to others.