Hello United Comics Universe Heroes, villians and Fans! Ninjetta Kage here and I am doing a review on the DC movie Black Adam to give you my take on it. I didn’t know anything about Black Adam prior to watching the movie, but I enjoyed it anyway. Now let’s get into this…
The intro music was hitting hard, it made me want to go train. The opening scene was great coming over the mountains, it really gives you the feel of how young civilization was back then. The cinematography in general and effects were on point with the CGI blending almost seamlessly into the live action.
I loved how Hurut got sucked down just before the sword came down towards his head. The executioner was like WTF!? I wondered why the wizards didn’t just destroy the crown instead of hiding it. It seems like they would have been strong enough for it. I guess it would not have been much of a movie if they did that though. After getting freed from that evil tyrant, I wondered why the people let themselves get taken over again by the Intergang mercenary group. Maybe it had been so long that they forgot to protect themselves? Or maybe they were relying on their champion to always come and save them.
Not to say I am a fan of villians…but sometimes I want their toys. For example, I loved the arm things they were wearing when the detain alert came up for Adrianna. Speaking of the scene with the alert…the color of the van reminded me of the mystery machine from Scooby Doo.
It seems like Eternium is to DC as Vibranium is to Marvel, with Eternium having more magical properties and Vibranium having more technical applications. Although I’m sure Shuri would have figured out a way to make tech out of it (magic-tech maybe?). When they were heading into the mountain, and Karim said he was going to keep watch, I was wondering how he thought he was going to be able to keep proper watch while he is blaring music out of the radio. A rhino could have snuck up on him and he would not have heard it. Marwan Kenzari did a great job playing Ishmael. He was looking a little shady from the moment they first showed him in the van at the checkpoint when he was talking to Adrianna about her necklace, which I think was made out of Eternium. I wish they would have had more info on the history of that necklace and why she was able to break Black Adam’s seal.
The intro scene for Black Adam was awesome. He just said “Your magic is weak” then started destroying people. The fact that he saved Adrianna showed that he was not actually a villain. At that time he did not know that she was the one that broke his seal, all he saw was a non-combatant about to get hurt.
I don’t think real mercenaries would be as stupid as the ones in this movie. Any time he took two missiles and it didn’t even phase him, I don’t think they would have kept trying to fight him. In that fight scene outside the mountain, I loved how they slowed down the scene so we can see how everything looks to Black Adam since he is moving so fast. He was just casually flying around looking at everything and setting the enemies up to be killed. When Karim rolled up the window because Black Adam was walking toward the van, I laughed out loud. As if that would have done anything to stop him. It was probably a good thing he had the window up though, since they fired that Eternium missile at Black Adam and he caught it. He probably thought it was another one of their inconsequential weapons until he saw the Eternium glowing in it. I’m guessing he wasn’t expecting the missile to be able to hurt him at first, so he wasn’t ready for the blast. It looked like he caught it, looked at it thinking “Will they never learn” then noticed it was glowing and was like “Is that Eternium?”BOOM!
Hawkman was pretty arrogant when he told the Amanda Waller “You find us a cell that can hold him and we’ll take care of the rest”. Black Adam hadn’t been seen for 5,000 years and any record of his abilities was just as old, but Hawkman was so confident that they could beat him. He did not even bring snacks for Atom Smasher on the ship and he should have known he was going to need them because of how his abilities worked.
I think the reason why the crown didn’t do anything to Karim when he put it on is because he was not of the bloodline of the evil king. Since it was an artifact of evil, it probably had the King’s blood in it or something so no one else would be able to use it.
Black Adam was great when he asked Adrianna who she wanted to teach her son violence. He lived in a time of oppression so violence is all he knows for solving problems. I think he was right though, people need to know how to do violence, or it will be done to them. Just because you know how to fight, doesn’t mean you enjoy it or will use it at the wrong time. “Better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war”.
I’m thinking some kind of universal translation thing is part of Black Adam’s powers because he understood and spoke English when he woke up. I don’t think English even existed in his time. Or it could just be that classic comic book/hollywood magic.
Once again, mercenaries are not this stupid. When that guy tried to hit Black Adam with the baton and it bent on his head, a real mercenary would have run because this guy is obviously way beyond him. Mercenaries fight for a paycheck, and while death is always a risk, they wouldn’t throw their lives away on a fight they know they can’t win. That is the downside to hiring mercenaries, they are fighting for money not a cause.
I think the powers may have increased Black Adams intelligence, or at least sped up his brain, because he was flying and holding the two mercenaries when the Justice Society arrived. He just looked at them for a moment, then dropped the mercenaries and shrugged. I think he calculated that they were there to stop him, maybe he could sense Dr. Fate’s magic, and he dropped the mercenaries to find out what kind of people they are.
It really was presumptuous of the Justice Society to sail in and proclaim they want to restore peace when Kanddaqs hero showed up, but they were nowhere to be found when Intergang began oppressing the people. I think they should have just left well enough alone unless Black Adam became an actual global threat. It was obvious that the people wanted Black Adam when they booed Hawkman for saving the mercenaries and cheered when Black Adam killed them. I think if they had sent Superman in first, things would have been different because, Superman could have matched him in strength and speed, which would have made Black Adam more open to listening to him since he respected strength.
During the fight with the Justice Society, I think Black Adam was just having fun for the most part, until he actually needed to pay attention, then he got serious and started blowing stuff up.
It was great how Adrianna told them off about not showing up when they got occupied and suddenly coming when Black Adam showed up and claiming they are there to save them. They should have approached things differently, and also should have tried talking to him first since they should have known that context can be lost when things were recorded in the ancient texts and translated to another language. I think Black Adam kind of adopted Adrianna and Armon since he lost his own family.
The problem with the Justice Society is they can’t see Black Adam’s point of view, and Hawkman doesn’t show him respect as a warrior. In his time the only way to deal with your enemies was to kill them, and he thinks Justice Society is weak for letting them live. As far as they knew his last appearance ended with him in a rage, so obviously he has anger issues. He also didn’t really care about doing things tactically because when Dr. Fate told him to bring him the prisoner he still had time to fly over and catch the guy but he let him hit the ground anyway. Black Adam does not respect their way of doing things, because they have shown no respect for him.
I think later on Black Adam started to respect Hawkman because he respects strength and Hawkman was still trying to challenge him even though he knew he was totally outclassed. I would more so call that arrogance than strength, but that’s probably how Black Adam saw it since he was arrogant too. He was actually listening to Hawkman and learning how to do things, but in his own way. That’s why he waited until Hawkman was there to catch the mercenaries before he dropped them. He didn’t care one way or the other if they lived, but he knew Hawkman cared so he gave him the chance to save them. Black Adam also let Hawkman try to fight him and intentionally didn’t kill him, even though he could have. Black Adam made a very good point when he said Hawkman would let the criminals go free and hurt other people instead of ending them. Hawkman said heroes don’t kill people, but they are not using any other means of disabling them. You can disable people without killing, which would keep them from hurting more people. Black Adam is just doing what he knows will work to stop them from hurting more people.
Adrianna just takes control and becomes a force of nature when it comes to her son. She just ordered Black Adam and the Justice Society around, I loved it.
I don’t know why Hawkman actually thought Black Adam was going to go for his sneak attack when he has already proven himself to be a juggernaut. Of course he was going to smash his way in once he saw where they needed to go. I mean, the man flew through the walls because it was more direct than going through the door, that pretty much tells you all you need to know about him. When it came to Adrianna giving Ishmael the crown, I understand where Black Adam was coming from when he stopped the Justice Society from trying to stop her, but he was wrong. The consequences of him getting the crown was going to affect more than just Khandaq, and Adrianna was making a decision for her whole country without consulting anyone else. Maybe Black Adam was just so arrogant that he felt sure he could stop Ishmael if he turned into a demon, which is a distinct possibility.
The timing on the scene wear Ishmael puts on the crown was wrong. He would have had to been moving incredibly fast in order for him to be trying to put the crown on right after Black Adam grabbed the bullet, because in real time the bullet would have already hit Armon before Ishmael could have even let go of the gun. It was a nice affect, but I just had to say something about that.
I was a little surprised when Hawkman didn’t try to start fighting Black Adam again, and actually agreed that no-one can stop him. He may have picked on up the feeling Black Adam was giving off when he said it. The context that Hawkman was missing about Black Adam’s history was that he got the power and then his son was killed right afterward, so he went into a rage. He never really had the chance to learn to be a hero. He was not a bad person, he just had a lot of justifiable anger. The fact that he was willing to give up his power after he hurt Armon showed that he was not a villian.
Hawkman was still making arrogant mistakes when he was fighting the demon sabbacc. He got his axe into him but instead of continuing to press the attack he just looked at him. He should have kept wailing on him. The whole thing with Dr. Fate acting like he was tired of living after only 100 years was stupid. 100 years isn’t even really that long to be living because a regular human can live that long. A true hero would want to live as long as possible because that means they can save more people.
The more scenes I see with Adrianna the more I like her (except when she was willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of people to save her son by giving Ishamael the crown, but she wasn’t thinking straight right then either). The legions of hell were popping out of the ground and she just picked up a stick and told her son to get behind her. Even her brother stepped up and started smashing skeletons. The people were all warriors too. Once Armon rallied them they didn’t hesitate to defend their country. I’m thinking the fact that their champion was back rekindled their warrior spirit and they just needed Armon to blow it into a flame.
In the end credit scene, Amanda Waller is just as arrogant as Hawkman. She sent that message threatening Black Adam and just assumed that they could still beat him. When Superman said they should talk, Black Adam looked like he wanted to fight first, then talk. I think it was just coming from his natural warrior spirit, not that he wanted to be dominant or anything. He just recognized Superman’s power and wanted to see what he could do.
Every DC fan knows about the connection between Black Adam and Shazam. I did some digging and what I came up with is that even though it is said that the Council of Wizards granted them their powers, the main wizard named Shazam is really the one who granted them and that is why they say his name to access the power. Black Adam and Shazam have just about identical abilities, but the deities that grant those powers are different. Black Adam’s powers come from Egyption deities, while Shazam’s powers come from Biblical figures and Greek and Roman deities. So it really looks like the wizard Shazam has the abilities to harness the power from different entities and bestow it on other people. I’m not really sure why there was a whole council when he was the one granting the powers, but that’s comics for you. Also in the Black Adam and Shazam movies, they show different wizards invoking the word Shazam to grant the powers, but when they were sealing Black Adam they showed the same wizard that granted Shazam his powers as the main one doing the seal.
Well that’s my take on the Black Adam movie. Please leave us a comment about what you think of the review and what your take on the movie was. “We Are Comics”
