Black Adam 5.6/8
This was an entertaining movie. Who directed this? I looked at this first as a movie starring The Rock and then a DC movie. Different expectations. Plus to me The Rock has a worse track records of movies than DC does so its basically my nostalgic fanhood of The Rock (and that it was free) that got me watching in theaters instead of one HBO Max.
Cons off the bat; the same time Zaslav took over and got rid of the old leadership he should've also got rid of who chooses the music for the soundtrack cuz some of those songs didn't fit or were all timed. Missed a chance for some dope music from the area of that fictional country.
Biggest missed opportunity was to not steep the story in more of the culture and history of Khandaq. Adam is 5000 years removed so there could've been more culture shock and noticing how some traditions remained in fact. That hand sign was not enough. The Miss Marvel series did a great job of doing it. Maybe cuz I also watched BP2 but they been dying it will too. Just seemed to be a black of world building.
Now I know the Rock can act. I've seen him do it. It has not translated well to Hollywood movies. It really takes the right kind of script and story for it to be portrayed. This approach to Black Adam had Ricky as a watered down Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just a weirdo lack of social skills almost like a robot. Also seemed like a poor imitation of Drax. They couldn't make up their minds with Adam being bad with social cues and modern norms or they were simply new things to him. Like the the sarcasm joke, it was a brand new concept one second and then he was just repeatedly using it.
Lot of dope action throughout.
I'm a fan of the Hodge brothers and Aldis is a really good actor. Wanted him then MCU but it seems DC is more willing to race change their superheroes to me. Pierce Brosnan, my James Bond did his thing. Liked this take on Dr. Fate. His death was bull **** and I gotta say it seemed this movie version was just an older Dr. Strange even with the powers like the fake duplicates and seeing the future. The other two members were kinda just there.
To me they' missed another opportunity to just have a full-fledged Justice Society. It seemed like Hawkman was picking the current team from his own list. 4 ppl was a bit disappointing. At least 5 or 6 to take down Black Adam. Start building JS/JSA lore. They basically made Hawkman Professor X rich with his own system and long backstory of being a member and/or leader the way he and Fate were talking.
The demon stuff and Sabok was w/e. That cheesy get the citizens involved to fight undead skeletons was so lame.
Sarah Shahi so fine
That Cyclone chick was cute.
The mid credits didn't make sense but Cavill is back as Supes.
This definitely wasn't as bad as I feared it would be but far from great. If anything good enough flick to build off of too.