[FILM]
BLACK ADAM
The Flash will be wanting a word.
★★★
OUT NOW / CERT 12A 125 MINS
DIRECTOR Jaume Collet-Serra
CAST Dwayne Johnson, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, Sarah Shahi, Noah Centineo
PLOT Nearly 5,000 years ago, in the Middle Eastern country of Kahndaq, the superpowered Teth-Adam (Johnson) took on a tyrant king and then vanished. In the present day, with Kahndaq now mercenary-ruled, Adam is re-awakened — and must face up to both the modern world and his own past.
THE DC FILM universe has, for nearly a decade now, been pinballing between the lightness of Shazam! or Wonder Woman and the grim violence of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. With Black Adam, Dwayne Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Serra attempt to offer a grand unified theory of DC, mixing family-film tropes with a protagonist who straight-up murders people. The result is sometimes a mess, but it’s a generally entertaining one.