The Champion of Kahndaq is summoned back into existence to save the imperilled populace of Kahndaq from Intergang. Meanwhile the Justice Society intervene on their own quest to save the world from the angry god they think Black Adam to be.
There are fights, a magical MacGuffin, an entertaining twist to the origin of Black Adam, misunderstandings, team-bonding, resurrection, the-glowing-column-of-light, zombies, and a coming together of former enemies as allies. And a cameo.
Spoilers Ahead
A strange movie this. It should be great; it looks and sounds good, the performances are decent enough, it strikes the chord with current news with the battle of the oppressed for freedom. And yet…
It opens with an expositional dump that feels like a history lesson, a magnificently imagined one true, but still feeling like one should be taking notes for an imminent test. This opening section tells of the creation of the Champion of Kahndaq (Black Adam pre-end of movie rebrand), giving us a glimpse of the sheer power he wields and the immense level of destruction he can inflict. It also introduces today’s MacGuffin, the Crown of Sabbac that can grant immense power to whoever wears it.
There are further lessons later in the film that recast this initial info-dump in a new light, but it still feels that most of this should have been presented in a more organic way or even not seen at all. The only reason for presenting the ancient version of Kahndaq and Black Adam is the twist that Black Adam’s son was the original Champion, and he gave his father (Black Adam) his power to save his father’s life, and then he himself was killed.
Instead of spending running time telling a tale that, for the most part, does not need to be seen, then the revelation of the truth could have been a dramatic twist later in the film. Doing it this way would have freed up running time to solve my other issue with the film, which is…
The Justice Society. I love the idea of them and way they are represented on-screen. Doctor Fate, in particular, with the glass/crystal-imagery used for his magic looks fantastic. Although I do question his need to walk around carrying his helmet. It seems remarkably inconvenient.
The problem with the Society is that it is not properly introduced. We see their HQ and jump straight into the mission team assembling (no pun intended), taking off in their jet and, well, that is that. We have not met this team before, we know very little about them and do not learn much more. There is also the issue of the membership, with two of them, Atom Smasher and Cyclone, seeming to be either on their first mission or certainly one of their first. When fighting a god, would you not want your best, most experienced team members?
My overall feeling with Black Adam is that, story-wise, it would have worked better as two films. One dealing with the emergence of Black Adam, the quest to stop Ahk-Ton obtaining the Crown of Sabbac, and ending with Black Adam’s imprisonment. Then the modern-day set Justice Society film, detailing the release of Black Adam, the recovery of the Crown and the Justice Society trying to stop the threat foreseen by Doctor Fate.
As with many super-hero films, it feels like there is a good story struggling to get through a mess of plot, action scenes because we have to, meta humour, the now mandatory Glowing Column of Light, a villain with a disposable army.
It gets near to being great. And yet…