Dwayne Johnson's 'Black Adam' movie: release date, cast and reviews

The anti-hero is making his big-screen debut in a standalone film

Dwayne Johnson plays the titular character in 'Black Adam'. All photos: AP

Pierce Brosnan, left, plays Doctor Fate in the film.

Noah Centineo as the dweeby and always hungry giant Atom Smasher.

Doctor Fate and Hawkman are members of the knock-off organisation, Justice Society of America.

Black Adam can fly, move as fast as The Flash, catch rockets, deflect bullets and harness his own bluish electricity.

Sarah Shahi, left, plays a rebel leader, and Brosnan's Doctor Fate seems to be a dollar-store version of Doctor Strange.

Quintessa Swindell stars as Cyclone, whose superpower is the ability to control wind.

Aldis Hodge, right, plays the one-note Hawkman.

Cyclone is also a member of Justice Society of America.

Among all the superheroes, Sarah Shahi and Mo Amer play two regular people.

Johnson has called 'Black Adam' his passion project and it has been more than a decade in the making.

Sarah Shahi, left, and Mo Amer also star in the film.

Dwayne Johnson makes his big-screen debut as the DC Comics anti-hero in 'Black Adam'.

An indestructible Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Black Adam is finally making his big-screen debut as the DC Comics anti-hero after long delays to the production schedule.

Black Adam, a warrior who has been imprisoned for 5,000 years, is reborn in the modern world, gifted with godlike abilities. He is then shown facing a moral dilemma, resulting from what seems like a tragic past.

"I was a slave until I died, then I was reborn a god. My son sacrificed his life to save me, now I kneel before no one," a vindictive Black Adam says in the trailer.

Doctor Fate, who is played by Pierce Brosnan, then tells Black Adam: "You have two choices. You can be the destroyer of this world, or you can be its saviour."

In the DC Comics version, Black Adam is written as the enemy of Shazam, a story which was turned into the hit 2019 film Shazam!, with Zachary Levi playing the titular hero. A face-off in later films between the two characters now seems all but inevitable.

When is it being released?

Black Adam is in UAE cinemas as of Thursday and will hit screens in the US on Friday.

Born to be Black Adam

Johnson has called Black Adam his "passion project". He said it had been more than a decade in the making.

"I've worked these fingers to the bone. Because it's the kind of project that comes once in a lifetime," Johnson said at DC FanDome, a virtual event to promote DC Comics' films and shows scheduled for release.

"The truth is, I was born to be Black Adam," he said.

Reuniting with director Jaume Collet-Serra whom he worked with in the hit Disney film Jungle Cruise, Johnson is also the producer of Black Adam, and officially signed on for the role in 2014.

“This film, this universe has been a gigantic passion project of mine for a very long time,” the actor said. “The film has without question some of the biggest action sequences I have ever been a part of.”

Who is Black Adam?

Black Adam first began appearing as a villain from ancient Egypt in comic books published by DC in 1945. The character has been redefined over the years, most recently portrayed as a corrupt anti-hero attempting to clear his name and reputation.

"Teth-Adam or Mighty Adam began as a hero of humanity, but then allowed his power to corrupt his ideals and desires," reads a description by DC Comics. "Now labelled Black Adam, he was exiled by Shazam, but returned in the modern day. A frequent enemy to Earth’s heroes, Black Adam believes he is the right person to lead humanity and any action he takes is necessary for the greater good."

Who's in the cast?

Black Adam's first big-screen debut also features a star-studded cast of superheroes.

Netflix heartthrob Noah Centineo (To All The Boys I've Loved Before, The Perfect Date) plays Atom Smasher, who can control his molecules and change his size, density, and strength; Aldis Hodge (One Night in Miami...) is Hawkman, with the ability fly thanks to his special metal wings; Quintessa Swindell (Trinkets) is Cyclone, who can control the wind; and Brosnan's Doctor Fate is an archaeologist who becomes a powerful sorcerer while wearing the Helmet of Fate.

Tunisian-Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari, who played Jafar in the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin, has also been cast, and so has Palestinian-American comedian Mohammed "Mo" Amer. American-Iranian actress Sarah Shahi plays a university professor.

What do the reviews say?

Overall, critics have had a fairly negative response to the film, but Johnson has been a saving grace.

At the time of writing, Black Adam has a 55 per cent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 86 of the website's approved critics.

Associated Press says the film "isn't bad, it's just predictable and colour-by-numbers, stealing from other films like an intellectual property super-villain. But Johnson is a natural in the title role, mixing might with humour and able to deliver those necessary wooden lines."

The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw said that Johnson’s “massive bulk, planet-sized head and sly gift for deadpan humour all make him a great superhero”.

The Hollywood Reporter's John Defore said Johnson's "passion project serves the character well, setting him up for adventures one hopes will be less predictable than this one”.

While the IGN review gave Jonson "top marks" for "making his Black Adam just as steely and imposing as in the comics” but that the film was "packed with undeveloped characters and an excessive number of repetitive action scenes, to the point where its half-baked debate on what it means to be a hero is lost in all the noise”.

Peter Debruge, chief film critic for Variety, meanwhile, said "the film’s whole purpose is to give Black Adam a suitably grand introduction on the assumption that he’ll be pitted against a more deserving adversary soon enough”.

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