Black Adam Review: The Rock Saved DCEU - OtakuKart (2024)

We have a lot to discuss in this Black Adam review because of the changes that have already been made to DC movies generally as a result of what was done in this film. If you’re a fan of DC movies, this movie is great news because it sets up a lot of big things.

Now, the Black Adam movie is something that has been talked about for more than 15 years, when we first got the news that The Rock has been cast as Black Adam in DC. This movie was the dream project of The Rock and he cared so much about it and about the fans. They gave fans what they wanted to see in DCEU.

We are going to talk about how Black Adam saved DCEU, Black Adam being the most powerful person on the planet, his connection with Shazam’s character, the newly introduced Justice Society, and his origins.

Here is Black Adam Review:

Black Adam Saved DCEU

The film is mainly an origin story for Black Adam. The movie’s actual vibe matches up quite well with all of the trailers. Although some trailers can be quite misleading, most of those for this film have been rather accurate. It’s undoubtedly one of the most intense DC films you’ll see since the R-rated Suicide Squad film directed by James Gunn.

Black Adam was originally rated R but was later changed to PG-13. They just went above the PG-13 rating, perhaps primarily due to the violence and language. With all the recent events and the tension behind the scenes, if there was ever any doubt, this movie would be inside the DCEU. You could even say that The Rock’s presence in the movie helped to save the dceu.

So, even if you are not a huge fan of The Rock’s films in general, give credit where it is due. He deserves every accolade he receives after the release of this film. People who aren’t particularly great fans of his will still be able to appreciate what he did to make some major DCEU events happen behind the scenes for this.

Overall, the movie’s plot is very straightforward; it’s an anti-hero film with The Rock doing what he does best. One of The Rock’s biggest selling points is that you kind of know what to expect when you go to watch a film with him in it. In the DCEU, it is a Rock movie. He plays characters who fall within a fairly narrow range and category.

Black Adam The Strongest On The Planet

Yes, there is humor in the film; however, it largely comes from the reactions of the characters surrounding Black Adam to all the bizarre things he does. You’ve seen all the teasers where he makes a wink-like reference to being the most powerful person on the planet; this is plainly a reference to Superman. Like this planet since Superman is from Krypton.

The reason they keep releasing Black Adam Justice League trailers with the line “I am the most powerful person in this world” is because of this. We completely understand what you’re referring to. In short, Black Adam is expressing his belief that not even the members of the Justice League will be able to stop him. He has no fear since he sees himself as a god and believes that he is absolutely untouchable and unkillable.

Therefore, if you have a guy like that who simply believes they are invincible, the majority of the difficulties he encounters throughout the film are more emotional and mental than physical. There are a lot of physical battles, so it goes without saying that the main villain is big and needs to be beaten.

There are a couple of moments in the film where you wonder whether he’s finally met his match physically, but he manages to win nevertheless. Like this is a Rock movie, there won’t be many Rock movies where he ends up failing badly during the movie. Moreover, they want the protagonist to be the de facto anti-hero of the DCEU, so he might help you one day while also fighting wars on you the next, depending on how the public sees all the DCEU characters.

The Main Villain Sabbac

He is bound to feel that he could be a hero if he wanted to be one because the movie’s major villain is supposed to be someone even eviler than him. When we discuss Sabbac, a devil from the Shazam comics, we are referring to their shared past with the Shazam character.

When it comes to how they use their powers, this character works somewhat similarly to Shazam and Black Adam. Shazam and Black Adam both receive the power of a separate god, and the names of both of them are abbreviations for those gods. Sabbac is similar to the gods who give power in that he can do the same thing—grant mortals his power.

However, in this film, he is let loose on the world and plans to rule it, which is where the Black Adam enters. A powerful force meets an impenetrable object. You can choose whether the Black Adam character is the unstoppable power or the impenetrable object in that situation.

Black Adam And Superman

Although they intend for the Sabbac character to feel like a threat to Black Adam, a significant portion of the film shows him basically walking over everyone else in hilarious WTF ways and punting people across the nation like it’s nothing.

In some ways, he is reminded of that evil Superman from the Snyder cut. Like what Superman would look like if he didn’t hesitate. In terms of power, Black Adam is supposed to be about as strong as Superman, but as I said, it depends entirely on his attitude, his motivation, and what he plans to do with that power.

Black Adam is a guy who truly only cares about his country and himself, unlike Superman, who is meant to be like this loving god-like figure wanting to protect everyone on planet Earth.

As I previously mentioned, one of the major themes of the film is coping with his mental and emotional issues. He also learns to cope with other people and rely on them, much like the Justice Society, another important group that the film introduces. Like Black Adam admitting his weakness and that he cannot achieve anything on his own.

In order to humanize, soften, and acclimate him to this idea, they sort of use Adrianna Tomaz character from the comic books and her kid in the movie. Like it’s ok to rely on others, not everyone will always do you emotional damage. If you rely on some other people, bad things will not happen to you; working in teams can be beneficial. They act as a stand-in for his dead wife and child in the film, and we learn that their deaths are what caused him to act badly and become such a hard-core individual five thousand years ago.

Separating Shazam And Black Adam

If you’ve gone through the comics, you’ll recall a lot of this, but it’s not an exact replica of how it was there. When the wizard informed Billy of the person they mistakenly decided to give their power to, we learned a little bit about Black Adam’s past in the original Shazam film. However, they just tell you a part of the story at that time.

The Black Adam movie is intended to provide you with the remaining details in order to reframe many of those events to make Black Adam appear less evil in that situation. All those events were actually planned by the seven deadly sins, who also killed the other wizards. They used Black Adam as a puppet and pulled the strings.

Originally, you might have heard that they were intending to do Black Adam during the very first Shazam movie, as though they had other intentions for introducing him in the DCEU. This was a much younger version of The Wizard who battled and imprisoned Black Adam in a magical prison for 5,000 years. Black Adam plays a significant role in the first Shazam movie’s plot, which was originally intended to be more closely inspired by the new 52 adaptation of the Shazam origin story.

In the complete comic book version of the story, Black Adam basically replaces some of the Doctor Sivana storylines from the first Shazam movie. They basically stated that they would split the Shazam and Black Adam origin storylines so they could spend more time with each one of them and ultimately build up to a crossover between the two characters because The Rock had such influence and authority over the Black Adam character.

They just removed the entire Black Adam storyline from the Shazam film and chose to adapt it into a completely separate Solo film while also adding a few new elements from his comics, like the Suicide Squad, and Justice Society. The plot is not an exact replica of any of the Black Adam comics or Justice League stories where he crossed over, but the mood is quite similar. According to everything that has happened so far, a large portion of the film is intended to help it fit in the timeline of the DCEU.

DCEU Justice Society

The Justice Society members were all entertaining. Doctor Fate, who stole several of his scenes, is definitely my favorite. I’m very glad to see Doctor Fate inside the DCEU at last; he’s incredibly strong. Yes, there have been discussions about creating spin-offs, and HBO shows for the various Justice Society characters, and there will likely eventually be a Justice Society movie.

Many of the character interactions in the film can be used as the basis for upcoming sequels or spin-offs. You learn a little bit about Doctor Fate and Hawkman’s past, but only enough to leave some things for a spin-off or sequel. They give you a lot of hints and implication about their past, but they never give you the whole story.

The Justice Society team in the film is much the same as whatever you see in the trailers; for example, Hawkman and Doctor Fate are the remains of a previous Justice Society team that operated in the DCEU even before the Justice League was established and before Superman landed on Earth. There is a lot of history they can cover with that in subsequent sequels, but they only briefly mention what happened to the original Justice Society team.

The Justice League members are particularly mentioned in the film through a lot of the other characters in incredibly funny ways, just like they are DCEU Pop Culture icons. Like, the Justice League would be the most well-known people ever if we lived on a planet where they existed. There would also be merchandise featuring Justice League characters everywhere.

Cyclone and Adam Smasher are the team’s two newest members, as you may have seen in the trailers. They were fairly good, they were much like Spider-Man during the Civil War movie, who was attempting to help Iron Man and the Avengers. Although they do possess some skills, they aren’t used to working as a team in the same manner.

Black Adam Timeline

Just to fit the Black Adam film in the dceu timeline. The movie’s present day is supposed to take place after the Justice League Snyder cut and James Gunn’s Suicide Squad, but before the incidents of Shazam 2 Fury of the Gods. Given the shared history that Black Adam Shazam and the wizard have, I’m sure there will be a ton of questions about how they particularly handle the Shazam characters in the film.

They barely mention Shazam-related topics at all, saving the full-blown Shazam vs. Black Adam clash for the sequel films. The Rock has been rather open about this, saying things like, “Oh yeah, we hope to someday cross over all these characters.” Fans of the DCEU who enjoy DC movies, in general, will likely be more impressed by the movie’s theme.

Because it was quite clear that they wanted to make Black Adam, played by The Rock, the new heart of the DC Extended Universe. The direction for the DCEU will be a lot clearer once you see the movie and realize what he means by that; you’ll think, “Oh, this is what they plan towards doing with all of these characters now.” Naturally, the Rock is now at the heart of many of those plans.

I am aware of all the Multiverse-related plans they have for The Flash movie, but the Black Adam movie looks to be the DCEU’s guiding light in terms of which film will have the most impact on its future direction. So it’s no joke when I say that the rock helped save the DCEU. Although a lot of weird things must go on behind the scenes, The Rock has the power to decide how his films are handled. They have essentially been able to re-center their future path as a result of his efforts to cast the characters he wants in his films. Like, everything should be connected, according to their entire mindset.

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