As much as I like to complain about Marvel movies, at least there are a few that turn out to be good. Can the same be said about the DCEU? Not really.
“Black Adam,” the latest DCEU release, stars Dwayne Johnson as a man gifted by “the almighty powers of the gods”. I blew off this morning’s press screening because, quite frankly, I just couldn’t fathom spending 124 minutes of my time on this movie. The trailer made it look terrible.
It seems I made the right decision. The embargo has lifted and, unsurprisingly, “Black Adam” is getting butchered by film critics. A 45 on Metacritic and 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. Add this latest one to the DCEU slime bucket. Which begs me to ask the question, has any movie from the DCEU ever turned out to be good …
“Joker” doesn’t count, and that’s the only above-average one. I guess parts of “Wonder Woman,” “Man of Steel,” and “Shazam” worked, but I wouldn’t ever consider them to be good movies. Otherwise, I hated “Aquaman,” “Wonder Woman 1984”, “Birds of Prey”, “Justice League”, “Batman v Superman”, and “Suicide Squad.”
“Black Adam” will probably make millions this weekend, on account of comic book and Dwayne Johnson fans flocking to theaters. The reviews will not affect its projected box-office intake that much — the amount of time, energy, money spent on this movie will have “Black Adam” probably opening at around $65-$75 million range this coming weekend.
As for Johnson, I still think, with the right screenplay, he can be a good actor. He’s a decent mainstream performer who just picks incredibly bad roles. He has charisma, presence and a real sense of playfulness, but he’s been basically coasting from paycheck to paycheck. His best work still remains Michael Bay’s “Pain and Gain,” a total guilty pleasure set in the dark underworld of Miami bodybuilding.