Black Adam Movie Special Screening Review: The Rock Packs a Punch

The Fire and Steel team was invited to attend the early access Black Adam movie premiere held on Oct. 13, 2022 at The Rec Room Toronto. For an exclusive insider look , including a cameo by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson himself dropping by to say hi to fans, check out the video posted on our Fire and Steel YouTube channel here.

For people unfamiliar with Black Adam from DC comics, fortunately the movie does a great job delving into his anti-hero origin story in the first ten minutes.

Born into slavery, Black Adam is framed as a freedom fighter, battling against an oppressive king. The movie makes it very clear very quickly that this is not your average superhero; once he gains his superpowers Black Adam goes on a vengeance rampage, having no moral dilemma when it comes to brutally massacring his enemies. Obviously this instability is problematic for the sorcerers who gave him his powers, so they decide to lock him away for thousands of years. 

Now in present day Kahndaq, modern day warlords oppress the people and Black Adam is freed from his prison. But now that he’s free, will he use his powers wisely to liberate his people or will he let himself get carried away by vengeance once again? Also, what would The Justice Society (made up of Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone) have to say about Black Adam being free once again?

While almost 2 hours, the movie introduces the world of Black Adam with perfect pacing. Even though the dialogue can be cheesy at times, the humor was dark and reminiscent of other DC movies. The music choices were well thought out, with several songs referring to the “black” theme of the movie. The dark colour scheme used from clothing, to locations and certain scenes really set the tone. You can already tell that this is not going to be a campy superhero movie like Shazam, but more dark, like Joker. Where most action movies fail by having close shots of their fighting scenes that make it impossible to follow, Black Adam wins with its effective use of third person camera. You’re actually able to follow the fights and feel Black Adam’s rage through the screen, because the fights are so brutal, it leaves the audience wincing. 

Dwayne Johnson perfectly embodies the misunderstood superhero, Black Adam. Portraying him as someone trying to reconcile who he is, with the hero the people need him to be. 

If you love mind bending fight scenes and eccentric humor, then go see Black Adam!