Princess Weekes
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Black Adam Post-Watch
🕑 Added 2023-01-10 01:00:02 +0000 UTC
Thank you to everyone who attended the first Watch & Commentary of the Year featuring Black Adam. I enjoyed doing it, and for those who watch, there was a power point at the beginning. It was a lot of fun revisiting the film. My feelings about it remain unchanged, especially since it was always (IMO) a mid-film that needed tighter editing. There are two solid movies in Black Adam, but the people involved seemed more concerned about getting Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson in a leading vehicle than what would be best for the film itself.
The lack of tie-in with Shazam. The forced inclusion of the JSA. The lack of any Middle Eastern/North African music or any good music that would complement the film. While I get why The Rock wanted to do this role, and I'm glad he used his star power to deliver a very diverse cast, it is also just a fact that Black Adam is one of the very few superheroes with "Black" in his name that is not Black. That character has always been depicted as Middle Eastern/North African adjacent. While I think you could have a Black African person play the role, you'd have to restructure the character's origins around that. Just being brown isn't enough to play every ethnicity. At least not anymore.
I think that pre-pandemic betting on DTRJ as the lead of a superhero movie was an easy call; post-pandemic and with so little name attention connected to the movie it was a much harder sell, especially when people can watch these kinds of movies at home.
The MVP of Black Adam, according to the viewers, was: Dr. Fate. Ally and a fine old white man. Shout out to the original Doctor who played with the occult.
Next month we will watch and discuss Catwoman with Halle Berry—it's Black History Month. And that will be the start of this being for just the Taras, but I will keep these write-ups for everyone and, in the future, will attach any fun powerpoints.
For those who saw Black Adam what did you think of it?
Comments
AlyssaMakesArt
I went in with such low expectations and waited til it came to HBO Max exclusively because of the SWANA issues. When I finally watched it, its was meh and it probably would've been a little bit better in theaters though I don't regret missing. The best parts were the visuals, the score (not the soundtrack), and the anti-imperialist themes. It was under Ms. Waller's leadership so that diluted the impact if it was just the JSA or an above board operation (which I don't think it was?). I was very much so spoiled by BP:WF saying it more explicitly. I have very complicated feeling about Dwayne Johnson as the actor an as The Brand, but he did pretty well in this.
Heck Porter
Wasn’t as much of a slog as I thought it would be. Quite a few characters that I found charming as all get out. I HATED the needledrops; they were poorly placed, ill-thought-out, and bleh in a way that the music choices for Suicide Squad (2016) were. Overall, it was an ok film that felt like it took a while to start. I really wish the movie had ended when we all agreed it would have been perfect to do so. But alas!
