Black Adam Post-Watch

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?