Black Adam Reviews: See the First Reactions to Dwayne Johnson’s DC Movie

The hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is about to stay pretty much the same, as indicated by Black Adam‘s Rotten Tomatoes score. The first reviews are in for Dwayne Johnson’s DC blockbuster Black Adam, which debuted on the review aggregator site Tuesday with a 55% “rotten” score from 60 critic reviews. That ranks lower down in the hierarchy of DC Rotten Tomatoes scores, coming in just below Wonder Woman 1984 (58%) and Man of Steel (56%), but above the theatrical cut of 2017’s Justice League (39%), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (29%), and the franchise-worst of 2016’s Suicide Squad (26%).

Set within the DC Extended Universe, director Jaume Collet-Serra’s Black Adam unleashes the god-like champion of ancient Kahndaq — the legendary Teth Adam (Johnson) — whose rageful brand of justice clashes with the modern-day superheroes of the Justice Society: Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan). Below, read on for spoiler-free excerpts from the first Black Adam reviews hitting the Internet.

ComicBook.com: “Is Black Adam themovie that will singlehandedly bring back the DC Cinematic Universe tostand toe to toe with what Marvel has built? No, but it’s certainlylaying the groundwork for this to be a possibility down the line. Black Adamis a fun, frenzied, and flawed film that answers the prayers of manywhile also giving viewers an action-packed thrill ride with plenty ofcharisma from its key players.”

Associated Press: “Black Adam isn’t bad, it’s just predictable and color-by-numbers, stealing from other films like an intellectual property super-villain. But Johnson is a natural in the title role, mixing might with humor and able to deliver those necessary wooden lines. Why he hasn’t had a starring role in a DC or Marvel superhero flick until now is astonishing – c’mon, he’s built himself into a freaking superhero in street clothes already.”

Vanity Fair: “Even within the realm of the superhero genre, this is an ephemeralmotion picture, lacking depth, originality, or storytelling panache.Much like a McDonald’s hamburger is technically food, Black Adam is technically a movie, and both can be intermittently enjoyable before you come around to ask ‘why am I consuming this?’”

TheWrap: “Black Adam feels like both too much and not enough, and none of its narrative gambits are helped by a sludgy visual style that’s either distractingly artificial or dispiritingly gloomy, except when it manages to be both … Most disappointing of all, Black Adam is one of the most visually confounding of the major-studio superhero sagas, between CG that’s assaultively unappealing and rapid-fire editing that sucks the exhilaration right out of every fight scene. (And there are so, so many fight scenes.)”

Uproxx: “For the life of me I will never understand whyanyone would make a superhero movie with, perhaps, the most charismaticaction star working today and decide, hey, what if we took away all thatcharisma? It’s truly baffling … it’s just a sense of disappointment. There’s nothing that interestinghere, but there certainly should be. There are themes that are hinted at, or sometimes directly mentioned … But then theyare quickly forgotten to, instead, bring us another CGI cartoonsuperhero fight that looks a lot like all the CGI cartoon superherofights we’ve seen before.”

ScreenRant: “Though suffering from repetitive plot beats and thin characters, BlackAdam is powered by Johnson’s performance and its promise of an excitingfuture.”

GamesRadar: “While Collet-Serra attempts a brash, no-nonsense bid to rebirth theDCEU, his methods have mixed results: sometimes satisfyingly maximalist,sometimes merely messy … Teth is no average opponent and certainly no hero, as the filmrepeatedly asserts in bids to distinguish him. He won’t listen, orsurrender, and he doesn’t want a lunchbox. He doesn’t do doors, either.The pay-off is an aggressive, adrenalized DCEU variation, though it’sless break-away fresh than it thinks. The results often resemble theSnyderverse with a temper, buffeted between cheesy slo-moscenery-trashing and Lorne Balfe’s relentless score.” 

Starring Dwayne Johnson as Teth Adam/Black Adam, Aldis Hodge asHawkman, Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher, Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone,Sarah Shahi as Isis, Marwan Kenzari as Sabbac, and Pierce Brosnan asDoctor Fate, DC’s Black Adam opens in theaters October 21st.