5,000 years ago the Middle Eastern country of Kahndaq witnessed the superhero Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson) free them from a tyrant king before disappearing. Now under the rule of mercenaries Kahndaq sees the return of Teth-Adam who sees no reason to keep the oppressors of his country alive. 

Black Adam is a bizarre film. It features an horrendous opening set up filled with overly complicated exposition about our anti-hero’s origin whilst giving us virtually zero set up for the other heroes of the film; The Justice Society. It stars an anti-hero who kills people whilst maintaining a “light” family friendly tone and points out that superheroes usually ignore oppressed countries in the Middle East. It pretends that the title character is a bit evil when in actuality he just has an anger management issue that seems entirely justified. And it bounces between entirely dumb fun and entirely dumb laugh out loud dross. 

Black Adam himself is one of the least interesting characters in the film. From a superhero perspective that is. Because the ‘normal’ characters that Adam is protecting are barely worth mentioning at all. Essentially Adam is a bit surly and should learn to use dialogue to communicate to prevent unnecessary fighting. The most interesting characters and what makes the film worth a watch is The Justice Society. This team consists of two veterans and two rookies. 

The rookies are Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) and they provide a lighter touch and some slight flirting whilst not entirely knowing what they are doing. The veterans are Hawkman (Aldis Hodge) and Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan) and it is these two that offer the film its best moments. Hawkman is the team leader with a stubborn sense of duty whilst Dr. Fate is a world weary and seasoned magic user. 

Without Brosnan I am not sure I would consider this watchable. With him it is bottom tier Superhero entertainment. His performance and character deserved better. 

The DC Universe continues to be erratic in quality then and a mid credits sting at least offers the possibility of more interesting films to come.