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Black Adam

The 100 Most Anticipated Movies of 2022

Black Adam

2022

Jaume Collet-Serra

Dwayne Johnson, Sarah Shahi, Pierce Brosnan, Viola Davis ...

5.3

11,239

Action. Fantasy. Sci-Fi. Comedy Nearly 5,000 years after he was bestowed with the almighty powers of the Egyptian gods, Black Adam (Johnson) is freed from his earthly tomb, ready to unleash his unique form of justice on the modern world.

	Author	Review
United States	John DeFore The Hollywood Reporter	"Johnson creates a magnetic antihero, volatile and antisocial (...) And this passion project serves the character well, setting him up for adventures one hopes will be less predictable than this one"	NEU
United States	Peter Debruge Variety	"The surprisingly serious-minded project deprives Johnson of his greatest superpower — his sense of humor — while giving the now-straight-faced star a chance to play a character with some interesting contradictions"	NEU
United States	David Fear Rolling Stone	"Not even the pleasure of watching Johnson enter into a blockbuster template he seemed destined to dominate can make up for how generic, flavorless and incoherent this is"	NEG
United Kingdom	Helen O'Hara Empire	"Big, dumb and only mostly fun, this doesn’t always find the right tone to marry action and charm, but Johnson’s remote and ruthless superhero is a welcome change from the norm (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Ross Bonaime Collider	"Collet-Serra knows how to present this darkness and antihero in a way that’s effective, while also fleshing out one of the most promising additions to DC’s ever-expanding cadre of characters"	POS
United States	Michael O'Sullivan The Washington Post	"[It] proceeds with predictable action sequences, tiresome fight scenes and the now-requisite sacrifice of a major character. But it’s that seasoning of radical politics (...) that gives it a bit of spice"	NEU
United States	Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"The Rock can’t save another terrible DC movie (...) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"[It] too often succumbs to the conventions of its genre (...) but some compelling performances and director Jaume Collet-Serra’s ebullient B-movie flourishes prove to be sufficient compensation"	NEU
United States	Jason Bailey The Playlist	"A joyless, glacially paced compendium of interchangeable scenes of people floating around in their goofy masks and capes, tossing clichéd dialogue and CG lightning bolts, and punching each other into buildings"	NEG
United Kingdom	Tim Robey Telegraph	"As whizzy as it is forgettable (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Brian Lowry CNN	"[It] features a protagonist of almost unlimited power, which only makes its puny script more conspicuous"	NEG
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"Johnson is well placed to realise the superhero movie’s potential as surrealist action comedy. It’s a shame that all these other DC-ensemble heroes are frankly not really in his class (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	David Ehrlich IndieWire	"The problem isn’t that Johnson can’t act — he definitely can! — the problem is that he doesn’t want to. He still wants the simple idolatry that a kid might have for their favorite athlete"	NEG
United States	Alonso Duralde The Wrap	"Despite its efforts to tweak the tropes, this is a muddled, overstuffed origin story"	NEG
United States	Jordan Hoffman Vanity Fair	"Johnson is one of the most charismatic personalities in mainstream entertainment (...) It is therefore regrettable to report that the movie is not particularly good"	NEU
United States	Joshua Yehl IGN	"It overindulges to the point where it’s hard to enjoy the DC anti-hero’s debut. It’s packed with undeveloped characters and an excessive number of repetitive action scenes"	NEG
United States	Jake Cole Slant	"The film has the courage of its convictions, suggesting that violence on behalf of an oppressed people isn’t only justifiable but even moral (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
Canada	Rachel Labonte Screen Rant	"Though suffering from repetitive plot beats and thin characters, 'Black Adam' is powered by Johnson's performance and its promise of an exciting future (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)"	NEU
United Kingdom	Alex Flood NME	"Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s superhero debut is a dud (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Todd McCarthy Deadline	"The visual spectacle just keeps coming at you for two hours, and the effects are all so stupendous (...) and Collet-Serra takes good care to present the star in the most favorable dramatic light"	POS
United States	Phil Pirrello AV Club	"There’s a good movie, at times, a really good movie, hiding out in all the soulless clutter of 'Black Adam’s' plot. Unfortunately, all the considerable talents here struggle to deliver it"	NEU
United States	M.N. Miller Ready Steady Cut	"It was a bold choice to make a film about the character Black Adam, but the script was run down through the studio machine, and the result is a superhero film with a stunning lack of purpose (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Katie Walsh Los Angeles Times	"While it does feel cobbled together out of spare parts of other superhero movies, and it’s almost instantly forgettable, Collet-Serra manages to hold it all together out of sheer force of will and an inherent sense of style"	NEU
United States	Samantha Nelson Polygon	"[It] is just like the many other mediocre superhero movies it plays at subverting: It’s more focused on spectacle than on critiquing the genre, or developing any of the deeper themes it feints at exploring"	NEG
Canada	Mel Valentin Screen Anarchy	"As Black Adam, Johnson makes for a formidable presence (...) but presence and commitment alone aren’t enough when the script feels like it’s been cobbled together from four or five different draft"	NEU
Canada	Chris Bumbray JoBlo	"It is a giant scaled action flick, with Jaume Collet-Serra doing a good job on the action scenes (...) But, too often, the movie feels like a Marvel wannabe"	NEU
United States	Trace Sauveur Austin Chronicle	"A shadowy version of Superman (...) Rating: ★½ (out of 5)"	NEG
United States	Witney Seibold SlashFilm	"[It] is so hard to watch, it might make us want to skip the pretense that these are meant to be real movies (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 10)"	NEG
United States	John Serba Decider	"The Rock’s charisma hemmed in, a parade of bland DC B-leaguers, fizzling comedy, heaping cartloads of questionable CGI and action sequences designed not to thrill but to mercilessly barrage the senses"	NEG

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