'Black Adam' Wins Razorback Off-Week with Big Swing at Marvel

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson just put Marvel on notice with violent, hard hitting anti-hero movie

Author:
Kent Smith
Updated:
Oct 24, 2022 8:06 PM EDT
Original:
Oct 24, 2022

In this story:

BENTONVILLE, Ark. – With it being an off week for the Razorbacks, there were plenty of options for fans to kill time this past Saturday.

There was the standard option – sit around watching other college teams play football all day. Anyone who did this just got depressed about the prospects for Arkansas wins over the final five weekends of the season.

There was also the option to take advantage of high winds by spending the day flying kites or running under oak trees dodging falling acorns and limbs.

However, the best option was to take in newly released DC super hero movie "Black Adam" at the local Malco Theatre.

As one moviegoer proclaimed along the path from the men's room to the exit, the passion project of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson "is better than anything Marvel has put out over the last few years."

One thing fans need to know is this is a movie best served on as big of a screen as possible with a sound system that will rattle your chair with every earth shaking step of Teth-Adam, the titular Shazam-verse borderline god-like character Johnson portrays.

Being outside the typical DC line-up of Batman, Superman, Joker, Lex Luthor and friends, Teth-Adam may be unfamiliar to the general public.

The best way to describe the character is to imagine Palpatine, Deadpool and Lord Voldemort contributing DNA to create the ultimate comic book character only to have The Rock wander by and drink the concoction thinking it was a protein shake.

Teth-Adam is a highly violent character. The cursing is kept to a minimum and there are no adult relationship moments, so as long you're fine with your young ones watching a man's arm ripped off and tossed aside while The Rock spends two hours on a non-stop murder spree that would make Jason Vorhees jealous, bring along the whole family.

While the movie is rather formulaic, it's still difficult to describe without ruining the plot.

Essentially, Teth-Adam was given the same powers as Shazam a few thousand years ago, things got messy, some wizards dropped him into a prison in a mountain alongside a crown vaguely filled with demons and then he woke up in modern times to find the people of his country under forced military control by a group called the Intergang.

Murder, murder, murder, copious amounts of lightning here and there, sprinkle in the Justice Society and a kid who takes skateboard transportation to the extreme, mix in a lot more murder, and you've got yourself a fun time.

Just like any movie starring Johnson, it's hard to suspend belief and picture the character as anyone except The Rock.

Fortunately, the costume design for Teth-Adam when we first meet him is brilliant with its dark hood and cloak, allowing the audience time to realize that only a man of Johnson's muscular stature could command the physical presence needed to exemplify the power of the man we all eventually come to know as Black Adam.

The costumes, created by Deadpool 2 costume designers Kurt and Bart, stand out for all characters in this movie. It's a definite strongpoint as Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone leap out of the comics and onto the screen visually better than most DC characters typically do.

While Hawkman does most of the heavy lifting in Justice Society scenes by spending a lot of screen time feuding with Teth-Adam and trying to convince him that murdering everyone is bad for business, the most memorable Justice Society member is Dr. Fate.

Pierce Brosnan is as brilliant at acting in a super hero movie as one can be.

Not only will he create a Mandela effect by causing the world to think he portrayed "The World's Most Interesting Man" from the Dos Equis commercials, but he shows what Marvel's Dr. Strange character could be if he ever grew up just a little.

There is little doubt audience members will leave the theater hoping a spinoff movie featuring Dr. Fate is in the works. Unfortunately, if the story goes as far back as a few key lines in the movie indicate might be needed, Brosnan won't be able to play the character, which is a shame because of his likable, smooth demeanor in the role.

The youthful characters, Atom Smasher and Cyclone, are a little forgettable, but there's only so much character development that can be done in a movie that requires so much Hulk level smashing from beginning to end.

Much like Ryan Reynolds spent forever trying to get someone to let him make a proper Deadpool movie, Johnson spent roughly a decade trying to make Black Adam happen.

Also like Reynolds, Johnson appears to have delivered the goods needed to create high demand for a sequel, which a powerful post credit seems to have set up.

In a few weeks, "Wakanda Forever" will hit theaters. It had better equal "Black Panther," because if it doesn't, the Intergang members portrayed in "Black Adam" won't be the only victims Teth-Adam claims.

Johnson just swung the balance of power in the super hero world DC's way.

Arkansas fans will have a chance to decide following the LSU game whether Marvel can swing it back.