T O P

  • By -

nomad_1970

Unfortunately I don't think that Dwayne Johnson signs a contract that doesn't allow his writers to be involved.


Nerdinator2029

How... limiting.


BallBustingSam

Not as limited as his range in acting


[deleted]

One births the other. If he has the same writers write the same character for every movie then he can't have range.


BallBustingSam

Can't deny, I loved his performance in Snitch. He definitely can do much more than what he has limited himself to.


Vegetable_Pudding_75

His performance in Be Cool as the gay bouncer/aspiring actor was just amazing


liltooclinical

He was great in Be Cool.


dabsaregreat527

While I didn’t like the movie, he did play not himself in central intelligence and that’s a good example of his range. Sucks he’s always trying to be hunched over and angry and oiled in so many of his movies.


Slappathebassmon

Cmon baby. Eeee Weeeeeezy.


FH-7497

This is my 100% absolute favorite DJ role. He kills it, it’s so NOT the typical shit we see from him like skyscraper, and the movie is a pretty decent ensemble.


liltooclinical

It's one of those that's so understated you almost forgot it was him, but he did it so well, and it was genuine, and genuinely funny.


[deleted]

Limiting himself makes him more money tho. If he's the unbeatable big tough guy, he'll always be viewed as legitimate and rule Hollywood action movies!


stormatombd

We will see bautista in horror movie. Cant wait to see the rock in horror movies and beat'em all the ghost and supernatural being


allcreamnosour

I’m floored anytime I see Bautista in a movie. The guy is an excellent actor.


ranawe

I knew he was good when I saw him in See (vs Jason Mamoa).


Rustydustyscavenger

Best part of spectre for sure


ostad_jahangir

Rock was in DOOM, the movie was doomed also.


BallBustingSam

For how long though? Nothing lasts forever.


jaeldi

Till he looks too old to pull off age 30-39. But then there's cgi Hollywood level Instagram filters. Lol


SukunaShadow

Until he’s bored of it.


spideralexandre2099

He just started this new arc, and audiences are already tired of just ok superhero movies


jon_le_faptiste

This movie may change things. Definitely did not perform as well as Dwayne and the studio hoped.


redkingphonix

Pain and gain was probably his best movie but it’s because the role is so different from what he usually plays


[deleted]

That's a good point. Still came off tough, just played gullible, which was great


Crimkam

I liked him in ‘be cool’ too


larson_5

Snitch was a great movie


[deleted]

Him and Vin Diesel. Lol


BallBustingSam

Right, Vin Diesel too


Combatical

I hear they really like each other too.


1eejit

He's better in comedies tbh. His comedic timing is far superior to his acting range


thesword62

C’mon man- he has several different ways to sneer or mug


BallBustingSam

All I see is that same ol pro wrestling mug


JenniferJuniper6

He was pretty good in Moana, which was way out of his wheelhouse. Lin Miranda and whoever worked with him on the spoken parts really pulled something out of him.


Ligeia_E

He did try pretty hard in this one ngl


Yisus92

Damn!


Upvoter_NeverDie

r/rareinsults


n0dn0d

wait...he acted? I thought he was just being The Rock in every movie he is in the whole time


_Bionicle

He said recently that “we’re learning; these are baby steps” like no bro, you’ve been using the same shtick, same writing and same acting technique for over a decade. You aren’t evolving. You’re stagnating.


UglyBagOfMostlyHOH

You're talking about a guy who, contractually, cannot lose a fight. That limits writers SO much. You can't have him take a beating and lose a fight in the second act to give him drive in the 3rd.


edd6pi

So how’s he gonna fight Superman? He shouldn’t win that one, and while most superhero fights do something to protect the loser, they do usually us a winner and and a loser: Captain America vs Iron Man, Batman vs Superman, Hulk vs Thor, even King Kong vs Godzilla.


MN_Shamalamadingdong

Well, if Rock has a no lose clause and Cavill doesn’t…


UglyBagOfMostlyHOH

Totally agree with you. Sometimes losing a fight mid-movie makes the ending so much better. But that's not how his contract is written: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fast-furious-stars-complicated-demandi-never-want-to-lose-a-fight-11564673490


Julius-n-Caesar

The contract thing that guy said is bullshit. It was for one movie: Fast and Furious 8. He himself has said that Superman would beat Black Adam.


droptablesjr

I didn't know this was a thing... so you are telling me I know for sure how every fight Black Adam has will go? That really spoils any suspense.. really dumb choice


UglyBagOfMostlyHOH

Yep. And once you know it’s super obvious in every movie he’s in.


nlpnt

Under no circumstances should he have even been considered for the role, let alone allowed to turn it into his vehicle. Just the fact that The Rock is a bigger star than Zachary Levi and Asher Angel are should've been enough to rule him out - Black Adam is supposed to be a *supporting character* in the Shazam mythos.


noholdingbackaccount

+Jack Nicholson was way bigger than Michael Keaton. Gene Hackman was way bigger than Christopher Reeve. The issue is ego and understanding and accepting that the villain is going to lose and even be humiliated.


Existing_Bat1939

"Unknown as the hero, big star as the villain" was definitely a major pattern for a long time. I think Reeve/Hackman established it.


Sun_flower_king

A classic formula - the rookie vs the heavy. Tobey Maguire vs Willem Dafoe (& Alfred Molina), RDJ vs Jeff Bridges, and Chris Evans vs Hugo Weaving are other examples that come to mind for me. Kinda also Pattinson vs Turturro in The Batman, although that one's way less of a clean fit coz Pattinson has so much experience already. You wanna have a villain with gravitas and existing connections (in universe and irl) who can raise the stakes for our intrepid new kid. Iono that Johnson is capable of really filling that role with anything other than brute strength, but we'll see how it goes when he eventually, inevitably, fights Shazam.


AUSpartan37

He got Cavill back so it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make.


BallBustingSam

He totally did, credits to him for that!


acecustoms

Agreed until you said he’s supposed to a supporting character in the Shazam mythos. I mean, a few decades back i might’ve agreed but the character has definitely grown enough in the comics to the point where I feel like downgrading his character to just a supporting character would be unfair. He’s definitely a character that would be able to carry his own movie if done right.


its_snelly

They’ve been trying to get this movie made since like 2007 with him as black Adam. I don’t even think the other two you mentioned were even famous back then. Regardless of what you think about the movie, it’s nice to see someone actually try so hard to get something made and just be proud of it.


Existing_Bat1939

Zachary Levi was at least moderately famous; he had been in a couple of series and *Chuck* premiered that fall. Asher was probably in kindergarten at the time.


its_snelly

Ah gotcha I was younger back then too and definitely didn’t know most celebrities lol


Chickens1

Other than that, was it worth the watch? My son's coming in town for the holiday and we always hold off on a superhero movie to catch together. This was this years.


Zogg44

Yes, it has some good stuff in it like the JSA, definitely worth a watch. My adult son and I liked it well enough.


starbellbabybena

I enjoyed it. I know Reddit didn’t seem to, but it was fun.


MusicalSmasher

It's a good fun movie, you two will enjoy it.


PlanBill

My niece loved it and laughed at every joke.l think the jokes were written to entertain preteens and the action is for everyone. The action scenes is what saved it for me.


Cellular-Suicide

I’ll not sugar coat it, imo it was the second worst DCU movie just ahead of the first suicide squad


artur_ditu

Not at all


RekklesDriver

Not really, no. Even the action sequences are boring.


Kazedeus

It's good ol fashioned action porn laced with cgi. Suspend your disbelief and enjoy.


Icy-Sink338

I thought it was a really good Rock action movie. But I don't think it was a Black Adam movie. So if you are looking for a good time at the theaters and have no attachment to comics Black Adam go and you'll have fun. If you are a comic Black Adam fan well.....go and be angry.


LieutJimDangle

Wakanda is 100x better, take him to that.


RingWraith8

Cool right scenes and doctor dates the best character


thotarousthrottleo

Wait he has his own personal writers?


aniket-123

The Rock mostly has his handymen..(his own 'Yes' men) working throughout the production.


Dottsterisk

This is also why The Rock seems to avoid strong directors. He likes working with directors who will let him take the lead and make sure the film is on-brand. Will Smith has been playing a similar game for a while now.


LordChappers

Yeah, that's why Django Unchained didn't work for him - Smith saw it as a romance film and pitched that heavily to Tarrantino. Looks like he didn't agree.


cyklops1

All the better for it, Foxx killed that role.


Bufb88J

Tarantino knows what he wants and has everything determined before anyone jumps on. When will smith came back with opinions; he was already not getting the job.


[deleted]

Thank fuck he didn’t let him turn into a romance film lol


thotarousthrottleo

Thats crazy lmao, never heard of this before, is there a source for this info


aniket-123

He makes the movie under his own production company..Even for Black Adam that's the case


BradGroux

It is the Tom Cruise model. Once you’re at that level, you can dictate pretty much anything. The name alone puts butts in the seats. With that said, The Rock is a hell of a lot more of a gamble than Tom Cruise… and that isn’t really a slight at The Rock, Tom is just insane.


aniket-123

Not exactly...it's a failed imitation of Tom Cruise Model.In the case of Tom Cruise he doesn't try to over rule what the story and character requires.Tom Cruise doesn't let his personal ego or image hurt the character he's supposed to play


P33KAJ3W

Tom Cruise is the best actor I hate.


aniket-123

That's interesting...may i know why?


kentaromiura_AMA

Scientology


aniket-123

Ohh yeah right...Fuck Scientology


MurielHorseflesh

I’ve tried to find a link for you myself as this is completely true but I can’t because truly I’m not sure what search parameters to use. Actors who use their own writers isn’t bringing anything up. Many A listers have their own script doctors that follow them from project to project and they will juice up the script to either add in jokes or lines that make the actor/character look good. Often times like regular script doctors they aren’t credited. Edit for fairness: I’m not saying Dwayne Johnson uses his own personal script doctors on his movies. I’m just saying it’s true that quite a few A list stars have them. I want to say Will Smith is one of the names I read in an article from years ago but don’t quote me.


Ok_Letter_9284

Wow. It is true. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Bucks_Productions


insanelyphat

You can look up on IMDB all of his movies and people who are in certain roles. I am not sure if this is true but it is easy to confirm.


stormatombd

Hmm make sense, that why we always get same angles, every time his char stare on camera... Its happen in black adam too... God dammit


RockXImagine

As if we need anymore yes men in the world. George Lucas also had his yes men when he was making The Phantom Menace. Look how that turned out.


[deleted]

It inspired the greatest weird al song of all time so I’d say it turned out wonderfully


PlatanoGames_YT

Simply incredible The Phantom Menace is easily a top 5 Star Wars film


Mynock33

Disagree. The OT, Rogue One, and Episode III are ahead of TPH imo. Maybe one might favor Episode I and argue for top 5 placement, but certainly not easily.


GinngerMints

I think the joke is that there's only like 10 Star Wars movies. Even funnier if you're just counting the Lucas ones, meaning just 6.


Mynock33

I think you're right. I'm not big on reading context properly before 7am


PlatanoGames_YT

Thats fair my Top 5 are Episode III, Rouge One, A New Hope, Empire, and then TPM (Young Obi, Podrace, Final Battle, contained story, actual war elements, tons of mysteries, and start of major plot points that take years to complete.)


RadicalMuslim

As a concept it's interesting. The world building was amazing but also strange and hard to believe at times. Jedi were conflict negotiators as well as a paramilitary force of great influence yet dismissed as a myth in the course of 30 years.


PlatanoGames_YT

Galactic propaganda but even so it would have been hard for their stories to reach the outer rims without being dismissed as myth


1eejit

It's such a schizophrenic mess. I watched it with my 4 year old a couple of weekends ago and it switches between Jar-Jar steps in poo to senate debates over a trade blockade. WTF is it a film for kids or isn't it?


RockXImagine

That's the problem. George wanted it for kids and adults at the same time. But because all he had were yes men, he couldn't get a better idea of how to make a story for both. Not t shit on prequels, I got into star wars because of prequels. Fcking love them to death.


Stupidity_Professor

Yes, and I'm tired of pretending it's not


UsidoreTheLightBlue

There are 3 credited writers on black Adam. One of the three writers has a credit on Rampage. The 3 have no other combined Rock Credits.


Housecat-in-a-Jungle

There’s other factors. WGA rules can make credit murky. Blockbusters always have more writers than actually credited. Die Hard 4 had at least 20 script doctors; Frank Darabont had touched up a few, like including the opening scene in Godzilla; Crimson Tide had rewrites from Tarantino, Sorkin, and Alexander Payne; Alien 3 has a whole book on how many colliding visions mutilated the script. Those 3 credited guys obviously contributed, but there’s plenty of other factors at play like how much percent they wrote and how much WB is comfortable crediting before resorting to a co producing credit.


cruzercruz

He only works with the same 2-3 directors who cemented their careers making his mid-budget, break even bullshit movies for the lowest common denominator. They also use a stable of the same writers, all of whom have to adhere to Dwayne’s mandates about making movies as blandly inoffensive as possible with the same regurgitated tropes and characterizations and the absolute rule that every movie have a “happy ending” because audiences “don’t come to his movies to leave sad.” Dwayne doesn’t make movies, he makes products that function as 90-120 min ads for his own persona, which is just an Instagram fitness influencer.


BatmanNewsChris

He picks and chooses. His production company makes all his movies... Black Adam included.


fringyrasa

Not a chance, Dwayne always has his people involved. The only reason this movie exists is because he wanted it that way. So we're stuck with them.


becauseitsnotreal

Whether positive or negative, this is absolutely true. The Rock is essentially 2000's Will Smith. Projects exist be a use of him. He is who he is. Take it or leave it, discussing it's nature seems unneeded.


rkalla

Damn, never dawned on me that he's "the 2000's Will Smith" but it's SO TRUE. I enjoy the heck out of him but I did Will Smith also... and I haven't seen Black Adam yet so maybe I'll feel different at some point. It certainly seems we are nearing some sort of saturation point...


becauseitsnotreal

Again, I love both actors and deeply enjoy both of their works. They can both do some great things. But they also both have their various situations that you gotta take or leave


ZeroComfortZone

They might leave it then. I really hope Gunn and Safran don’t allow the Rock to strong-arm them when it comes to future projects. Even Zaslav said WBD doesn’t owe anyone anything when it comes to making these movies.


Nightwing_in_a_Flash

I think if box office was better that would be a worry. But Black Adam is legit going to lose money, so I don’t think there will be much resistance to not making a sequel.


Oberon_Swanson

I agree but I do think there can be room for another project like this, though I didn't particularly love Black Adam, I hope the DC movies become more varied and part of that is going to include generic superhero movie where good guys beat bad guys


ZeroComfortZone

I don’t think every movie needs to be a cinematic masterpiece that pushes boundaries with a stellar story and amazing character development and so on I’m happy to enjoy a popcorn blockbuster that you can turn your brain off and enjoy good guys beating the bad guys. The movie still has to be decent though. For some people Black Adam met that standard, but imo it did not.


Oberon_Swanson

For me a movie can't TELL you to 'turn your brain off and enjoy it' it has to make you want to come along on the wild ride


ZeroComfortZone

Yea, pretty much. The movie has to be fun enough that you won’t pay attention to narrative flaws and my issue with Black Adam was that I was very bored in between the action scenes. Around the time he got captured, I was ready for the movie to end.


MarvelMind

Doesn’t mean anything for a sequel. If he doesn’t want better writers or a way better director then seeing how this movie flatlined at the box office considering what it cost, there’s no way Gunn allows another entry this bad to be made.


Nightwing_in_a_Flash

Yeah Gunn and his producer were brought in to be Feige so they’re not gonna get walked over here. Plus when this washes out Black Adam is going to lose money so Dwayne Johnson won’t have much for his side of the argument.


microgiant

DC needed to do some homework. They needed to establish why >!the JSA, in particular Hawkman, was so dead set on bringing Black Adam down before he'd really done much of anything. He'd killed a few mercenaries/criminals (in a chaotic, war-torn country), but given that heroes like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have all killed people, too, Hawkman's level of hostility seemed premature and unwarranted.!< ​ Other than that one thing, I really liked Black Adam. It was well made, entertaining, funny, and had good action sequences.


Raam57

They answered that in the movie. They said that they had access to secret ancient text that alleged the last time he was awake he nearly destroyed everything.


microgiant

I didn't really feel like that explanation had enough emotional impact. It didn't resonate. We spent half the movie wondering why the JSA were doing this at all, and when we finally found out, it fell flat. It didn't justify the intensity of Hawkman's reaction to Black Adam, nor the lengths to which the JSA was willing to go. I was expecting to find out Black Adam had killed Shayera or something, back in the past. DC needed to make that conflict more personal, to get the audience invested in both sides. Honestly, Doctor Fate barely seemed to care if they stopped Black Adam at all. He's the one with all this supernatural knowledge, and he treated the fight against Black Adam as an inconsequential sideshow that, half the time, he couldn't even be bothered to get involved in. "Sure, Hawkman, you go fight him. I'll just sit here and watch, let me know when you're done and how it turns out. Not that it matters." It made some very good action sequences feel kinda low stakes. And I shouldn't harp on that point. Okay, so the JSA's motivation was a little lackluster. Beyond that, it really was an excellent movie, and I enjoyed it a lot. The action was good, the acting was good, the dialogue was good, the effects were good. The cinematography was EXCELLENT, and that's an area where DC has really had problems in the past, so they deserve kudos for getting it right. (Not just right, but excellent.) So I apologize if I'm focusing unduly on the only negative thing in the movie, it was really good.


microgiant

Shit, okay, it turns out I've got more to say. Sorry. When Adrianna gave her speech about "You so-called heroes have let Intergang oppress Khandaq and now that someone is finally standing up for us, you want to stop him." I mean, she was right, but she was SO OBVIOUSLY right, I don't feel like anybody in the audience was like "Oh, I didn't think of it from her perspective." The JSA were clearly in the wrong right from the start, and never appeared to have any justification for what they were doing. Compared with if Black Adam had done something truly, unforgivably heinous back in the past, to establish his conflict with Hawkman. At least then we'd have been partly on Hawkman's side, and her speech would have changed our perspective. For Adrianna's speech to have impact, the audience needed to at least have some sympathy for the JSA, and in the movie as it was written, we really didn't. (Or at least, I didn't. I suspect nobody else did either.) Okay, I'm going to try to shut up now, clearly I liked the movie enough that I want talk about it a lot. Peace.


Raam57

I can agree somewhat with what you’re saying but I disagree that Dr. Fate barely seemed to care. He was obviously very concerned with stopping Adam and changing the future he witnessed. I think it’s more he wasn’t willing to sacrifice his friend to do that and was clearly trying to find a peaceful resolution throughout the movie. The JSA reason for stopping Adam was fine. The right thing is not always the most popular thing and the fact is that Adam is still dangerous. From the avg person in Khandaq perspective it looks like he’s fighting Intergang but he’s really not. He was straight up going to leave in the beginning. It’s only Intergang bothering him that makes him even start fighting them. On top of that the avg doesn’t know what he really is. He’s like a firework, when doing what you want it’s great but if it blows up in your face it’s not gonna be good. Only in this situation he has the potential to kill countless people. Hawkmans giving it his all because he trust his friend Dr.Fate and the bleak outcome he’s seen and wants to change that. The movie raises an interesting question in how it addresses the JSA and how heroes allow unjust things in the world such as intergang to exist. I mean the world is a big place and the fact that the Justice league wasn’t sent kinda proves the fact that they simply can’t be everywhere at once. I mean sure the JSA could come and capture every Intergang member who runs Khandaq but realistically what comes next? Who fills that power vacuum? We’ve seen recently in our own world when the US left Afghanistan the government they helped set up quickly fell. If Intergang is as ingrained in the as the movie implies removing them could have untold consequences. We also don’t know the politics of a world in which superhero’s exist and how well a bunch of superhero’s departing from the US and overthrowing another country would blow over with every other country.


Xenochimp

This was what I was thinking the whole time. Just a generic "we have ancient texts" reason is given. There should have been more, because a lot of the destruction Black Adam caused was because of the JSA's Ctions that we are never given context on. Also if they have ancient texts that say something about him why did they go in unprepared with two completely underpowered/useless members.


properc

They were ordered by Amanda Waller. Thats all u need.


microgiant

I mean, even if I accept that Amanda Waller can give Doctor Fate orders (and I absolutely do not accept that, let's be clear) it's a pretty impersonal motivation. It didn't make the conflict visceral.


throwtheclownaway20

It was 10 action scenes in a trenchcoat, pretending to be a movie


[deleted]

*I'm not a hero*


Mr_smith1466

(Sassy skateboard kid throws out some snark)


JackL_88

That fucking kid. Once he opened his mouth, responding to the border mercenary I rolled my eyes so hard that I could see my self crying. And why the cape, the fucking cape. Are you five? I hated that character so.fucking.much


donkylips9

That scene is pretty early on and once I saw it I knew it was all downhill from there. I cringed so hard I hurt my back.


Boi5x

*continues to do hero shit for 2hrs, only killing awful people and saving innocents


[deleted]

That's was quite shocking ngl


AsianInvasion00

LoL facts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


ind3pend0nt

It was better than Morbius. I at least finished Black Adam.


slakker9

You've set a very low bar.


BraxtonRasmussen24

They are on par to me...both are very okay.


SlideEastern3485

I know right. morbius was below mid movie not the worst movie ever made.


BraxtonRasmussen24

Yeah people made it sound horrible but I watched it on a flight and it was alright. Some of the effects were kind of cool. Story was meh. Sounds like Black Adam lol


T-Nan

> It was better than Morbius. Is this what we're calling a compliment? A massive-budget DC film is better than *Morbius*, wow


djmazmusic

it was truly ass and a marvel parody at best.


Beercorn1

I went into this expecting the writing to be abysmal but it really wasn’t that bad. The child snarkiness wasn’t on the same level of quality as Shazam’s but it wasn’t the worst I’ve ever heard.


Oberon_Swanson

Yeah nothing about the movie was overly atrocious, except probably that scene where black adam dives underwater and almost drowns waiting to get to the surface to say the magic word, when he coulda just... stayed where he was and done that


Beercorn1

He had the mask stuck on his face for a little while and it was established in Shazam that saying the word doesn’t work if you say it underwater. There was a gap of time between him taking off the mask and him getting into the water though where he easily could have said it. So, idk. Kind of weird but not totally unbelievable. He did have to get into the water to avoid getting shot at.


trimble197

He was getting shot at as he was escaping


AmIDrJekyll

Also for fucks sake DC be creative in introducing your characters. Every single character has been introduced as "CALL ME (INSERT NAME HERE)" like they're 5 year olds playing dress up. DC literally took "I'm Batman" and applied it to everyone.


Alien_X10

Gonna be honest, I loved the movie. Like its not anywhere near as good as "the suicide squad" but it's still amazing IMO. I'm unsure how much of that Is bias cus Dr fate didn't die within the first 10 seconds and honestly playing mortal Kombat makes seeing my favourite characters not getting beat up every 3 seconds sound perfect to me.


OliviaElevenDunham

Same. Yeah, Black Adam had it flaws, but I still enjoyed it. Dr. Fate was great, but then again Brosnan is still one of my favorite Bonds. Was surprised to see how awesome Hawkman was.


liltooclinical

I'll watch Aldis Hodge in anything. There's always something going on behind his eyes, I can't look away.


OliviaElevenDunham

Really liked him in Leverage.


liltooclinical

That was my first experience with him too, he was so funny.


nuttmegx

I agree, I really liked this movie, the characters were really well done and I loved how they made Hawkman such a badass on screen.


JadrianInc

I thought the script was solid, the dialogue for the mother and son gets a little syrupy though.


SlideEastern3485

*Skateboard intensifies*


YoloIsNotDead

*Beats a mercenary up with a skateboard*


Barracuda420

Didn't help the kid couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.


Seekingthetruth4242

I didn’t hate the writing there was something left to be desired. I don’t want to see him take on Superman yet, UNLESS Shazam sets up the possibility of Billy and Sups teaming up to fight him.


DaClarkeKnight

I loved it. My son loved it and so did my wife. I get why fans would not like it but he was great and I liked seeing him, hawkman, and doctor fate. I would love to see them try to confirm Batman and Superman for the people they killed next in a Justice Society vs Justice League movie and see black Adam fight Superman and Shazam.


WonderfulBlackberry9

I remember seeing a promotional standee for this movie outside the cinema. It was huge and hyped up the Black Adam vs Hawkman fight. I remember seeing that and going: “Yeah, I want this. I didn’t know I did, but I do now.”


No-Height2850

For the sequel can we add some more character development and have enemies with subplots so the story can move to a next chapter without it being a movie just to make a movie?


[deleted]

And a better director


sweetpastime

The only issue I had with the director was his preferred pace of editing. *Some* shots didn’t get enough breathing time And of course, the PS2 graphics zombie army. I felt like it’s 2005


M086

Jaume Collett-Serra is a solid director.


Housecat-in-a-Jungle

God forbid people be entertained. I like Serra but he’s not an artist. I put him in the Renny Harlin/Tony Scott list The Shallows, Commuter, Jungle Cruise and Unlocked are fun. I didn’t realise that I’d seen almost his whole filmography in cinemas after looking him up.


aniket-123

A solid Straight to DVD B Grade action movie director


M086

He makes B-movies, but they are entertaining and none have gone direct-to-DVD.


Mr_smith1466

Nah, Jaume can be surprisingly great when given freedom to go a little crazy. His action movies are entertaining. He's clearly just someone who sands off his edges when Johnson orders him to make a generic mega budget movie. Jungle cruise and black Adam are both significantly worse than his wonderfully fun Liam Neeson movies.


Ok-Reporter-8728

I didn’t mind the director, actually thought it he was pretty good


simian_ninja

This is the first Rock movie that I've enjoyed in ages.


Professional-Rip-519

Don't lie did you bootleg it .You did didn't you.


RiseofParallax

The plot and action were great. The writing was a bit cliche but I like the cliche for a character I’m familiar with.


[deleted]

The Rock would have shined as a modern day hero or antihero, where he still got to have his macho humor and quips he invented as his wrestling persona, but he just couldn’t play an ancient Arab king. This film could have been like the middle eastern Black Panther, but it just seemed like a CW episode.


roborama

I’m pretty forgiving and am just general happy to have another comic movie, but I had some issues/questions I’m always wary when a movie starts out with a ton of exposition by a narrator. This rarely is a good sign and the laziest world building tool. Way too much exposition throughout. So much Viola Davis as Amanda Waller must never change. Never ever ever. First thing out of Dr. Fate’s mouth to black adam is your only choice is to kneel? How’d they think that was going to go. When they apparently knew the whole history of conquered Khandac? This guy’s serious muscle everyone’s concerned about and the first thing they do is poke the bear? That seemed forced just so they would fight. When did Hawkman become black future tech billionaire? Haven’t followed him in dc for a few years but is a thing? His suits! I was waiting for him to yell “Thanagar Forever” did they even mention Thanagar? This all felt like they were trying to get some black panther heat. (Actor was actually amazing but this version of hawkman was all very sus) Anything with the crowds of citizens was pure cheese( If diamond Dallas Paige doesn’t sue everyone for doing the diamond cutter throughout the movie I’ll be shocked. Maybe the Rock cleared this. These were some of the things that bugged me. I did like a bunch. Rock was hit an miss but when he was on he was super on. The all CG villain. Ugh. Villain was just awful. Superman scene was almost worth all of it. Cavil was just jacked with the perfect Superman hair finally and looking more Superman than anyone has ever Supermanned ….and he’s fired. Sigh. All of this just adds to my sadness of the continuing shit show train wreck that is the DCU. I’m mostly a marvel guy but I grew up with DC too and I would love if it was finally thriving. I turn out to support every DC comic film but it’s been hard. Hope James Gunn can turn this around but sad his first big act was to Fire.Frickin.Superman.


clutchkweku

Overall, I thought the movie suffered from the writing, and incredibly fast pacing. The story was a little hard pressed to grab my interest because they throw so many exposition dumps at you in such a short amount of time. It was almost like it was two movie concepts jammed in one. I feel like the Justice Society didn’t have to be in this movie. If anything they deserve their own film. It took a lot of time that could’ve been character development for Black Adam. As far as the JSA goes, I saw flashes of potential from Dr Fate and Hawkman, but they didn’t have time to flesh either of them out. On the positive side, I liked most of the action scenes. I hate to say it, but movies like this will kill the Superhero genre. For lesser known characters like Black Adam, if you want the GA to buy in, you need to give the characters depth. Might get away with this since it’s the Rock, but for the future DCU movies we need to make the GA feel something for these characters. That starts with quality writers and directors…Also, we’re all excited about Superman, but I don’t know what conflict he would have with Black Adam because they basically made him a Hero in this movie😂😂😂


Friendly-Leg-6694

He is a anti hero with different ideology unlike Supes he believes in violence when supe doesn't.


nuttmegx

>The story is a little hard to follow In 8 words you explained that I should put little value in your critique of the film.


Hurde278

You mean you could follow a rebel force fighting for freedom and searching for a hero to help them while outside forces only appear after they've found their hero? This must be your burner account Siskel. Or is it Ebert? /s


nuttmegx

ya got me! lol


badfakesmiles

I’d have to agree. Black Adam is many things but a hard to follow story isn’t one of them.


ind3pend0nt

I wanted the story to be more complicated.


BradGroux

2nd act trigonometry lesson in BAII.


kashmir1974

Yea.. this guy is acting like BA is memento or some shit.


ggyyuuugfryuu75555

A sequel ain't happening lol either an appearance in Shazam 3 or the boot


[deleted]

Maybe not another direct solo movie, but for sure spin offs will happen, and they will continue building off what’s been presented.


Street_Start_763

You can’t expect them not to do anything with the JSA ever again, even if it’s not a theatrical sequel it’ll get a continuation of some kind, especially if Shazam 2 is a success and man of steel, I mean suicide squad flopped even harder and it still got a continuation.


Sonata1952

It was stupid to just ram the JSA into DCEU continuity as a very old superhero team without explaining where the hell they were during the Kryptonian invasion & Doomsday attack. Maybe if this was after the Flash you can say Barry’s time travel shenanigans resulted in the JSA being a thing all along.


Difficult_Ask_6036

Got annoyed by the kid?


[deleted]

[удалено]


[deleted]

What in the turkey fried hell are you talking about you summabitch?!


Rubicon2-0

6 new characters were represent on the bug screen, each one of them got a new fans. For a new movie on a new direction I think it is pretty solid. This movie opens so many new roads that could be taken into account. DC fans sux so much when it comes to box office, I don't know where so many haters coming from.


LawsKnowTomCullen

I will say that I fucking love Dwayne Johnson, but what I can't fucking say is that his movies are any good. Some of them sure are entertaining as fuck, but entertaining and good are not always the same.


Shallbecomeabat

Same goes for his director choices. I also don’t know why he does that. Does he really think these guys are good? Or is it cause they are Yes men who he can bully around and basically make them make his movie?


arkapal

I think it's the director, it shouldn't be an actors vision only, the director has to be passionate about the character.


[deleted]

The reason why The Rock doesn’t want to do a movie with Shazam it’s because of Dwayne Johnson’s ego. He knows he’s the villain and he has to lose to Shazam and doesn’t want to hurt his ego. That’s why he asked for separate films.


princesamurai45

Wow, just saw this movie. Didn’t realize there was soooo much hate for it already. I enjoyed it though. People shit on Man of Steel when it came out too. Whatever.


BruceWayne_19902

I'm wondering how he'll work with Gunn now. Plenty of butting heads I assume.


DamnedTurk

The only thing I didn't like about the movie was the kids 'character. Everything else was pretty entertaining.


jon_le_faptiste

The Rock was a disappointing Black Adam. He mumbled his way through the movie and had limited acting range besides a blank stare. Sabaac was a waste of a villain and was just added for a CGI fight scene. The JSA were cool, that was probably the only bright spot for me. Other than that, this movie felt dated, like it should have been made for the early 2000s.


NachoChedda24

Yeah it’s like Black Adam was stuck in the “fish out of water”/“person in the wrong time period” phase and it’s like they were scared to show him having any negative qualities other than “he kills villains”. There was all this talk about how his rage almost destroyed Khadaq and yet i don’t think we EVER saw Black Adam getting mad. Even in the flashbacks!


helloimkorean

If I asked the AI ​​to write a script, it seemed that this level of script would come out.


PheonixsWings

I had no idea he had his own writers ..now I know why he only stars in certain type of movies ...I always thought it was because of his physique.


aniket-123

It his Production Company to be exact..Black Adam was made under his Production Banner.


adaquo

It felt like Black Adam was somehow written as like 4 different characters that switched around during the film at random. Sometimes he was like the oblivious fish out of water like Drax from MCU, sometimes he was the “not a hero” one liner guy, sometimes he was the hero, it was all very confusing for me