The reviews for Black Adam are now in. Audiences have been waiting more than a decade to see Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson suit up as DC antihero Black Adam. So, has patience paid off and was it all worth the wait? Well, you be the judge.

We shall begin with the positives, and Ben Rolph of Discussing Film awarded Black Adam an impressive 4/5.

The praise continues with our own Julian Roman, who, while finding issue with the script and “predictable plot,” did find a lot to enjoy in the shameless blockbuster spectacle.

“[Black Adam] has a passion and an eye for spectacle, everything feels exciting and huge.”

The somewhat middling response continues courtesy of John DeFore of The Hollywood Reporter, who says of Black Adam, “This passion project serves the character well, setting him up for adventures one hopes will be less predictable than this one.” Evan Valentine of ComicBook.com adds, “Black Adam is a fun, frenzied, and flawed film that answers the prayers of many while also giving viewers an action-packed thrill ride with plenty of charisma from its key players.”

“Genre haters can criticize the film as a bloated CGI spectacle devoid of a substantive plot. It never explains how he speaks English. Don’t walk into Black Adam expecting The Batman’s depth or plot virtues. It works as a blockbuster action flick with eye-popping effects. Fandom will be foaming at the mouth for the hinted sequel. Black Adam may be the toughest guy from Earth…”

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Unfortunately, while Black Adam has clearly been a serious passion project for Johnson, that passion has not shone through for everyone. IGN’s Joshua Yehl ultimately gives Black Adam a disappointing 5/10, calling the action scenes “excessive” and the themes involved “half-baked.”

Eric Eisenberg of CinemaBlend, meanwhile, equally found a lot to criticize, concluding that Black Adam is a DC disappointment.

“It’s packed with undeveloped characters and an excessive number of repetitive action scenes, to the point where its half-baked debate on what it means to be a hero is lost in all the noise.”

The poor response continues with IndieWire’s David Ehrlich, who gives Black Adam a D+ and says, “There isn’t a single character here that doesn’t feel like a cheap photocopy of one from Gotham or the MCU, not a single beat that doesn’t feel like it hasn’t been audience-tested within an inch of its life.” Matt Singer of ScreenCrush really did not like Black Adam, giving the DC outing a 4/10 and saying, “Black Adam was a long time coming. And it wasn’t really worth the wait.”

“Given the number of years this project was in development, and how it was promoted to shift the balance of power in the DC Universe, it’s disappointing that the end result is so unremarkable.”

There Has Been Praise for Dwayne Johnson’s Lead Performance

     Warner Bros. Pictures

Despite this, there has been praise for Dwayne Johnson’s central performance as the titular Black Adam. ScreenRant’s Rachel LaBonte applauded the actor…while sadly finding fault with everything happening around him.

Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian felt similarly, declaring that “Johnson is well placed to realise the superhero movie’s potential as surrealist action comedy.”

“Though suffering from repetitive plot beats and thin characters, Black Adam is powered by Johnson’s performance and its promise of an exciting future.”

Finally, it is Empire’s Helen O’Hara who is most likely to sum up how most will feel after seeing Johnson take to the silver screen as Black Adam.

Black Adam is scheduled to be released on October 21, 2022, by Warner Bros. Pictures.

“Dwayne Johnson and director Jaume Collet-Serra attempt to offer a grand unified theory of DC, mixing family-film tropes with a protagonist who straight-up murders people. The result is sometimes a mess, but it’s a generally entertaining one.”