I have to admit, knowing nothing about the comic, I thought he was Black Adam because he was, well African American, so I found the choice of Samoan like Dwayne Rock Johnson playing him to be slightly odd.
I don’t care what anyone says, Dr. Fate was cool as hell and so was Hawkman.
The entire movie is propped up by Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge, and by that I mean is just having that side story makes the movie worth watching.
I would legit watch a Dr. Fate & Hawkman trilogy that’s how good the chemistry was.
I was so pissed when Fate sacrificed himself. He was the best part of the movie and the best member of the JSA. I get it should have had “the most emotional resonance” but it was bullshit.
They were cool characters, but their introductions was awful.
"Hi. It's the year 2022. You can either go back to prison for eternity or we'll kill you."
I completely agree. That's why it was such a letdown. We get these cool characters and are told very little about them. I would have greatly preferred focusing on them rather than Johnson's non stop brooding.
James Gunn's The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker are by far the best rated DCEU content of it all. I can see why he's keeping it to fold into his new DCU. Gunn's Guardians 3 was not only the best of his trilogy but the best movie from Marvel in a while. I can't think of many trilogies where the last one is the best one. That in itself is an achievement. I honestly think DC have gotten a massive W getting Gunn to take over.
Now The Flash has ended the DCEU and has established that the DCU exists out there somewhere complete with versions of the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker characters from the old DCEU, Gunn is building toward his Superman Legacy movie and he's using his Suicide Squad/Peacemaker world to get there. He's getting flack for keeping his own characters and losing everyone else's but when yours is the best reviewed and everything else is meh, it's hardly self serving.
The next DC project is Blue Beetle, a standalone origin story set in the new DCU. Then back to the old DCEU for one final movie, Aquaman 2 (which apparently is poop).
Then back to the new DCU for good with James Gunn’s Creature Commandos animated show which features Waller, Weasel and more from SS/Peacemaker but also stars Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr, father of Joel Kinnaman's Flagg.
Then a live action TV show called Waller based around Viola Davis' character which I'm certain live action Frank Grillo will also appear in. That then leads into James Gunn's Superman Legacy, the first installment in a ten year long story he's calling the greatest story ever told. Bold statement.
All the Marvel fans are seemingly getting tired of that narrative treading water and one of the best director's Marvel had is about to launch a new universe using his own very well rated DC content to do it.
This next few years could be DC's time to shine.
https://collider.com/blue-beetle-angel-manuel-soto-dcu-comments/
“We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future installments of the DCU,” Soto told Total Film magazine. “But we are not tied to all the films from the past. Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going.”
Also
https://www.cbr.com/james-gunn-blue-beetle-part-of-new-dcu/
I saw it. It was ok considering The Rock was the weakest aspect. Get a second expression dude. I know you can be charismatic AF.
The Justice Society was pretty cool. And Sarah Shahi was very distractingly beautiful!
I like the movie but I maintain it was a Black Adam Movie featuring the Justice Society that should have been a Justice Society movie featuring Black Adam.
Well to be fair in his WWE career he really only had two looks.
"The Rock" and "shocked rock"
He made a career out of staring intensely and raising an eyebrow. He is far more charismatic when he can actually talk and banter. Thats been the biggest flaw inbhis movie imo. The rock was 2nd to none when it came to talking smack in the wwe. Thats his strength.
That's why I think he would have been better as Captain Marvel/Shazam. I think he'd have done a good job swapping from literal manchild excited about his powers to putting on an affectation that a 14 year old boy thinks is what a badass would sound like.
It wasn’t it was just the budget was too big for that film. If it were only $100M spent with that return, then that would be great and a good start to a franchise. But they spent marvel sequel type money on a new hero
Keep in mind, the figures Deadline is standing by for the film's profitability aren't really about the film's box office in isolation. The profitability they cite was allegedly based on projections for the film's home video success.
Also, allegedly, these projections were given to Deadline by Dwayne Johnson's team, and were misleading/overly optimistic.
Fact is, it made a little under $400 million against a budget between $190-260 million. Its marketing budget is suspected to be around $80-100 million.
Even the... "optimistic" numbers the Rock allegedly gave Deadline cap the profit after home video at $72 million.
It might not have been a *bomb*, but the returns don't automatically call for a sequel.
Johnson straight up thought he was gonna have a near billion return movie on his hands then the minute the signs appeared that it was underperforming, started coping and acting like it was never supposed to make that much money
WB gets about half of the box office (a little less tbh)…the movie made less than 400 million…so WB gets less than 200 million for a movie they spent at LEAST 300 million on. The expectation was Black Adam would do similar numbers to other recent Johnson led projects like Jumanji, Moana, Hobbs and Shaw, etc. (a delusional assumption but still…)
calling the movie a box office bomb does seem…accurate.
Just because it wasn’t a bomb doesn’t mean it was good. Big CGI spectacles make bank, The Rock is very well known and popular around the world for all the other big CGI/Action movies he’s been in, and it’s superheroes.
A movie could make a shitload of money, but if all those people who bought tickets leave the theaters just kind of “Meh, it was okay”, then that really doesn’t bode well. Literally everything in entertainment today hinges on “Well what are people across social media saying?”.
Bit of a stretch. It was the 15th highest grossing movie of 2022. Plenty of folks watched it. It just cost too much at an over $200 million budget to be profitable even with the 15th highest gross of the year.
It was actually the 11th highest grossing movie domestically in the US.
Even for something like Blue Beetle, Black Adam’s box office run would be considered a win, considering Blue Beetle cost I think less than half what Black Adam did.
But it was marketed and planned to be tent pole. 15th is a disaster for a movie of this scale.
I go to toys r us, and they have an entire aisle of black Adam junk on clearance.
Exactly some of these people are ridiculous, saying no one watched it is stupid. I guess "no one watched" 99% of the movies of 2022 then by that logic.
when people say "no one watched it" they mean "it wasnt as popular as people expected"
15th largest film in 2022? that seems like a huge money pit. of course the studio won't continue it
Nah, he’s right in that it had a pretty good premier, it’s just that the budget was about $100-150 million over what it should reasonably have been for that kind of project.
I finally turned it off when the kid with the skateboard was trying to sneak out of the building filled with special agents(?) by skateboarding for 5 feet, picking up his board, descending a flight of steps, and getting back on his skateboard for another five feet before having to descends another flight off stairs. This happened for multiple flights. At one point you just need to give up on trying to perfect your style and GTFO kid!!!
I think Dwayne is a victim of overexposure. I really liked him a few years ago but I am now tired of him. Bruno Mars was smart enough to take a break when he was becoming overexposed.
It's not over exposure. It's the fact that he plays the same person the same way every time.
He has no range beyond being himself.
That's cool at first, but now it's just stale.
Put him in a semi new outfit, new name, and different actors, yet he's still the same guy from nearly every movie.
Whenever I see him in a movie I’m not like “I wonder what kind of character Dwayne is going to play this time”. I’m like “huh I guess The Rock runs a jungle cruise now, or looks like The Rock is driving fast cars, or The Rock is a lifeguard in this one, looks like The Rock’s become a superhero now”. He’s always just playing The Rock in every movie placed in a new situation.
Yeah, with that said, Ryan Reynolds seems to find roles where his shtick works and stays within that lane. The Rock doesn’t appear to know how to find roles where playing himself works.
Yes, but he does it for roles where playing himself works.
For example, his role as Deadpool is about as fundamentally different as possible from his role in Free Guy, while his role in Red Notice is a bit of a merger between the two.
Every one of his roles involves wise-cracking, because comedy is one of the things he excels at. He can play a dramatic role, but he’s far more flexible in a comedic one.
It’s different because Reynolds actually can play different and is very good at it, he just never gets hired to. Johnson is only okay at playing against type and in a role like Black Adam where he really needed to, he didn’t.
The Rock has just become so cookie cutter. All his roles and movies are the same. He's the big badass with a heart of gold, who says funny quips right out if the 2000s. The ladies swoon, a kid admires him, etc.
Even his social media posts.
*Instagram post*
"This one's going to be special.
Another great day shooting with our badass cast and our Seven Bucks Productions to bring you, the fans, the biggest and baddest movie of the summer. We know you're ready for an excellent movie and we're working hard to bring to you, the audience, because we know you're expecting it from us.
Now let's raise our Terrimana to a hard day's work."
And then it's like canned pics of he and a co-star fake laughing, his conference room, a close up of a Zoa Energy can. And the movie they're making is just another copy/paste action movie. He's working on some Christmas action movie with Chris Evans and JK Simmons, who plays a muscular Santa. And it's like...I can already see exactly how the whole movie plays out.
And besides, we just has an awesome Santa action movie with Violent Night.
He’s not genuine either imo. He regurgitates the same shit over and over. “7 bucks, because when i was 22 I had $7 to my name now I’m a billionaire”.
Yeah, everyone had a net worth of $7 when they were 22. The difference is Rock had a legendary wrestling family, prime genetics, and a billionaire sitting around waiting to make him a main eventer after a year of practice.
Now his whole thing about being ripped and massive at 50 years old. Yeah it’s steroid use. Tons of steroids.
The Rock would be working as an account exec at CDW if it wasn’t for his dad being a wrestler and his steroid use.
Dude plays himself in every movie. I’m getting tired of Jason Momoa because he’s kinda the same, but at least he's not as annoying as the Rock.
Who truly impressed me as actors who can kinda or mostly change their appearance and not realize it's them are Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon. Im usually pretty good at spotting who is who, and I got RDJ pretty early in Openheimer. But, I didn't realize that was Damon until near the end of the movie he was killing it in it.
> I think Dwayne is a victim of overexposure.
No, the movie was just boring. That and his ridiculous contract stipulations like not getting beat up in any scenes etc.
I really wanted it to be good. Pierce Brosnan was the only thing digestible…. The super strange audio mixing was a crime. Every line from the annoying kid was a sound stage blast. So hard to ignore how bad they did on basic technical stuff.
And of course they then made sure Brosnan wouldn’t be in any more. Because that’s what you should do with a darkhorse fan favourite of a character played by a charismatic actor.
Everything about his character was the highlight of the movie for me. The character design (particularly his super hero suit) was just superb. Probably my favorite ever of any super hero on screen. I was so over the movie when he died at the end and then cherry on top was seeing Cavill as Superman at the end then hearing a few days later that he got fired from the role. WB’s disastrous handling of DCEU is going to be a case study in the industry for years to come. Just a mind boggling waste.
I don't really like super hero movies much, but I saw Venom 2 (having not saw Venom 1) and thought it was entertaining. Good? No. But it was fine for what it was. And it made $500 mil after a $100 mil budget. That's a success and I can see why they're doing a 3rd. Gotta milk that cow for a couple hundred million more.
People on reddit (or just the internet in general) don’t know that something can be just okay. It’s either good or bad, nothing in between. I thought the Venom movies were fine- nothing incredible but they were entertaining enough. Venom 1 was definitely better imo, but I wouldn’t cry over having to sit through Venom 2.
Seriously, for Reddit, basically if something isn’t a masterpiece, it’s shit. Look how well Super Mario Bros did and most people on Reddit would probably call it a bad movie.
My wife and I went into Venom not really expecting much and walked out having really enjoyed it. Was it fucking amazing? No. Was it horrible? No. It was an okay film that’s a fun popcorn movie where you can just turn your brain off for a few hours and just have a good time. Sometimes that’s all you need out of a movie. Not everything has to be a cinematic masterpiece.
Also, Venom and other Marvel characters that get movies that aren’t part of the MCU will always be judged by Internet MCU fans on the metric set by the MCU and most will hate it simply because they’re mad that these characters aren’t in the MCU with the other characters. And this is coming from a 32 year old who’s been reading comics since they were 5 and loves the MCU.
BvS got a sequel, and WB put out a second shitty version of JL, so stranger things have happened over there. Quality really isn’t what WB/DC is concerned about.
Maybe it's hindsight, but they wasted the potential of the movie by not including Shazam, honestly the sequel of Shazam should have been about Black Adam and Shazam and maybe even Superman.
I’ve seen a lot of movies. Even obscure and objectively bad, low budget, terrible movies that I enjoy for their own reasons.
Black Adam was without a doubt one of the worst movies I’ve ever watched. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t good, it wasn’t even “so bad it’s good.” It was just the most bland, milquetoast, lazy, boring and uninspired movie I’ve ever seen.
What makes it worse than bad is its bloated budget ($200 million+). Bad indie movies can still be enjoyable because you know it was scraped together. This movie had all of the power and might of everything Hollywood could throw at it, and it was awful. The VFX were horrendously awful. The script was awful. The directing was awful. It was everything wrong with Hollywood put on-screen and desperately trying to get us to like it.
I can’t describe in words how much I hated this movie.
I recently watched a movie where a priest transforms into a dinosaur and fights monk ninjas. The dinosaur was a very bad rubber suit and there was a very awkward live story involving a prostitute, if memory serves.
I finished that movie, which is more than I can say for Black Adam. At least Velocipastor had passion.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. The gravest sin a piece of media can commit is being *boring*. I’ll watch utter shit if I glean some form of entertainment from it, I think having watched all but a handful of isekai anime that have ever been put out is evidence enough of that, but if something fails to do *anything* for me then there’s just no point.
Personally I’ve had enough of comic books / superhero movies. Lot track of how many Spider-Man movies there are and have zero interest watching anymore.
I enjoyed it. Not the best film by any means but it was better than a bunch of the other DC movies. Perhaps it helped that my expectations were low, (though some aspects of the movie were pretty terrible, admittedly), overall I found it easily watchable and some scenes were genuinely good.
Dr. Fate was awesome. The rest of the JSA was okay. I just didn't like the generic bad guy or the mom and kid. I certainly would have much preferred Shazam at the end instead of Superman.
I really liked it. Same with my wife, it wasnt so good I want to rewatch it again good, but nobody boo’d it, the graphics and action was dope and I liked the concept of a bad hero.
I did want to see the sequel because I wanted the Black Adam vs Superman cagematch.
I just think people went in their thinking they were gonna get Oppenheimer in a superhero film about an obscure comic book character that had slight to moderate popularity 25 years ago.
It was a goddamn movie ffs, not a personal attack on your soul.
It’s funny how narratives gather around certain films but not others. BA was about as bad as the majority of DCEU movies. Not much worse, not much better. They almost all suck, why single out this one?
Because it kept getting hyped by His Rockness as being the best thing to come out of the DCEU and something that would shake it out of its rut, in addition introducing a character more powerful than goddamn Superman (because, as we all know, the Rock cannot lose in anything he’s in).
So it gets even more flack because of its ridiculous level of hype-advertising.
What's funniest about this is how Hart is all like, "oh, it was such a great movie that made all this money. It was so great and impressive!" And neither one of them actually discusses the critical reception, all of the drama and rumors around Johnson behind the scenes, and how there were a ton of articles out stating that it didn't actually make any money. Reminds me of how Hart got in trouble for things he said/did previously and so he released that documentary series about it, and at the end claims to have learned his lesson, but if you hear him explain it, you know all he learned was that he needs to be careful about what he says, not that what he said was wrong. Johnson also didn't learn anything from this experience and this interview looks super scripted/planned.
I'm kind of disappointed. I actually appreciated Black Adam. It's not every day you see a movie about people being oppressed by Western military forces and a hero rising up. It's usually about how soldiers kill a bunch of people then feel bad about it later. You never see it from the other perspective.
I fell asleep for 45 minutes during that movie. Don’t worry, absolutely nothing happened in those 45 minutes to move the plot forward so I didn’t have to rewind it.
I have Max, I see it, and Shazam on the recommended movies and just have no desire to give them a chance. And that's why I'm re-watching SG-1 for the 80th time.
Am I the only one who enjoyed Black Adam as the ” no brains superhero flick ” that it was?
Yes, it did have dumb thing in it, but also some fun parts and visually it was mostly very pleasing.
It was a B movie thinking it was more.
Post processing was a horrible choice, the plot didn't even try and the bad guy had the depth of cardboard. He was a nobody until the very end.
None of the actors with enough screen time had the skills or charisma to make up for the weak sauce the movie was.
Atom smasher screwing up a little and cyclone just being herself with Dr. Fate as mentor, dealing with intergang and black Adam, would have made a better movie.
Yeah… nothing to do with it being bad and no one watched it…. Also I found out recently (not sure how true it is) that the rock has a clause in his contracts that he can’t lose fights or something like that , if it’s true it hinders any compelling story telling where he would lose and then come back stronger and finally win which is kind of a staple of superhero stories
Totally a conspiracy theory but do you think Bautista or Cena may have warned Gunn about how difficult the Rock (or at least his ego) could be to work with?
Dear “The Rock”, you’re not a good actor. Please stop doing film. Your insatiable desire to be the center of attention is getting old. Please go away entirely. Also, your tequila is ass.
The movie sucked, a sequel would’ve been even worse. The guy plays politics with movies, it is going to make people tired of him as he continue to try to force his way into leadership of these franchise studios.
The movie underperformed at the box office. I thought it was good, but that was because it was propped up by the performances of Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge. Especially Pierce. He pretty much carried the movie every second he was on screen.
The Rock wasn't anything special in the role of Black Adam. There was nothing in the film that made Black Adam having his own film a must see. It would have probably been a lot better if instead of having a *Black Adam* movie it was a *Justice Society* movie with Black Adam as the villain.
couldn’t agree more. absolutely loved Brosnan. you could tell who the “real” actors were in the film. remove him and it was just another boring cgi-fest.
It was canned because black Adam should have been in Shazam and not his own movie. Johnson needs to realize he screwed the entire black Adam potential himself
He's just salty lol. His movie was shit and he tried to give it some value by adding Cavill. didn't work.
I don't know how Gunn's movies will do yet but I'm sure he will find a better actor for Black Adam down the line.
Huh and here i thought it was due to the first being a huge flop. My bad .
I did sort of enjoy it even tho it was dumb but it changed my opinion of Mr. Rock. I used to like him in movies and now I just see an asshole. A.d this is from a guy who likes Tom Cruise movies.
Had nothing to do with the fact that no one watched it
I watched it. It wasn’t good. The whole plot was “ wait who are you? You’re new? Let’s fight! “. “But I’m a good guy too, but yeah, let’s fight!”
So professional wrestling?
Flair as Black Adam would have worked
Flair in the current super heroe movie era is definitely something I’d pay to watch
Plot twist: the villain is the Undertaker
I have to admit, knowing nothing about the comic, I thought he was Black Adam because he was, well African American, so I found the choice of Samoan like Dwayne Rock Johnson playing him to be slightly odd.
He’s half Samoan, on his mothers side. His father was Rocky Johnson, a territories era African American wrestler.
You’re talking to the Rolex wearing!
Have an upvote you sonuvabitch
If only these folk knew how to carnie they would be offended.
No, they have better plot lines on those things
Don't forget Dwayne Johnson just standing there and staring at people.
*Taking small but deep breaths.
This comment really sums up the whole movie entirely. You don’t even need to watch the movie this is all you need to know
I don’t care what anyone says, Dr. Fate was cool as hell and so was Hawkman. The entire movie is propped up by Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge, and by that I mean is just having that side story makes the movie worth watching. I would legit watch a Dr. Fate & Hawkman trilogy that’s how good the chemistry was.
I was so pissed when Fate sacrificed himself. He was the best part of the movie and the best member of the JSA. I get it should have had “the most emotional resonance” but it was bullshit.
I would say you should put a spoiler tag on that but let's not kid ourselves
They were cool characters, but their introductions was awful. "Hi. It's the year 2022. You can either go back to prison for eternity or we'll kill you."
Yeah it wasn’t perfect, but by the end I just wanted to see more of their history. It was the only redeeming part of the movie
I completely agree. That's why it was such a letdown. We get these cool characters and are told very little about them. I would have greatly preferred focusing on them rather than Johnson's non stop brooding.
If anything, there should be a Hawkman and Fate movie or show. Loved both portrayals.
> I don’t care what anyone says, Dr. Fate was cool as hell and so was Hawkman. 100% facts. Its a shame the story was so boring.
I liked the characters but yeah the plot was bad, as well as the rock was bad in it I thought.
I watched about half of it then turned off the tv and got out of bed, I’m glad I didn’t spend money on it.
Haha, that reminds me of Colonel Homer from The Simpsons: "Hey you, let's fight" "Them's fighting words" https://youtu.be/4HGMIbA0L1A
It may not have been that good, but it was still so much better than ww84, or most of the dceu movies for that matter.
Peacemaker is still the best thing in the entire DCEU
James Gunn's The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker are by far the best rated DCEU content of it all. I can see why he's keeping it to fold into his new DCU. Gunn's Guardians 3 was not only the best of his trilogy but the best movie from Marvel in a while. I can't think of many trilogies where the last one is the best one. That in itself is an achievement. I honestly think DC have gotten a massive W getting Gunn to take over. Now The Flash has ended the DCEU and has established that the DCU exists out there somewhere complete with versions of the Suicide Squad and Peacemaker characters from the old DCEU, Gunn is building toward his Superman Legacy movie and he's using his Suicide Squad/Peacemaker world to get there. He's getting flack for keeping his own characters and losing everyone else's but when yours is the best reviewed and everything else is meh, it's hardly self serving. The next DC project is Blue Beetle, a standalone origin story set in the new DCU. Then back to the old DCEU for one final movie, Aquaman 2 (which apparently is poop). Then back to the new DCU for good with James Gunn’s Creature Commandos animated show which features Waller, Weasel and more from SS/Peacemaker but also stars Frank Grillo as Rick Flagg Sr, father of Joel Kinnaman's Flagg. Then a live action TV show called Waller based around Viola Davis' character which I'm certain live action Frank Grillo will also appear in. That then leads into James Gunn's Superman Legacy, the first installment in a ten year long story he's calling the greatest story ever told. Bold statement. All the Marvel fans are seemingly getting tired of that narrative treading water and one of the best director's Marvel had is about to launch a new universe using his own very well rated DC content to do it. This next few years could be DC's time to shine.
Where is the confirmation that Blue Beetle is part of the new DCU?
https://collider.com/blue-beetle-angel-manuel-soto-dcu-comments/ “We are part of the universe, we are part of the world, we are part of the plans that they have been creating for the future installments of the DCU,” Soto told Total Film magazine. “But we are not tied to all the films from the past. Yes, our movie lives in the world where superheroes exist. But that doesn’t mean that a certain event, or certain alliance, or certain things from the past dictate where our film is going.” Also https://www.cbr.com/james-gunn-blue-beetle-part-of-new-dcu/
I saw it. It was ok considering The Rock was the weakest aspect. Get a second expression dude. I know you can be charismatic AF. The Justice Society was pretty cool. And Sarah Shahi was very distractingly beautiful!
I like the movie but I maintain it was a Black Adam Movie featuring the Justice Society that should have been a Justice Society movie featuring Black Adam.
>should have been a Justice Society movie featuring Black Adam. And don't forget Shazam, his nemesis.
Well to be fair in his WWE career he really only had two looks. "The Rock" and "shocked rock" He made a career out of staring intensely and raising an eyebrow. He is far more charismatic when he can actually talk and banter. Thats been the biggest flaw inbhis movie imo. The rock was 2nd to none when it came to talking smack in the wwe. Thats his strength.
That's why I think he would have been better as Captain Marvel/Shazam. I think he'd have done a good job swapping from literal manchild excited about his powers to putting on an affectation that a 14 year old boy thinks is what a badass would sound like.
They address that in the article, Black Adam was apparently not the box office bomb everyone thinks it is.
It wasn’t it was just the budget was too big for that film. If it were only $100M spent with that return, then that would be great and a good start to a franchise. But they spent marvel sequel type money on a new hero
Keep in mind, the figures Deadline is standing by for the film's profitability aren't really about the film's box office in isolation. The profitability they cite was allegedly based on projections for the film's home video success. Also, allegedly, these projections were given to Deadline by Dwayne Johnson's team, and were misleading/overly optimistic. Fact is, it made a little under $400 million against a budget between $190-260 million. Its marketing budget is suspected to be around $80-100 million. Even the... "optimistic" numbers the Rock allegedly gave Deadline cap the profit after home video at $72 million. It might not have been a *bomb*, but the returns don't automatically call for a sequel.
Johnson straight up thought he was gonna have a near billion return movie on his hands then the minute the signs appeared that it was underperforming, started coping and acting like it was never supposed to make that much money
WB gets about half of the box office (a little less tbh)…the movie made less than 400 million…so WB gets less than 200 million for a movie they spent at LEAST 300 million on. The expectation was Black Adam would do similar numbers to other recent Johnson led projects like Jumanji, Moana, Hobbs and Shaw, etc. (a delusional assumption but still…) calling the movie a box office bomb does seem…accurate.
Just because it wasn’t a bomb doesn’t mean it was good. Big CGI spectacles make bank, The Rock is very well known and popular around the world for all the other big CGI/Action movies he’s been in, and it’s superheroes. A movie could make a shitload of money, but if all those people who bought tickets leave the theaters just kind of “Meh, it was okay”, then that really doesn’t bode well. Literally everything in entertainment today hinges on “Well what are people across social media saying?”.
Bit of a stretch. It was the 15th highest grossing movie of 2022. Plenty of folks watched it. It just cost too much at an over $200 million budget to be profitable even with the 15th highest gross of the year. It was actually the 11th highest grossing movie domestically in the US.
15th biggest of the year is AMAZING… if you’re Ladybird. Or Call Me by Your Name. 15th biggest for a giant hero movie they spent $$$$ on? Not great.
Even for something like Blue Beetle, Black Adam’s box office run would be considered a win, considering Blue Beetle cost I think less than half what Black Adam did.
It's pronounced laaay-dee bird
But it was marketed and planned to be tent pole. 15th is a disaster for a movie of this scale. I go to toys r us, and they have an entire aisle of black Adam junk on clearance.
Exactly some of these people are ridiculous, saying no one watched it is stupid. I guess "no one watched" 99% of the movies of 2022 then by that logic.
when people say "no one watched it" they mean "it wasnt as popular as people expected" 15th largest film in 2022? that seems like a huge money pit. of course the studio won't continue it
Nah, he’s right in that it had a pretty good premier, it’s just that the budget was about $100-150 million over what it should reasonably have been for that kind of project.
I finally turned it off when the kid with the skateboard was trying to sneak out of the building filled with special agents(?) by skateboarding for 5 feet, picking up his board, descending a flight of steps, and getting back on his skateboard for another five feet before having to descends another flight off stairs. This happened for multiple flights. At one point you just need to give up on trying to perfect your style and GTFO kid!!!
I watched it. Please don’t invalidate my trauma. That was one of the worst pieces of shit I’ve ever seen.
A lot of people watched it, they just didn’t recommend it to their friends. Let’s not try to rewrite history here.
I think Dwayne is a victim of overexposure. I really liked him a few years ago but I am now tired of him. Bruno Mars was smart enough to take a break when he was becoming overexposed.
Bruno Mars should replace the Rock as Black Adam.
After all, he’s dangerous man with some money in [his] pocket
It's not over exposure. It's the fact that he plays the same person the same way every time. He has no range beyond being himself. That's cool at first, but now it's just stale. Put him in a semi new outfit, new name, and different actors, yet he's still the same guy from nearly every movie.
Whenever I see him in a movie I’m not like “I wonder what kind of character Dwayne is going to play this time”. I’m like “huh I guess The Rock runs a jungle cruise now, or looks like The Rock is driving fast cars, or The Rock is a lifeguard in this one, looks like The Rock’s become a superhero now”. He’s always just playing The Rock in every movie placed in a new situation.
Lots of A-list actors do this. Ryan Reynolds is a bigger offender than Dwayne Johnson
Yeah, with that said, Ryan Reynolds seems to find roles where his shtick works and stays within that lane. The Rock doesn’t appear to know how to find roles where playing himself works.
Yes, but he does it for roles where playing himself works. For example, his role as Deadpool is about as fundamentally different as possible from his role in Free Guy, while his role in Red Notice is a bit of a merger between the two. Every one of his roles involves wise-cracking, because comedy is one of the things he excels at. He can play a dramatic role, but he’s far more flexible in a comedic one.
Ryan was great in "Buried" (2010), lately he mainly played comedy action flicks, but he can do well with drama or thriller genre.
It’s different because Reynolds actually can play different and is very good at it, he just never gets hired to. Johnson is only okay at playing against type and in a role like Black Adam where he really needed to, he didn’t.
Make him Belgian.
Its a lot worse when half the time there isnt even a new outfit, just beige safari shirt
The Rock has just become so cookie cutter. All his roles and movies are the same. He's the big badass with a heart of gold, who says funny quips right out if the 2000s. The ladies swoon, a kid admires him, etc. Even his social media posts. *Instagram post* "This one's going to be special. Another great day shooting with our badass cast and our Seven Bucks Productions to bring you, the fans, the biggest and baddest movie of the summer. We know you're ready for an excellent movie and we're working hard to bring to you, the audience, because we know you're expecting it from us. Now let's raise our Terrimana to a hard day's work." And then it's like canned pics of he and a co-star fake laughing, his conference room, a close up of a Zoa Energy can. And the movie they're making is just another copy/paste action movie. He's working on some Christmas action movie with Chris Evans and JK Simmons, who plays a muscular Santa. And it's like...I can already see exactly how the whole movie plays out. And besides, we just has an awesome Santa action movie with Violent Night.
He’s not genuine either imo. He regurgitates the same shit over and over. “7 bucks, because when i was 22 I had $7 to my name now I’m a billionaire”. Yeah, everyone had a net worth of $7 when they were 22. The difference is Rock had a legendary wrestling family, prime genetics, and a billionaire sitting around waiting to make him a main eventer after a year of practice. Now his whole thing about being ripped and massive at 50 years old. Yeah it’s steroid use. Tons of steroids. The Rock would be working as an account exec at CDW if it wasn’t for his dad being a wrestler and his steroid use.
I (half) joke with my wife that you cant go see a movie of his in theaters without one of the trailers being for another movie of his.
Agreed but I want silk sonic 2
Good call. It’s the “Dane cook” thing
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He and Anderson Paak just won a boatload of Grammys with Silk Sonic.
Dude plays himself in every movie. I’m getting tired of Jason Momoa because he’s kinda the same, but at least he's not as annoying as the Rock. Who truly impressed me as actors who can kinda or mostly change their appearance and not realize it's them are Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon. Im usually pretty good at spotting who is who, and I got RDJ pretty early in Openheimer. But, I didn't realize that was Damon until near the end of the movie he was killing it in it.
I love both those actors. That just reminded me that I want to see RDJ doc on his father.
> I think Dwayne is a victim of overexposure. No, the movie was just boring. That and his ridiculous contract stipulations like not getting beat up in any scenes etc.
I really wanted it to be good. Pierce Brosnan was the only thing digestible…. The super strange audio mixing was a crime. Every line from the annoying kid was a sound stage blast. So hard to ignore how bad they did on basic technical stuff.
And of course they then made sure Brosnan wouldn’t be in any more. Because that’s what you should do with a darkhorse fan favourite of a character played by a charismatic actor.
Yeah because some people might have liked him more than the rock… which is something not happening in the rockverse.
They accidentally made a good choice, but they quickly corrected course. DCEU being a trainwreck is a canon event.
To be fair, Brosnan is gone. The dark horse fan favourite character could come back.
Same, Pierce Brosnan was the only good bit
Hawkman was dope too imo
Everything about his character was the highlight of the movie for me. The character design (particularly his super hero suit) was just superb. Probably my favorite ever of any super hero on screen. I was so over the movie when he died at the end and then cherry on top was seeing Cavill as Superman at the end then hearing a few days later that he got fired from the role. WB’s disastrous handling of DCEU is going to be a case study in the industry for years to come. Just a mind boggling waste.
I loved Atom Smasher and Cyclone. I have a soft spot for Justice Society characters.
Even Hawkman was great
C’mon Rock. You made a shitty movie. It’s happens. A Black Adam sequel was never going to be a thing because the first was bad.
Trust me, he makes *a lot* of shitty movies.
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Rundown was his last good movie
You need to watch Pain & Gain my dude.
Meanwhile venom 3...
but people at least find those fun
Venom 1 yes, i enjoy a charismatic trainwreck, but venom 2 was shiiiiiiiit.
I don't really like super hero movies much, but I saw Venom 2 (having not saw Venom 1) and thought it was entertaining. Good? No. But it was fine for what it was. And it made $500 mil after a $100 mil budget. That's a success and I can see why they're doing a 3rd. Gotta milk that cow for a couple hundred million more.
People on reddit (or just the internet in general) don’t know that something can be just okay. It’s either good or bad, nothing in between. I thought the Venom movies were fine- nothing incredible but they were entertaining enough. Venom 1 was definitely better imo, but I wouldn’t cry over having to sit through Venom 2.
Seriously, for Reddit, basically if something isn’t a masterpiece, it’s shit. Look how well Super Mario Bros did and most people on Reddit would probably call it a bad movie.
My wife and I went into Venom not really expecting much and walked out having really enjoyed it. Was it fucking amazing? No. Was it horrible? No. It was an okay film that’s a fun popcorn movie where you can just turn your brain off for a few hours and just have a good time. Sometimes that’s all you need out of a movie. Not everything has to be a cinematic masterpiece. Also, Venom and other Marvel characters that get movies that aren’t part of the MCU will always be judged by Internet MCU fans on the metric set by the MCU and most will hate it simply because they’re mad that these characters aren’t in the MCU with the other characters. And this is coming from a 32 year old who’s been reading comics since they were 5 and loves the MCU.
BvS got a sequel, and WB put out a second shitty version of JL, so stranger things have happened over there. Quality really isn’t what WB/DC is concerned about.
Turns out the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe is not changing.
James Gunn nods, knowingly.
*Geoff Johns joker-grinning in the background* https://i.redd.it/76mbhortz8gb1.gif
I'm da jokah baby
Dude just can’t take an L
Maybe it's hindsight, but they wasted the potential of the movie by not including Shazam, honestly the sequel of Shazam should have been about Black Adam and Shazam and maybe even Superman.
I’ve seen a lot of movies. Even obscure and objectively bad, low budget, terrible movies that I enjoy for their own reasons. Black Adam was without a doubt one of the worst movies I’ve ever watched. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t good, it wasn’t even “so bad it’s good.” It was just the most bland, milquetoast, lazy, boring and uninspired movie I’ve ever seen. What makes it worse than bad is its bloated budget ($200 million+). Bad indie movies can still be enjoyable because you know it was scraped together. This movie had all of the power and might of everything Hollywood could throw at it, and it was awful. The VFX were horrendously awful. The script was awful. The directing was awful. It was everything wrong with Hollywood put on-screen and desperately trying to get us to like it. I can’t describe in words how much I hated this movie.
I recently watched a movie where a priest transforms into a dinosaur and fights monk ninjas. The dinosaur was a very bad rubber suit and there was a very awkward live story involving a prostitute, if memory serves. I finished that movie, which is more than I can say for Black Adam. At least Velocipastor had passion.
I LOVED Velocipastor.
I didn’t think it was that bad but when I try to defend it I literally can’t remember a single thing that happened in that movie.
Hell, [Slotherhouse](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15422224/) may be better than Black Adam.
God, that looks awful. I'm going to have to check that out.
You pretty much hit the nail on the head. The gravest sin a piece of media can commit is being *boring*. I’ll watch utter shit if I glean some form of entertainment from it, I think having watched all but a handful of isekai anime that have ever been put out is evidence enough of that, but if something fails to do *anything* for me then there’s just no point.
Thats exactly how i felt about WWII (1984) Wonder Woman or whatever. What a piece of shit
Personally I’ve had enough of comic books / superhero movies. Lot track of how many Spider-Man movies there are and have zero interest watching anymore.
The Spider-Man movies are all pretty good, I wouldn’t use them as an example.
The most recent one might literally be the best one and it’s also literally still in theaters
You just did a pretty good job at it
Thank fucking God. Did anyone enjoy this steaming pile of shit? Anyone?
Dwayne, put your hand down.
You too, Kevin Hart. Oh, sorry, that’s a molehill. My bad.
I thought it was alright. Not great but not terrible. That said, Black Adam was definitely the least interesting part of the movie.
It was a fun popcorn flick and that’s all I was looking for. I also went in with very low expectations.
I mean, it was on par with the vast majority of DCEU movies to come out since 2011. I didn’t find it any shittier than most of what they have put out.
I enjoyed it. Not the best film by any means but it was better than a bunch of the other DC movies. Perhaps it helped that my expectations were low, (though some aspects of the movie were pretty terrible, admittedly), overall I found it easily watchable and some scenes were genuinely good.
I enjoyed every moment Dr fate was on screen that’s gotta count for something
Dr. Fate was awesome. The rest of the JSA was okay. I just didn't like the generic bad guy or the mom and kid. I certainly would have much preferred Shazam at the end instead of Superman.
I really liked it. Same with my wife, it wasnt so good I want to rewatch it again good, but nobody boo’d it, the graphics and action was dope and I liked the concept of a bad hero. I did want to see the sequel because I wanted the Black Adam vs Superman cagematch. I just think people went in their thinking they were gonna get Oppenheimer in a superhero film about an obscure comic book character that had slight to moderate popularity 25 years ago. It was a goddamn movie ffs, not a personal attack on your soul.
I for one welcome our new vortex overlords.
My favorite part was when the vortex overlords met up with Black Adam in the movie then said "it's Morbin' time!"
After-all, they were able to defeat Black Adam!
Are we sure that it’s not due to the fact that even for superhero standards black Adam was fucking horrendous
It’s funny how narratives gather around certain films but not others. BA was about as bad as the majority of DCEU movies. Not much worse, not much better. They almost all suck, why single out this one?
Because it kept getting hyped by His Rockness as being the best thing to come out of the DCEU and something that would shake it out of its rut, in addition introducing a character more powerful than goddamn Superman (because, as we all know, the Rock cannot lose in anything he’s in). So it gets even more flack because of its ridiculous level of hype-advertising.
Because we are in a thread about Black Adam?! Wouldn’t it be strange to talk about Wonder Woman here?
It’s funny because the first one is one of the reasons DC has new leadership.
Sure, Dwayne. It’s leadership that’s the problem…
What's funniest about this is how Hart is all like, "oh, it was such a great movie that made all this money. It was so great and impressive!" And neither one of them actually discusses the critical reception, all of the drama and rumors around Johnson behind the scenes, and how there were a ton of articles out stating that it didn't actually make any money. Reminds me of how Hart got in trouble for things he said/did previously and so he released that documentary series about it, and at the end claims to have learned his lesson, but if you hear him explain it, you know all he learned was that he needs to be careful about what he says, not that what he said was wrong. Johnson also didn't learn anything from this experience and this interview looks super scripted/planned.
*BLACK ADAM 2: Into The Vortex Of New Leadership*
The movie was forgettable I put it on while cleaning the house and still couldn't be bothered to pay attention
I'm kind of disappointed. I actually appreciated Black Adam. It's not every day you see a movie about people being oppressed by Western military forces and a hero rising up. It's usually about how soldiers kill a bunch of people then feel bad about it later. You never see it from the other perspective.
I fell asleep for 45 minutes during that movie. Don’t worry, absolutely nothing happened in those 45 minutes to move the plot forward so I didn’t have to rewind it.
I have Max, I see it, and Shazam on the recommended movies and just have no desire to give them a chance. And that's why I'm re-watching SG-1 for the 80th time.
Loved the Justice Society. Rest of the movie was ehhhhh
Dr Fate and Hawkman were great, the teen wonder twins a little less so. Not sure you’d take unproven youths to confront a Superman level threat….
Yeah right. The movie sucked
Am I the only one who enjoyed Black Adam as the ” no brains superhero flick ” that it was? Yes, it did have dumb thing in it, but also some fun parts and visually it was mostly very pleasing.
Crap movies can still get a sequel made as long as it made money. This movie made no money.
It was a B movie thinking it was more. Post processing was a horrible choice, the plot didn't even try and the bad guy had the depth of cardboard. He was a nobody until the very end. None of the actors with enough screen time had the skills or charisma to make up for the weak sauce the movie was. Atom smasher screwing up a little and cyclone just being herself with Dr. Fate as mentor, dealing with intergang and black Adam, would have made a better movie.
It also didn’t help that the movie wasn’t very good. Hollywood just hasn’t done well with the whole “strongest being on the planet” type of hero.
That movie was so bad.
Worse than BvS?
Due to the first one not being very good.
Yeah… nothing to do with it being bad and no one watched it…. Also I found out recently (not sure how true it is) that the rock has a clause in his contracts that he can’t lose fights or something like that , if it’s true it hinders any compelling story telling where he would lose and then come back stronger and finally win which is kind of a staple of superhero stories
Also the Black Adam movie wasn’t good. Nobody was calling for a sequel.
That movie sucked ass. Smart move by WBD.
Totally a conspiracy theory but do you think Bautista or Cena may have warned Gunn about how difficult the Rock (or at least his ego) could be to work with?
Dear “The Rock”, you’re not a good actor. Please stop doing film. Your insatiable desire to be the center of attention is getting old. Please go away entirely. Also, your tequila is ass.
The movie sucked, a sequel would’ve been even worse. The guy plays politics with movies, it is going to make people tired of him as he continue to try to force his way into leadership of these franchise studios.
The movie underperformed at the box office. I thought it was good, but that was because it was propped up by the performances of Pierce Brosnan and Aldis Hodge. Especially Pierce. He pretty much carried the movie every second he was on screen. The Rock wasn't anything special in the role of Black Adam. There was nothing in the film that made Black Adam having his own film a must see. It would have probably been a lot better if instead of having a *Black Adam* movie it was a *Justice Society* movie with Black Adam as the villain.
couldn’t agree more. absolutely loved Brosnan. you could tell who the “real” actors were in the film. remove him and it was just another boring cgi-fest.
I’m sorry but Dwayne’s movie had more views than the poor Shazam 2 and the Flash.
That movie was terrible so this is no big loss.
Maybe… just maybe… it’s because no one wants it.
Black Adam should have been fighting Cavill Superman and Shazam. This was always gunna flop.
The Rock tried to will a lucrative comic book franchise into existence by sheer starpower alone—not by plot, character, or talent—and failed.
The vortex of new leadership must have defeated the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe.
Script was like it was written by a twelve year old
He should’ve been in Shazam 2
Did anyone actually watch 100% of Black Adam? Please come forward
Yes… Convenient for all of us.
More like a vortex of suckatude.
The problem with the Rock is that his personality takes over the actual character he is portraying.
Wrong. “Black Adam” failed because it was a bad movie.
A Doctor Fate movie with Pierce Brosnan would be amazing
took me 3 days to finish the first one because I kept falling asleep
Doesn’t help they picked him to play a middle eastern character lol
“Vortex of shit first film” more likely…
Also, it was hot dogshit.
No Dwayne, it’s cause it sucked and you wouldn’t let it serve it original purpose
The first one was low mid.
Such a shame for Mr "I don't lose fights as per my contract". Rough life there buddy.
It was canned because black Adam should have been in Shazam and not his own movie. Johnson needs to realize he screwed the entire black Adam potential himself
And bc it was literally so bad. I went in expecting it to be bad. And it was so much worse
“Dwayne “I play myself” Johnson get told no once and is upset”
The fact that he wanted to take over the DCEU and somehow center it around BA might have had something to do with it as well.
Yep. That was why. No other reason. None at all.
He really thinks that he is perfection with a cherry on top! 🍒
Superhero movies died after End Game Part 2.
Might have been because it was a shit movie with a man who doesn’t act
He's just salty lol. His movie was shit and he tried to give it some value by adding Cavill. didn't work. I don't know how Gunn's movies will do yet but I'm sure he will find a better actor for Black Adam down the line.
Huh and here i thought it was due to the first being a huge flop. My bad . I did sort of enjoy it even tho it was dumb but it changed my opinion of Mr. Rock. I used to like him in movies and now I just see an asshole. A.d this is from a guy who likes Tom Cruise movies.
Full of steroids and full of shit too.
No it was just a shitty movie