Black Adamwas released to much hype and excitement in 2022. The movie had been a passion project for lead actor Dwayne Johnson for more than a decade. In the run-up to the film’s release, the action superstar had promised a story that would fundamentally change the “hierarchy of power” in the DCEU while welcoming a compelling new anti-hero into the live-action superhero movie family.
Unfortunately, the final product fell short of expectations when the movie was finally released. This is despite the fact thatBlack Adamis clearly modeled afterone of the greatest action movies of all time,Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Let’s take a look at howBlack Adamtries to follow theTerminator 2formula but makes some major missteps along the way.
The Fish Out of Water Archetype
The titular character ofBlack Adamis a superhero from centuries past, who finds himself unexpectedly in the modern age following some magical shenanigans. Black Adam is immensely powerful but is unfamiliar with modern social norms and etiquette. Here Black Adam is presented much like Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character inTerminator 2, the T-800, a powerful future cyborg sent to the present to protect Sarah and John Connor.
But while there is good reason for the T-800 to act in an eccentric manner (due to it being a robot) which leads tomany comedic moments in theTerminatorfilms, Black Adam acting similarly in his movie does not make sense. Like Adam’s habit of bursting through the walls of any room he is in. Had doors not been invented in the time period he was born in? In his movie, Black Adam acts like the T-800, an indifferent machine who must be taught to understand emotions and grows to love humanity by the end. But this character arc is puzzling since Adam was always a human being who had led a full life before arriving in modern times.
Way Too Overpowered
The T-800 is one of the most powerful protagonists in film history — a seemingly unstoppable tank on two legs who can take a shotgun blast to the face and keep going like it was nothing. But as tough and relentless as he is, the T-800 is not invincible. By the end of the movie, the machine is on its last legs, barely holding on in the face of the menace of the movie’s villain, the T-1000 robot.
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Black Adamfeatures a similarly powerful main character. The problem here is that he’s much too powerful for his own good. Right from his entrance scene, the character is accosted by a literal army with guns, rocket launchers, and tanks, and none of them make a scratch on Black Adam. Then a new group of superheroes called the Justice Society show up to stop Black Adam, and they are unsuccessful as well. Adam himself declares that there is no one in the world who can stop him, which means there is no conflict or tension in any of the fight scenes since the audience knows Black Adam is never in any real danger.
The Underdeveloped Sidekick
A highlight ofTerminator 2was the relationship between the teenager John Connor and the T-800.Black Adamtries to develop a similar relationship between its titular character and a young kid named Amon. Much like John, Amon is a plucky and brave teenager who helps Black Adam find his bearings in the modern world and discover a purpose beyond being a relentless killing machine.
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Unfortunately, the Adam/Amon dynamic fails to carry the weight of the John/T-800 friendship because Amon does not get a lot of character development. He is just some kid who happens to be present at the time of Black Adam’s awakening and tags along with the character on his adventures. At no point does Amon feel necessary to the plot beyond explaining to Adam how the modern world works. Compare this to theJohn Connor character created by James Cameron, whose role as the future leader of humanity is central to the plot of his movie, and is the main reason for the arrival of the T-800 and the events of the story getting kicked off.
Lack of Strong Villains
Terminator 2features some of the most iconic villains in cinema history. The supremely menacing T-1000 robot, who makes slasher movie killers like Jason Voorhees and Micheal Myers look like chumps. And Skynet, the master AI from the future bent onthe destruction of the human race. Despite never being confronted directly, Skynet’s terrifying presence looms ominously over the entire plot of the movie like a ticking atomic bomb.
Black Adamalso features two antagonistic forces against the main character. The Justice Society and Sabbac the Demon King. Despite beingpopular comic superheroes, the Justice Societyfail to make much of an impact on the story beyond looking cool. At no point do they pose a physical threat to Black Adam, and their code of conduct with respect to the people of Black Adam’s nation is also repeatedly called into question. This makes the Justice Society seem less like heroes and more like incompetent government lackeys.
Even worse is the final villain Sabbac, who gets no build-up of any kind. He simply pops up near the end when the movie needs a big climactic fight to end the story. Audiences have no idea who Sabbac is, why he is so dangerous, or what will happen if he wins over Black Adam. And so the ending ofBlack Adamfeels a lot like a badly made video game cutscene, where you are watching CGI characters you don’t care about fighting over stakes that have not been made clear. In the end, it all leads to a conclusion that makes little impact on the audience.
