It was only a few hours before the theatrical release this Wednesday that the press was able to discover black adam by Jaume Collet-Serra in public preview in the crowded room of the Grand Rex, in Paris. An overexcited atmosphere and fans on the verge of a nervous breakdown proved that Dwayne Johnson’s adventures as an angry deity have everything it takes to bring back massive audiences in the room.
A band of super vigilantes (led by Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate) must calm the rather revered god after he is awakened by a rebel as his land of Kahndaq is invaded by military men in search of a magical crown. 20 minutes explains why this spin-off of Shazam! does the job despite this choppy pitch.
Super and known heroes
The script is not the main asset of black adam but, to hear the howls of joy in the room, it counts for little compared to the enthusiasm to recognize heroines and heroes in gleaming costumes. We almost lost our hearing permanently during the post-generic sequence which reserves a major surprise.
Dwayne Johnson is divine
We can never say it enough but the charisma of Dwayne Johnson, very comfortable as an ex-slave who has become divine and indestructible, sparkles on the big screen! Fake villain, not quite nice, he lights up the film with his presence and that’s good because the audience is there for him. This guy is a real star and does not let him ignore.
Extra-large baston
Jaume Collet-Serra, who had previously directed Dwayne Johnson in Jungle Cruise, gets along there to orchestrate fights which point out the boxes of DC Comics. All these super-powered heroes beat each other almost non-stop with obvious enthusiasm, demolishing everything in their path. We have a weakness for Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo) whose size with variable geometry causes a lot of damage.
A collective experience
One of the joys of this type of spectacular entertainment is that it promotes complicity between the spectators. The preview audience enjoyed shouting “Shazam! with Dwayne Johnson as kids would have done in front of a Guignol show. black adam really deserves to be seen in theaters to live this collective experience.