Some friends and I had a debate about Black Adam the other day. One of my friends liked it. Honestly, I haven’t even bothered. It’s kind of the state of superhero movies right now. Haven’t been to the movies to see one in a while. It seems superhero movies have settled into a comfortable mediocrity. Why aren’t they as good anymore? Because they don’t have to be. People will fork over their money so why bother with a good script, compelling characters, and a memorable movie?
Even from the trailer, I just wasn’t interested. Let’s take a look:
Ok so yeah… just from the trailer, the dialog, the visuals… you can tell. Meh.
What’s the big line from this trailer? What’s the imposing catchphrase? The memorable tagline? It goes like this:
HAWKMAN: Heroes don’t kill people!
And the retort is….
Wait for it…
It’s coming…
BLACK ADAM: Well I do.
Yikes.
Lazy. Boring. Mediocre. If the hero of your movie is throwing out memorable lines like that in the trailer, you’ve got a problem.
We’ve had talks about Dwayne Johnson before. Great guy, definitely star material. Built, badass, charismatic, handsome, imposing. Maybe not Hamlet material as an actor, but we all know that doesn’t matter. Still though… what a waste!
“If it bleeds, we can kill it.”
“It’s not a tumor.”
“I’ll be back.”
“Hasta la vista, baby!”
“What’s best in life? To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women!”
The obvious comparison here is Arnold Schwarzenegger. But when you compare their movies… Arnie: True Lies, Predator, Terminator, Conan the Barbarian, Total Recall, Running Man. What movies come to mind when you think of The Rock? Anything? How about Rampage? Disney Jungle Cruise? Skyscraper? Ok, maybe the F&F series but… whatevs.
My point is… c’mon Dwayne! Find a good script, a good director… A GOOD MOVIE!