Black Adam !spoilers tags!

[Mirtek]

Just saw it and I must say that I liked it. I heard that it got bad reviews, but I can't confirm them. Sure, it's not an art house master piece but as far as DCU movies go it was certainly one of the better.

The story had a few contrived plot points, some more painful (to me) than others. Some may be comic lore accurate, but I have next to no knowledge of the Shazam comics and know even less about Black Adam.

But overall I just saw a very entertaining movie, I had more fun with this one than with the last Thor movie.

Some things that bothered me a little (or a more than a little)

• The Justice Society really carrying the idiot ball here. Maybe it's just a particular unlucky German dub, but OMG just say nothing if all you can think of is that bull****
• Having so much detailed knowledge of what happened 4,500 years ago, down to being able to trace specific ancestry. And I am not even talking about special knowledge of Waller's agency but what common people on the street have.
• The wizards back then happen to serve another pantheon of deities that just so happen to also spell SHAZAM with their names
• Also how giving the powers to his father de-powered the original champion while Billy doing the same to his family just created more superheroes
• The whole true villain reveal, battle, defeat was kind of boring compared to the earlier actions. The action sequences just did not hold up to the earlier movie. (maybe I am biased because the movie was already going on for quite some time at this point and I needed to pee )
• Kind of like with the last Thor movie, all this stuff in Shazam makes the whole plot of Man of Steel seem weird in hindsight. Actually the whole plot of BvS too.
• I personally would have preferred Shazam to appear in the after credit rather than Superman

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I haven't seen it yet, but I know the characters well and I'll comment on your list:

Spoiler: Comments

1. The Justice Society really carrying the idiot ball here. Maybe it's just a particular unlucky German dub, but OMG just say nothing if all you can think of is that bull****. That seems to be a common trope these days. It's very common for the lead characters to be morons in order to facilitate the plot. I wish they'd cut it out.
2. Having so much detailed knowledge of what happened 4,500 years ago, down to being able to trace specific ancestry. And I am not even talking about special knowledge of Waller's agency but what common people on the street have. That's odd, but I suppose it would be possible for Doctor Fate's Helmet to know these things. Otherwise, I got nothing.
3. The wizards back then happen to serve another pantheon of deities that just so happen to also spell SHAZAM with their names. That's right from the comics. It's very convenient, sure, but IIRC the Wizard named SHAZAM was named after the power, not his real name.
4. Also how giving the powers to his father de-powered the original champion while Billy doing the same to his family just created more superheroes. I think it splits the power between people, even for Billy. He's just not using the full power at the best of times, and doesn't notice as much.
5. The whole true villain reveal, battle, defeat was kind of boring compared to the earlier actions. The action sequences just did not hold up to the earlier movie. (maybe I am biased because the movie was already going on for quite some time at this point and I needed to pee ) That's a shame. I'll have to see it to see if I agree, but I suspect that I will. Final battles are usually big disappointments lately, so it's no surprise.
6. Kind of like with the last Thor movie, all this stuff in Shazam makes the whole plot of Man of Steel seem weird in hindsight. Actually the whole plot of BvS too. In what way?
7. I personally would have preferred Shazam to appear in the after credit rather than Superman. Me too. I knew this was happening and I understand it from a "Yay! They still care about Cavill!" kind of way - but Billy makes way more sense for the character.

 

[Stalker0]

Just saw it and I must say that I liked it. I heard that it got bad reviews, but I can't confirm them. Sure, it's not an art house master piece but as far as DCU movies go it was certainly one of the better.

The story had a few contrived plot points, some more painful (to me) than others. Some may be comic lore accurate, but I have next to now knowledge of the Shazam comics and know even less about Black Adam.

But overall I just saw a very entertaining movie, I had more fun with this one than with the last Thor movie.

Some things that bothered me a little (or a more than a little)

• The Justice Society really carrying the idiot ball here. Maybe it's just a particular unlucky German dub, but OMG just say nothing if all you can think of is that bull****
• Having so much detailed knowledge of what happened 4,500 years ago, down to being able to trace specific ancestry. And I am not even talking about special knowledge of Waller's agency but what common people on the street have.
• The wizards back then happen to serve another pantheon of deities that just so happen to also spell SHAZAM with their names
• Also how giving the powers to his father de-powered the original champion while Billy doing the same to his family just created more superheroes
• The whole true villain reveal, battle, defeat was kind of boring compared to the earlier actions. The action sequences just did not hold up to the earlier movie. (maybe I am biased because the movie was already going on for quite some time at this point and I needed to pee )
• Kind of like with the last Thor movie, all this stuff in Shazam makes the whole plot of Man of Steel seem weird in hindsight. Actually the whole plot of BvS too.
• I personally would have preferred Shazam to appear in the after credit rather than Superman

I echo most of this. Honestly I was pretty happy with it overall, I think its now a top tier DC movie, and probably an above average for Marvel.

The fight scenes were cool, I really like what they did with Dr Fate (my favorite character in the movie, I thought Pierce Brosnan did a solid job with him). Hawkman's suit looked really cool, Cyclone's powers looked amazing. I felt like were able to give us just enough backstory on our JSA members to care but then returned the focus to Black Adam. I think the Rock did a fine job of focusing on physical acting, only speaking when it really made sense to. The humor was decent, a few things fell flat but overall most of the jokes worked for me.

All in all I am more in the audience score for this movie (90%) than the critic score (40%). I do of course have some issues:

Spoiler

The fact that Hawkman (and then SUPERMAN of all people) are working with Waller. That just doesn't make sense. Now in Hawkman's case, if they had made it a bit more antagonistic, I could have bought it. Hawkman hates waller, but sometimes she has intel he needs. But they don't, it just seems like they have a straight up working relationship. Considering how black and white Hawkman is the entire movie about heroes and villains, this is a very strange paradox. And then.... Superman is working with Waller!!!!! Come ON, no way.

Cyclone has a genius IQ which is never used in the movie. That's really noticeable when at the end the villain drops his invincible shield right as he tries to shoot the kid. Eventually we learned why, so it makes sense for him to do that....but no one on the hero side questions it....especially the girl with the 169 or so IQ. Honestly she was a fine character without that, they could have just made her bright without being a super genius, and then that gap wouldn't have been as obvious.

I think the kid is a bit much. He's fine in small doses, but sometimes they just run with him too much and he starts to get annoying. I thought the mom was solid, I liked her throughout.

People are going to argue that Dr Fate "wasn't nearly powerful enough", but it did the job for me. He was one of the few that actually hurt both Black Adam and the bad guy. The more important part was getting out Fate's enigmatic nature, and the "man in two worlds" kind of feeling, and I think they got that pretty well.

So yeah all in all was pretty happy with it.

 

[Mirtek]

I haven't seen it yet, but I know the characters well and I'll comment on your list:

Spoiler: Comments

1. Kind of like with the last Thor movie, all this stuff in Shazam makes the whole plot of Man of Steel seem weird in hindsight. Actually the whole plot of BvS too. In what way?

Well,

I feel that Clark's hesitation to reveal himself to the world and the whole reaction of the world and Batman in particular suddenly feels very odd in hindsight not that we see being of that level of power have actually be operating in the world for a long time

Based on this I'd now have expected more of an "Yawn. Another one. And look, a spaceship with yet another dozen more. Anyway, wanna watch Netflix?"

From MoS I got the impression that this was the DCU's world "Iron Man moment" when the first came out of the blue. But now it was just *caped hero #0815"

 

[Tonguez]

WaKhandaq Forever!

I really enjoyed this as a Super-Rock movie, but it wasnt Black Adam, who was avengeful conquering who so would have claimed the throne. This hero was something else, I do think the Rock did well presenting a personality that was driven by anger and vengeance but was not fundamentally evil. I liked the commentary on the western Superhero Industrial complex and the middle east and the line “not your son, not your country” - what right does the JSA have to police international ‘justice’

Dr Fate and Hawkman were wasted opportunities especially as both have backstories that like Adams link to ancient not-Egypt. They were okay for what they were but engagement did rely on prior knowledge or cerebral disengagement. Not sure what the point of Cyclone and Atom Smasher were, except as eye candy and comic relief.

talking comic relief I did find it hillarious how much they copied from the MCU - the Quicksilver moving the bullets slow-mo, making Eternium a rare mineral found only in Khandaq that grants great power, Carter Halls X-Mansion and Blackbird Jetplane, the brighter colour palette.

Anyway story was okay for a comic book, not sure how Waller got to have a direct line to the JSA or Supes but oh well.

• Having so much detailed knowledge of what happened 4,500 years ago, down to being able to trace specific ancestry. And I am not even talking about special knowledge of Waller's agency but what common people on the street have.

• 
  
  Khandaqs a small nation thats held on to its mythology for a longtime and really the knowledge they had was largely legend reinforced by having a giant ancient statue in the middle of their city. As to ancestry (and relevantly to Dwayne Johnson) I can trace my genealogy to Maui who maybe lived 4000 years ago.
  
  

  [*]The wizards back then happen to serve another pantheon of deities that just so happen to also spell SHAZAM with their names

  
  You’re going to hate to learn that Sabbacs name comes from Satan, Aym, Belial, Beelzebub, Asmodeus and Crateis, the Khandaqian gods seem to have been big on acronyms
  
  

  [*]Also how giving the powers to his father de-powered the original champion while Billy doing the same to his family just created more superheroes

  I think it was Hurut handing them Over to his father rather than sharing the power, but yeah a bit weird. We might see Adam sharing his power if theres a sequel since both Adrianna and Amon are from comics.
  
  

  [*]The whole true villain reveal, battle, defeat was kind of boring compared to the earlier actions. The action sequences just did not hold up to the earlier movie. (maybe I am biased because the movie was already going on for quite some time at this point and I needed to pee )

  
  Yeah I agree that was one of those big cgi fests that have become the bane of superhero movies in general. It did strike me how much the DC movies like demons though - I kept being reminded of the Incubus in the first Suicide Squad movie AND Dumbsday from BVS.
  
  Snyders slow-mo explosions and exposition via narrator were all on show in this movie too
  
  

  [*]Kind of like with the last Thor movie, all this stuff in Shazam makes the whole plot of Man of Steel seem weird in hindsight. Actually the whole plot of BvS too.
  [*]I personally would have preferred Shazam to appear in the after credit rather than Superman
  [/ispoiler]

  
  One of the interesting things is that Black Adam has managed to link both the Snyderverse and the Suicide Squad into a single narrative, which is cool.
  Theres speculation that Dwayne Johnson is pushing to take over the DC movie franchise and reshape it to his vision - I’d be down for that.