![]() ![]() Black Adam is freed by widowed professor Adrianna (Sarah Shahi, Sex/Life), who is trying to fight the Intergang, the mercenaries who've been Kahndaq's new oppressors for decades - and, yes, Black Adam gets caught up in that battle. Bridging the gap: the fact that back in the day, one boy was anointed with magic by ancient wizards to defend Kahndaq's people (the word "shazam!" gets uttered, because Black Adam dwells in the same part of the DCEU as 2019's Shazam! and its upcoming sequel), but misusing those skills ended in entombment until modern-day resistance fighters interfere. Now, 5000 years later, Black Adam is a just-awakened mortal-turned-god who isn't too thrilled about the modern world, or being in it. As a mere human in 2600 BCE in the fictional Middle Eastern country of Kahndaq, its namesake was among an entire populace caught under a cruel ruler hungry for power, and for a powerful supernatural crown fashioned out a mineral called 'eternium' that said subjects were forced to mine. Black Adam, the film, has much backstory to lay out, with exposition slathered on thick during the opening ten minutes. ![]() That said, Black Adam, the character, has much to scowl about - and scowl he does. The latter has template-esque action flicks Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night and The Commuter on his resume before that, and helms his current star here like he'd rather still directing Liam Neeson. It's hard not to wish that the Fast and Furious franchise's humour seeped into his performance, however, or even the goofy corniness of Jungle Cruise, Johnson's last collaboration with filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra. He looks the physical part, of course, as he needs to playing a slave-turned-champion who now can't be killed or hurt. Glowering and gloomy is a personality, for sure, but it's not what's made The Rock such a box office drawcard - and, rather than branching out, breaking the mould or suiting the character, he just appears to be pouting and coasting. It also shows deference to the lack of spark and personality that makes the lesser DC-based features so routine at best, too.Įven worse, Black Adam kneels to the idea that slipping Johnson into a sprawling superhero franchise means robbing the wrestler-turned-actor himself of any on-screen personality. It bends the knee to the dispiritingly by-the-numbers template that keeps lurking behind this comic book-inspired series' most forgettable entries, and the whole franchise's efforts to emulate the rival (and more successful) Marvel Cinematic Universe, for starters. ![]() Yet the DC Extended Universe flick that Black Adam is in - the 11th in a saga that's rarely great - kneels frequently to almost everything. That proclamation is made early in the film that bears the burly, flying, impervious-to-everything figure's name, echoing as a statement of might as well as mood: he doesn't need to bow down to anyone or anything, and if he did he wouldn't anyway. The Rolling Stones and the Beatles, however, were completely subverting this: They’d both been at it for three years and showed absolutely no signs of slowing down, even if John Lennon’s “more popular than Jesus” line caused a bump in the road for the latter act."I kneel before no one," says Teth-Adam, aka Black Adam, aka the DC Comics character that dates back to 1945, and that Dwayne Johnson ( Red Notice) has long wanted to play. The group was on a grueling British tour in October of 1966, often playing two shows a night, but during a four-day break they headed to Studio 5 at Wembley and taped a three-song set for Ready Steady Go!, sharing the stage with Eric Burdon and the Animals and Paul & Barry Ryan, an almost totally forgotten pair of twin brothers whose career lasted just about a year.Ī career path like Paul & Barry Ryan was the norm for a pop act at this time: a handful of hits before fading into complete oblivion. The Rolling Stones 1963-1969: Behind-the-Scenes Snapshots “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Lady Jane” and “Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing In The Shadow” also got a lot of airplay. Their fourth album, Aftermath, hit stores that April, and their sitar-infused single “Paint It Black” spent two weeks at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in June. The Rolling Stones were nearing their peak as pop hit makers when they appeared on Ready Steady Go! on October 7th, 1966. ![]()
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