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By Michael O\u2019Sullivan<\/strong><\/p>\n Does the world need a hero, or someone less afraid to get their hands dirty? That\u2019s the (moderately intriguing) question that infuses the otherwise formulaic comic-book movie \u201cBlack Adam\u201d with a measure of\u2026 something. <\/p>\n Gravitas? Grit? Grandiloquence? Whatever you call it, it does not lie at the heart of the film.<\/p>\n What does is the same molten core of rock-\u2019em, sock-\u2019em hokum we\u2019ve come to expect from almost every other film of this ilk. <\/p>\n Rather, it hangs over the CGI-heavy proceedings like a brooding shadow, cooling and darkening the overheated action just enough to make things interesting.<\/p>\n This being an origin story of the title character (Dwayne Johnson), a nearly 5 000-year-old former enslaved person with powers beyond those of any mortal, the film sets the stage with a complicated and turgid prologue (one that is entirely necessary for all except the most invested fans of the DC Comics franchise from which Black Adam has sprung). <\/p>\n Opening in the fictional land of Kahndaq, somewhere in the Middle East, judging by terrain and other cultural clues, in the year 2600 BC, the film introduces us to a man, then known as Teth-Adam, who has been given superpowers \u2013 strength, speed, flight, the ability to channel lightning-like electricity and withstand projectiles \u2013 by a bunch of wizards harnessing the energy of a mineral called Eternium. <\/p>\n Activated by uttering the word \u201cShazam\u201d, an incantation that turns on and off Adam\u2019s powers like a switch, a champion rises up to defeat the evil king of Kahndaq, and then goes promptly back to sleep.<\/p>\n Please don\u2019t stop reading. This is the condensed version.<\/p>\n Fast-forward to more-or-less the present day, or perhaps the near future \u2013 one in which the residents of a modernized Kahndaq have been oppressed for 27 years by a cabal of violent imperialist mercenaries known as the Intergang. <\/p>\n An underground group of Kahndaqi partisans, led by a former academic named Adrianna (Sarah Shahi), is seeking a long-buried relic, but so is the Intergang. In the squabbling process, they awaken Adam.<\/p>\n Despite having been napping for five millennia, he ain\u2019t happy, and proceeds to slaughter a mess of Intergang goons, in slow motion, in an early special-effects set-piece choreographed to the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cPaint It, Black\u201c. <\/p>\n Okay, it\u2019s pretty cool, especially if you like explosions. But full disclosure: This is not my favourite version of Dwayne Johnson, all grumpy and murderous. <\/p>\n Soon enough, Adam quickly learns the ropes of being a superhero, thanks to Adrianna\u2019s comics-obsessed teenage son (Bodhi Sabongui), who even gives Adam a catchphrase he\u2019s instructed to utter just before he kills his victims: \u201cTell them the man in black sent you.\u201d (Yes, it needs work.)<\/p>\n Sarcasm is something Adam picks up from Doctor Fate (Pierce Brosnan), a wry wizard and poor man\u2019s Doctor Strange who is a member of something called the Justice Society, composed of superheroes Hawkman, Cyclone and Atom Smasher (Aldis Hodge, Quintessa Swindell and Noah Centineo, respectively).<\/p>\n Think of it as Nato, but with superpowers; they say they\u2019ve been called to Kahndaq to protect \u201cglobal stability\u201d. In trying to get Adam to work with them, they teach him about teamwork. To which Adam replies, in a voice dripping with derision, that he loves teams (not).<\/p>\n Now that Dwayne Johnson is more like it. It\u2019s hard to suppress the guy\u2019s charm, so casting him in \u201cBlack Adam\u201d seems counter-intuitive.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing: Adam is not the film\u2019s hero, despite his name being on the marquee. He shoots lightning bolts out of his fingers first, asks questions later. <\/p>\n But in this movie \u2013 in the context of a nation oppressed by an occupying army, with checkpoints and other losses of freedom \u2013 it dares to suggest that someone who skirts the bounds of morality might be just the person Kahndaq needs.<\/p>\n Make no mistake: \u201cBlack Adam\u201d proceeds with predictable action sequences, tiresome fight scenes and the now-requisite sacrifice of a major character. <\/p>\n But it\u2019s that seasoning of radical politics \u2013 the theme, expressed in the film as a question of whether freedom fighters should have to play by the rules of war \u2013 that gives it a bit of spice. <\/p>\n Whether that\u2019s enough to set \u201cBlack Adam\u201d apart in a world that arguably has too many superhero movies, is unclear.<\/p>\n Put another way: The question is not \u201cDoes the world need Black Adam?\u201d but \u201cIs the world ready for him?\u201d<\/p>\n