In more recent times, DC movies have been a major bust, but none can truly compare to the action filled slop that was “Black Adam,” starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. 

Let me lay it out for you: it seems Director Jaume Collet-Serra has poured every superhero plot in history into the same mixing bowl to create the sad and unrisen cake that is “Black Adam.”

DC has amassed a major cult following through much-loved films like “Wonder Woman” and “Deadpool,” bringing the company massive success. But, as soon as the first commercial for “Black Adam” was released, it appeared DC’s future wasn’t looking bright.

“[It was] not a masterpiece by any means,” said Jacoby Pugh, Summit freshman.The story begins in the dystopian Middle Eastern nation of Khandaq, where our heroine, Adrianna—an archeologist searching for the Crown of Sabbac—attempts to overthrow the government’s military regime and free her people.

Ever so predictably, Adrianna finds the crown that will bring the dictatorship down and of course all hell breaks loose—including Black Adam. 

Mere moments after the coup, the government arrives to take the crown back; whereupon Black Adam starts to incinerate the government’s goons. Luckily, nothing can stop our all-powerful vigilante. Nothing can kill him. And yet, nothing can stop this movie from being so utterly awful.

Because of how insanely powerful Black Adam is, it seemed that whatever fight he got himself into he would always come out on top. This made the movie bland and boring. The magic in Marvel movies is how the superheroes were imperfect and made mistakes along the way, but DC creates the characters as if they were a solid piece of steel: no emotion, no feelings, just strength and muscles. 

To add on to this mish-mosh of a movie, Black Adam’s character backstory was left incomplete, and devoid of any sort of spice.

The main protagonists should be sent back to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) recycling bin—where they belong. We have Hawkman, played by Aldis Hodge, Cyclone, played by Quintessa Swindelle and Dr Fate, a goateed wizard played by Pierce Brosnan, who reminds me of some other goateed wizard, Dr Strange. 

Oh, and I almost forgot the last superhero: Atom Smasher—AKA a Tom Holland ripoff—played by Noah Centineo, whose only superpower is to become physically gigantic. That’s it. Super creative, right? Golly gosh, guess the screen writers forgot to take a dose of eccentric idea juice when drafting characters. 

The chaotic and unnecessary addition of random weirdos introduced left and right throughout the film left characters lacking a sense of emotional development. They were just there to make the movie more of a tasteless production.

In all honesty, the movie should’ve stopped after the first hour, but don’t get your hopes up: there’s a whole hour more of content to suffer through—we should be undoubtedly grateful.

Despite being a total disaster, the movie did a good job of keeping you on your toes with constant action and fight scenes. The computer effects were well done and popped on screen.

However, the thing that truly bugged me to the core about this terrible excuse of a movie is that the plot is essentially a copy-and-paste of several other superhero films. It seems DC is trying to climb up the status ladder that Marvel has laid down before them. I hate to say it —even though I really don’t—DC will always be a crappier version of MCU for cinematic eternity.