Kahndaq, 2600 BC. In a fictitious proto-history, a bloodthirsty despot ascends the throne and enslaves a large section of his people to extract the Eternium, a mineral with mysterious powers. The aim is to build a demonic crown and become omnipotent: before this can happen, the Guardians of Magic – already seen in Shazam! – bestow divine superpowers on a rebellious slave, Teth-Adam, who annihilates the king and with him the entire palace. 5000 years later Adrianna and her son Amon conduct excavations in search of the crown of Eternium, but are attacked by the criminal organization Intergang. In desperation, Adrianna invokes the spirit of the Champion Teth-Adam and he returns to Earth, killing his enemies.

Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock, is one of the most underrated and misunderstood cinematic bodies around. It is almost impossible not to love his sincere attempt at acting evolution, aware of his own limitations and strengths.
Self-deprecating and physically insurmountable, he was a superhero of cinecomics even before cinecomics realized it and built a film around him. The title in question is Black Adam, a spin-off of Captain Marvel / Shazam (the DC character of the movie Shazam !, not to be confused with the Captain Marvel of Marvel) dating back to the 40s: an all-round hero, unstoppable and indestructible, placed in the unconvincing – at least in the cinema – pantheon of DC Comics.
Shirts that are tight in The Rock, despite his charisma always manages to emerge, together with the ability to make even the most obvious facial expressions cinematic. With Jaume Collet-Serra, once considered a quasi-author, the actor continues a partnership inaugurated by the unconvincing Jungle Cruise and Black Adam unfortunately seems destined to squander what little remained of the Spanish director’s credibility. The attempt to give an identity and uniqueness to Black Adam is in fact perennially compressed between too many déjà vu (the emulation of Clint Eastwood in the trilogy of the dollar? Again?), Between the fearful courtship of comic-idiotic cinema (such as already in Shazam!) and the indomitable will to elevate the poor reputation of the DC Universe.
They are centrifugal and disjoint forces that never blend in a film with an uncertain structure, with a long and prolix opening and a development with few surprises. Kahndaq would like to remember Ancient Egypt but in its genesis it follows Wakanda and the intervention of the Justice Society of America proposes characters – Doctor Fate, Hawkman, Cyclone and Atom Smasher – who have a long comic history, but do not have any on the big screen and inevitably end up looking like counterfeit versions of – respectively – Doctor Strange, Falcon, Tempest and Ant-Man.