Black Adam - Rentable

MOVIE DISCUSSION:

Melvin & Dan discuss the latest entry in the troubled, frustrating, and extremely strange DC Universe. This time it features fan-and-mom favorite Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson donning a cool black suit and looking maliciously confused. Neat! 

Topics: 

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 35-minutes talking about Walter Hamada stepping down from the DCU, James Gunn replacing him, and the lack of cultural permanence DC has compared to Marvel, or even Horror/Slasher icons. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 
• Daniel briefly details the 15-year journey Dwayne Johnson took to get Black Adam made, featuring himself in the titular role. 
• Melvin & Dan agree: The first half of the film is pretty dang fun, albeit nothing new. 
• Despite a marginally enjoyable experience, Melvin feels like it's "a movie that I'm already tired of seeing", one that has been made for the last decade and a half. 
• Every two years the DCU has shifted and turned and changed its mind; do we really care anymore? Does it matter? Why even bother speculating? 
• Black Adam's trailer, its opening exposition drop, and its plotline all tell a different story about Black Adam's origin, which is obviously cleared up by the film as it unfolds but makes the experience of watching the movie extremely confusing. 
• Apparently, parts of Black Adam were "Rated R" worthy, and the current product in theaters is a trimmed edit to reach a PG-13. Melvin wonders which scenes were different. 
• Apart from Black Adam feeling like most mid-Marvel flicks, it's also a superhero film releasing after Marvel had, like, 5-7 film and TV projects. The Superhero genre is feeling especially tired in 2022. 
• Discussing Darren Mooney's Escapist Review of Black Adam where he felt the film was functionally worse than Morbius for various reasons. 
• Melvin proposes that HBOmax start putting up the R-rated cuts of DC flicks since they can't seem to decide what they want with their DC films. 

Recommendations: 

• Wendell & Wild (2022) (Movie) 
• Emily the Criminal (2022) (Movie)