Warner Bros. Discovery is mere days away from bringing Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's Black Adam to theaters across the world, finally allowing the superstar to enter the world of superhero movies for the first time. But after the movie's first viewings for the critics, plenty of negative feedback has already flooded the internet as the DC Extended Universe looks to get back on track.
While the reactions to Black Adam thus far haven't been disappointing across the board, there have been plenty of social media reviews that haven't painted the Rock's solo outing in the best light. The Direct's own Russ Milheim described it as yet another "forgettable" outing from the DC Universe, while other critics used terms like "messy" and "inconsistent" to tease what fans should expect to see from the DCEU's next movie.
And now, as fans wait to see for themselves what Warner Bros. has in store for the Man in Black's first solo outing, Rotten Tomatoes has come out with its own critics consensus for the movie. Unfortunately, it continues the trend of the other reviews as well.
Black Adam Gets Rotten Tomatoes Score
The critics' consensus for Black Adam on Rotten Tomatoes currently sits at a 53% critic approval rating with 91 reviews online.
The consensus stated that while Black Adam may open the doors to "an exciting future" for DC, it's an "uneven letdown" on its own:
"Black Adam may end up pointing the way to an exciting future for DC films, but as a standalone experience, it's a wildly uneven letdown."
Blu-ray.com's Brian Orndof called the experience "fatiguing" and even "irritating," lamenting the fact that the movie falls so short of what a comic-book film should be:
"The viewing experience is fatiguing, borderline irritating, which isn’t what comic book entertainment should be."
Raising Whasians' Christie Cronan sees the movie as one worth watching, even though she made it clear that it didn't land as a success:
"Lightning doesn't strike twice for DC, but this action-packed storm is still worth a watch."
The AU Review's Peter Gray saw how much love went into the Black Adam character but concluded that the parts of this movie "don't speak cohesively to the passion" that pushed it forward:
"The love for the character is evident, but the sum of all the film’s parts don’t speak cohesively to the passion that fuelled this project."
Substream Magazine's Murjani Rawls noted how the "wait, there's more" approach "(lessened) the impact" of what may have been an exciting adventure otherwise:
"Because Black Adam elects to bombard you with the 'wait, there’s more' approach; it lessens the impact of what could be a fascinating story"
Newsboy's Rafer Guzman kept his review short and sweet by describing Black Adam as "another low point for the Warner-DC franchise."
The Jewish Chronicle's Linda Marric was "let down by a convoluted premise" and heavily criticized Black Adam's use of CGI, noting that this movie likely wasn't was most fans were hoping for:
"Let down by a convoluted premise and some truly atrocious CGI renderings, it’s safe to say that this isn’t the DCEU offering starring Dwayne Johnson most of us were hoping for."
Will Box Office Make Up for Reviews for Black Adam?
From almost every angle imaginable right now, it's become abundantly clear that the critics haven't been very high on Dwayne Johnson's debut adventure within the struggling DC Universe. With hopes that his star power and passion for the character would help propel this movie to the high standard that fans have come to expect from superhero films, this one doesn't appear to have reached that mark.
Even with rumors about Black Adam bringing back Henry Cavill's Superman in a post-credit appearance, this movie hasn't found a way to get fans truly excited to hit the theaters over its opening weekend. While that could obviously change in the coming days, unfortunately, the movie's Rotten Tomatoes outcome is unlikely to help its reception amongst fans as Warner Bros. Discovery looks to make its mark financially this year.
Hopefully, as more fans take in what Johnson and crew have worked on for the past few years, things will start looking up for Warner Bros. Discovery as the company tries to figure out what to do with its superhero movie universe.
Black Adam will debut in theaters on Friday, October 21.
