David Zimmerman

Black Adam had such bad reviews that I was floored by how enjoyable a watch it was on Netflix. I thought it was the perfect blend of magic and super science along with having a very reluctant anti hero in the titular role. Dwayne Johnson's Black Adam gives Vin Diesel's Riddick a real run for the money in the anti hero department. I have to conclude the bad reviews were due to the not very disguised cultural issues so prevalent and blindly ignored in the USA. I think the action sequences were perfect along with the slow motion segments that were panned by some reviewers. And even better, there was a clear progression of growth for Black Adam along the films trajectory. Both Cyclone and Isis were beautiful and I applaud the actors ability to portray such strong characters. Atom Smasher was a bit of a comic relief while also showing growth during the film. Hawkman and Doctor Fate were essential parts to making this a very engaging film. While there were multiple shades of gray instead of clear cut good versus evil I think the conflict that created made the film more interesting and complex. If you have not bothered to watch this gem due to the bad reviews I would definitely give it a watch now that it is streaming.

It was a decent horror movie though fairly predictable. Being a degreed techie I was a bit disappointed at the approach to using a rogue A I. as the star. The idea of building a toy doll companion that had super strength with few safeguards is so silly that I had to suspend my credulity in order to enjoy the horror aspects. It is a combination of Frankenstein meets Chuckie meets improbability. What saved it was the actors. The actors sold the story and allowed me to put my tech know how on the back burner. Kudos to the ladies that played and voiced the doll and the CGI that blended seamlessly with the live action stunts. The child protagonist also shone in her portrayal of a young girl suffering tragedy, loss, hope, and more loss as well as some of her own kick behind action. Definitely a good watch if you enjoy horror movies and good acting.

My Wife and I watched it on Amazon Prime. It was disappointing from a what it could have been, aspect. It starts out as a fairly normal mission to Mars that is wrapping up and turns into a night of the living dead. They could have at least had the gumption to kill off everyone at the end or show a nice fiery plummet to mars surface but no, they had to wimp out and leave us wondering. 2 stars as it did have some nice props and some reasonable science before it turned into the zombie apocalypse. Acting was fairly unbelievable, people freaking out who somehow made it on the short list to do a Mars mission. The people involved were acting more like a high school slumber party than a science mission to the red planet. If you like zombie movies it is definitely worthwhile to watch. Neither my Wife and I are into zombie movies so we had to watch CSI Las Vegas to clear our mind of the non science frolic on Mars.