Black Adam's Rotten Tomatoes rating is pretty rough

The DCEU is a somewhat messy place at the moment. Both The Flash and Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom are plagued by cast-related controversies, and fans are beginning to wonder what the long-term plan for the franchise is. The DCEU isn’t without its shining beacons of hope though.

I think I can speak on behalf of most DC fans when I say that we’re very excited for Shazam! Fury Of The Gods but ahead of that, we’ve got Dwayne Johnson’s superhero turn in Black Adam. Last week’s early reviews were full of compliments towards the film’s action set pieces, but Black Adam’s Rotten Tomatoes rating tells a different story.

Check out the trailer for Black Adam below.

Early reviews were certainly mixed, but they seemed to have a positive sway. It’s slightly surprising then that Black Adam has ended up with a 55% Tomatometer rating. As reported by ComicBook, this makes Black Adam the lowest rated DC movie since Justice League. Critics all appeared to share the same opinion: Black Adam is a fun film yet it’s let down by its sloppy script.

MovieWeb’s Julian Roman wrote, “If only the script kicked as much behind as our anti-hero. Dazzling action saves the simple narrative,” while Houston Chronicle’s Jesse Hassenger added, “Johnson’s career has become so meticulously engineered and marketed that even his brooding, murderous DC anti-hero can only cause Teflon mayhem.”

Rolling Stone’s David Fear said, “Johnson is not the problem with Black Adam. The issue is with everything else happening on screen around him. Even by the DCEU’s dodgy standards, it’s a mess in a cape.” CNN’s Brian Lowry drove the point home, “After DC’s happy experience with the lighter-hearted Shazam, this drab addition to its universe merely underscores how hard it is to catch lightning once, much less twice.”

The slating doesn’t stop there. Indiewire’s David Ehrlich added, “There isn’t a single character here that doesn’t feel like a cheap photocopy of one from Gotham or the MCU, not a single beat that doesn’t feel like it hasn’t been audience-tested within an inch of its life.” I have a feeling audiences could have fun with Black Adam, just don’t expect to have a deep or profound experience.