Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, the omnipotent Hollywood juggernaut, currently finds himself stuck between a rock and a hard place - both literally and metaphorically. The critically contentious, Black Adam, remains an indelible black mark in his illustrious career, not for the highs, but for the tumultuous waves it left in its wake. So what went wrong? Is it truly the "vortex of new leadership" at Warner Bros., as Johnson proclaims, or is there more beneath the surface?
Black Adam, the superhero film that could've been a resounding victory, instead became a metaphorical sacrificial lamb amidst Warner Bros' constantly evolving hierarchy. Released in a nebulous period - two days following Walter Hamada's resignation and a month before James Gunn and Peter Safran took the helm - the film found itself trapped between the starkly different regimes. It was like standing at the eye of a storm, seeing the looming chaos yet paralyzed to move.
Johnson's vision for Black Adam was audacious. He reportedly pressured Warner Bros. to bring Henry Cavill's Superman into the mix, setting the stage for an epic showdown in future movies. His ambition was clear: to refashion the DCEU in a direction that accentuated his role. While this might seem like a tactical maneuver for some, critics like Dominic Griffin saw it as an attempt to craft the universe in Johnson's own image, labeling it a vanity project.
