If anything felt like a sure thing in Hollywood over the past few years, it was probably the idea of an action movie starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. He's got the looks, the track record, and the personality to put butts in seats. Unfortunately, "Black Adam" lacks a coherent identity. It's a film that's heavy on bombast but low on plot, mostly because it doesn't seem to know what story it's trying to tell.

"Black Adam" opens with a teenager Amon Tomaz (Bodhi Sabongui) skating through a city in Khandaq, a fictional country in the Middle East, under siege by the Intergang criminal syndicate. As the Smashing Pumpkins song "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" plays in the background, Amon successfully outwits a group of mercenaries guarding a checkpoint, helping his mother, Adrianna Tomaz (Sarah Shahi) escape. Adrianna is in a race to find a magical crown before Intergang can find it, as it is a source of great power. It's also the rare metal that powers Intergang weapons.

Of course, things don't quite go as planned, and in a desperate attempt to escape, Adrianna awakens Black Adam (Johnson). After being asleep for 5,000 years, Black Adam destroys the bad guys in a fight scene that looks like it could have been pulled straight from Marvel vs. Capcom. It's at this point when things go a bit sideways, plot-wise.

We've not seen anything that shows Black Adam is dangerous to the people of Khandaq, but the Justice Society is ordered to take him down. The thing is that the movie doesn't bother to introduce the Justice Society. While casual comic fans will probably recognize Hawkman (Aldis Hodge), Dr. Fate (Pierce Brosnan), Atom Smasher (Noah Centineo), and Cyclone (Quintessa Swindell) are all DC deep cuts. The characters all have big screen potential, but chances are good that most viewers won't have a clue who they are. Imagine if the Guardians of the Galaxy randomly showed up in the first Thor movie without explanation (or their own movie). That's the Justice Society here.

The movie also drops any real pretense of telling a dramatic story and slides into a focus on big action set pieces. Without a doubt, the fights look cool, but they're more music video than anything else. Slow-mo is used liberally, and while the backing tracks are solid, most don't really tie into the overall theme of an antihero.

It's the story of an antihero, or the lack of said story, that pushes "Black Adam" into generic territory. In the opening act, the script started to set up some solid commentary on the poor being ignored by the powerful, might making right because justice was denied, and later, it toys with the question of revenge versus justice. Sadly, the flirtation with deeper themes is superficial at best, which is a massive missed opportunity.

Because the script couldn't figure out how to handle Black Adam's development, the movie ends up not knowing what to do with the character. Despite Johnson's strong personality, Black Adam ends up in the background whenever he's not fighting. Shahi's performance as Adrianna easily outclasses the others in the film, as she stands up to both Black Adam and the Justice Society more than once. This is more her story than his.

Even then, I use "story" liberally. That's because plot elements don't flow naturally. They just happen. Midway through the story, Black Adam suddenly gets a conscience, but there's no build-up. He just flips from "badass who cares about nothing" to moping. At another point in the movie, there is a death that is supposed to be dramatic, but it comes across as empty and contrived. Throughout it all, the explosions look cool.

Ultimately, that's the hook that "Black Adam" has chosen to hang its hat on: big explosions and cool special effects. To be fair, the movie is at its best when the superpowered folks are throwing punches and when the normies are fighting off the undead. Just don't try to dig any deeper or pull at any of the hanging threads. As soon as you do, the whole thing unravels.

Score: 6.0/10

"Black Adam" is rated PG-13 and has a running time of 2 hours and 4 minutes. It is showing in standard theaters and in IMAX theaters.