Black Adam is a fun, by-the-numbers superhero flick that might be a guilty pleasure but fails to bring anything new to the genre.

The movie stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson playing the titular Black Adam. If you like Johnson's previous performances you'll probably like him in this one; he basically plays Dwayne Johnson here, just like he does in most of his movies.

Sarah Shahi is archaeologist Adrianna Tomaz, who seeks to unearth the ancient Crown of Sabbac, which was lost some 5,000 years ago in the city of Kahndaq when a young boy was given the powers of Shazam and killed the despotic ruler Anh-Kot before he could use the crown to gain unspeakable demonic powers. But the criminal organization Intergang also wants the crown, and they'll kill to get it.

Of course, Tomaz manages to awaken Teth-Adam, as Black Adam then was called, who has been sleeping for 5,000 years. Of course, he slaughters the gangsters.

Somehow Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) learns of Teth-Adam's awakening, knows instantly who he is and what he represents, and wants his power controlled. Instead of relying on her usual minions, the Suicide Squad, she instead sends a Justice Society team -- consisting of Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom Smasher and Cyclone -- to contain him. Adam, of course, does not wish to be contained.

They fight. Because of course they do. And believe me, the tiresome posturing and machismo between Adam and Hawkman gets old really fast ... before, as we know they must, they realize they're better off as allies. Facing the demon Sabbac (Marwan Kenzari) at the end -- and knowing they can't beat him without Adam's aid -- finally reconciles the Justice Society to the antihero's participation in the fight.

Black Adam kills a great number of people in the movie -- mostly villains -- and their deaths, although sometimes pretty gruesome, are often played for comedy. The Justice Society heroes, who try to stop his killing spree and save lives when they can, typically seem annoyed at Adam's antics, but they never treat him like a homicidal maniac or anything.

The movie boasts a lot of brutal smackdown fight scenes, most of them punctuated with far too many slow-motion dramatic pauses.

Aldis Hodge is pretty good as Hawkman, although he does get a little grating at times as the team leader who mostly just wants to bash things, and who needs to prove himself against Adam at every turn. Noah Centineo and Quintessa Swindell are the Justice Society newbies, Atom Smasher and Cyclone, and they both inject some fun into the movie. The visuals showing Cyclone's powers at work are arrestingly cool to watch.

But the strongest performance in the film is by Pierce Brosnan as Dr. Fate. He provides the action with a touch of wry gravitas, and he steals every scene he is in.

I enjoyed Black Adam. I didn't love it. I have no strong urge to watch it again. Even so, I'm kind of disappointed to hear the DC franchise is being discarded for a fresh start, ignoring the foundations that have been built over the past several years.