Director: James Wan
Cast Headliners: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, many oceanic others
Original Release Date: December 21, 2018
There’s
a lot of “obscure” characters out there but few have faced the public gentle
jabbing as DC Comics’ Aquaman. Decades of the “talks to fish” member of the
Justice League have not quite played up his large list of lore from the comics
nor has he gotten much of a role in the big screen. The DCEU changed this
recently with this Aquaman film giving a full aquatic experience after the
brief taste in 2017’s Justice League film. It’s every bit as epic, silly, fun,
and unique as one would want if having many flaws. Note that this is from whose
had it be a bit of a dream so this may affect things but to anyone it’s not a
dull time as a whole.
Smartly
this is nigh-almost-entirely a standalone tale from the rest of the DCEU
despite a couple of nouns / references thrown around (and some very minor plot
holes / character interactions and depictions compared to the whole). The
present tale of Arthur Curry / Aquaman(Jason Momoa) is shown alongside glimpses
of his past. He finds himself becoming
re-acquainted with the water-wielding princess Mera of Xebel(Amber Heard) as
they go on a quest to stop King Orm from conquering the world as Ocean
Master(Patrick Wilson). There’s also the enemy x-factor of the likes of the
armored suit using David Kane/ Black Manta(Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) and his
father Jesse Kane(Michael Beach). Helping multiple sides of the conflict are
undersea figures like King Nereus of Xebel(Dolph Lundgren), advisor Nuidis
Vulko(Willem Dafoe), and Aquaman’s parents Atlanna(Nicole Kidman) and Thomas
Curry(Temuera Morrison).
It’s
a large cast for an attempted epic tale and admittedly most get lost in the
shuffle of exposition and various sub, crab, and fish people factions who try
to join or survive under Orm. Through it all Momoa’s Aquaman is a likeable
lead mixing brawny surferde swagger with ferocity and charm even if it’s perhaps
purposefully to the points. His film gives him much more of a chance to shine
and a bit like Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman he mostly works. Heard’s Mera gets more
of a chance to shine as well and is very much as competent a combatant as he is
although she has some cheese to her delivery. There’s jokes both clever and
dumb with emotional heft never quite getting that deep. Dafoe and Lundgren’s undersea characters
amongst others do remain as mere exposition spewers (at times extra cheesified
by the echo effect of underwater). Morrison and Kidman have a bit more of a
nice bit part focus although they are seldom seen.
DC
films haven’t been on a villain quality streak lately and this continues that
trend. Wilson’s Ocean Master Orm is very generically cheesy “meh” with the
typical kind of “wants to rule it all” motivation with just perhaps a bit of
effective vile royal sneering but that’s a road which many token villians have
walked down. This does give some slight personal stake between him and Arthur
but slight may be an exaggeration. Luckily the plight of Abdul II’s Black Manta
is much more of a focus even if still on the sidelines. His interactions and
action scenes are quite fun and vengeance filled even with some hoke.
This is not quite a movie being best at
being small. It’s best when it’s big, crazy, and effects filled as possible
which it delivers on highly. Director
James Wan steps into his biggest shoes possible after a career of smaller
horror takes. It works very well. One must take note of the fact that this is
mainly a CGI generated film in terms of backgrounds and locations. Very few
things take place on the surface (nor with characters who come from there). It’s
all about crazy varied , unique aesthetics from the neon-lit city of Atlantis
to desert temples, dinosaur islands, or sunken ruins. It can be colorful and awe-inspiring. It can
also be very cheesy and seem like some foreign discount film. This seems to
vary between the two depending on what’s happening at the time but when it
sings true it sings strongly true. There’s some incredibly massive battles and
duels which occur with all manner of scary or beautiful creatures and
locations. Sometimes it can be too fast
but that’s something the DCEU tends to struggle with when it doesn’t do it
well. Rupert Gregson-Williams score also
has some great electro, synth style numbers between sometimes jarring use of
pop / rock music (or otherwise fitting).
“A
lot” is word to describe Aquaman. It attempts to fit almost all of the heroes
mythology in one film. That makes it epic and varied but also it leads to a
very long run time. There’s a ton of that action , whether wanted or not for
being gloriously cheesy, yet there’s also a lot of things which can drag too.
It’s a lot of movie in the movie (almost 3 hours) which could maybe due to be
looked at for a tighter focus although by the end its satisfying.
In some ways this stands as one of the better DCEU films for being so
colorful and fun in its big scale. It’s a simple plot truly which may make the
meandering questionable but through this its everything the others are not.
This is big, blockbuster film making at its core and while there’s some cheesy
and weaker aspects one can’t say that it’s been done very often before or could
have been done much different. For Atlantis! 8.03 out of 10
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