Aquaman Review
Introduction:
Eh-quaman is pretty good… for a DC movie.
In fact, it’s the 4th best movie I’ve seen this week (Bumblebee, Mortal Engines, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Aquaman). One of my best friends said, “This is the best superhero movie I have ever seen.” I was like, “Umm, it’s OK.” No, that’s not the case. It’s not even the best DC based superhero movie as these are all better: Batman, Superman 2, Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises, Superman, Dark Knight Rises, etc.
If this movie had come out around the time of Iron Man, or it had come out before Justice League, I think I would have thought more highly of it, but it’s come out after the bar was already set pretty high. Did it clear it? I guess. Some movie has the be at the bottom of the “good” super hero movie list.
The problem is that this movie is just a pretty good mish-mosh of other films and things: Black Panther, Valerian, The Little Mermaid, Harry Potter, Pacific Rim, and H.P Lovecraft. When I say moshed, I mean the scenes are directly lifted. The snake scene from the zoo in Harry Potter, and the Valerian running through the walls scenes are shot for shot. Oddly enough, there are a lot of Lovecraftian elements in the movie, like a great portrayal of Deep Ones. I was the only person in the theater who laughed when they showed a copy of The Dunwich Horror in the house. I mean a book about the child of a human and a sea creature, right? This was right before they showed Jango Fett and Princess Atlanna in bed, and she’s pregnant.
There are a couple of things that bugged me about the film (OK more than a couple), and in a way they aren’t big, but seriously, Mera’s hair is too red, Aquaman and Ocean Master’s armor/costumes are made from fishing lures (probably), and some of the de-aging is soooo bad. OK, to be honest, Nicole Kidman looks amazing (she probably didn’t even need de-aging), but the dude who played Jango Fett plays Aquaman’s dad, and his de-aging makes him look like plastic. It is no good. Dolph Lundgren is pretty cool in this, but since they had to link him to his daughter (Mera) who has ridiculously red hair, they made his look like faded red, I mean PINK. They gave Ivan Drago pink hair! SMH. When he first took off his helmet and I saw that, palm went directly to face.
Weirdness:
So there have been problems with this incarnation of Aquaman since he was introduced. Where is he from? Why does he look so different from before (yes I get a reboot, but still). What are his powers? Aquaman has always sort of suffered from this set of issues, but this film does nothing to make it any better. Is he bulletproof? Metal proof? Sometimes but not others? Can he fly? He can sure hit the ground hard. You find yourself wondering about all of the Atlanteans’ powers let alone Aquaman’s throughout the entire film, like are they all that powerful? Just focusing on him, though, his powers don’t seem to be locked down. At one moment, he can lift a submarine out of the water, but the next, he can’t punch out a normal human. Seriously. Either way, though, he’s not the Superfriends Aquaman, that’s for sure.
Black Manta shows up a few times. The costume still looks as silly as it did on the Superfriends. They did a nice job trying to update it, but the helmet still looks like some old 1950’s robot or something. The suits he and his team wore in the beginning of the movie looked a ton better.
Water:
Much of this movie takes place underwater (duh!). After a while it just starts getting a little annoying, because every little water things starts to stand out, like their hair wisping around, or the way they are floating, or how they can talk underwater, or whatever. I think any one of them would have been a pass, but after a little while it just gets to be a little unbelievable. I know that the Atlantians are supposed to be super advanced, but everything just seemed like it was supposed to really be a spacy movie, or Wakanda at least. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the needs for their exo-suits, and stuff, and that they zipped around under water in their water cars, but it was just a lot, and the whole underwater things with stuff and people floating everywhere just eventually seemed odd or out of place to me.
James Wan, who directed stuff like Saw, did a decent job with this. Actually, I think he did just fine. That’s pretty much how I sum up everything regarding this movie, though. He’s just not the kind of director who I would say to myself, “Oh James Wan directed this, I think I might go see it,” the way I am about someone like Ridley Scott.
Official Synopsis:
From Warner Bros. Pictures and director James Wan comes an action-packed adventure that spans the vast, visually breathtaking underwater world of the seven seas, “Aquaman,” starring Jason Momoa in the title role.The film reveals the origin story of half-human, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry and takes him on the journey of his lifetime — one that will not only force him to face who he really is, but to discover if he is worthy of who he was born to be … a king”
Final thoughts on Aquaman Review:
Trailer:
