Aquaman Review!

Aquaman

3 stars

The character of Aquaman has had quite the re-imagining recently. A few years ago, Aquaman was a punchline, a running gag in an episode of Entourage or Big Bang Theory. Then Jason Momoa was cast, fresh after his brief but crucial role of Khal Drago in Game of Thrones. Aquaman begin to take on this new, ultimate bad-boy persona. I wasn't very impressed with Aquaman's appearances in either Batman V. Superman or Justice League, so I was highly anticipating his solo film. So what do I make of this new king of Atlantis?

In general, Jason Momoa is a very affable protagonist. He's not as frat boy bro-ey as he was in Justice League (no "My man!" catchphrase) but also not as competent as other characters, such as Wonder Woman. He's portrayed as a reluctant hero who's a bit of an immature slob. I thought they could have leaned even more into the "I'm just a dumb jock, I'm not fit to be king" persona but Momoa's fun to watch and puts in a solid performance.

The same can be said of most of the cast. Mera could have been fleshed out more, because she's more than just the romantic interest. She and Vulko seem to be the only ones that know what is going on. I was wondering why she believed in Arthur so much in the first place. He seems unreliable and knows nothing of the Atlantis culture. And did they know each other from before or not? In Justice League I thought they seemed to know who each other were, but then in this movie they seem to be strangers? But then Arthur says he's never been to Atlantis, but wasn't the motherbox in Atlantis in Justice League? Does this take place before Justice League? But they talk about Steppenwolf, so this must be a sequel, so does that mean...

Anyways, the plot is pretty straightforward, get the lost trident to stop Orm from declaring war on the surface world. For the most part I enjoyed the adventure aspects of the film and the changes in scenery (they probably over did it on the location subtitles, there must of been at least 20 of them). But the editing was jarring at times. One minute, the movie takes itself deadly seriously, and then there's an over-the-top music montage, and then it's rom-com in Italy. It was... inconsistent. Some of the action sequences were really well shot (specifically a chase scene in Sicily) but other times the scenes lacked tension. It's hard to feel like there are real stakes when one seemingly indestructible character is fighting another indestructible character, all while floating around in water. Or when nameless soldiers or creatures are being killed or eaten by other nameless soldiers or creatures. I wanted to really care about the characters but mostly I didn't. And lets just say the clunky dialogue didn't do them many favors. 

There was still a lot I liked about the film, the extreme visuals, the new settings, the exploration of new worlds. I think the director needed to decide whether to go with a fun, wacky adventure or go with more of serious Game of Thrones-vibe with warring kingdoms and back stabbing royalty. But this movie is already a MASSIVE hit in China, so I don't expect much to change. I do believe in the cast and I hope they can raise the bar for the franchise in the sequel.