Movie Review: “Aquaman”
“Aquaman” is enjoyable on the surface, but ultimately sabotages itself from deeper excellence
Following a massive opening in China and steady success at the domestic box office, director James Wan’s film “Aquaman” is likely to cross the billion-dollar threshold of gross earnings in the next week.
Fronted by “Game of Thrones” alumni Jason Momoa, the film follows Arthur Curry, the half-human, half-Atlantean son of a lighthouse keeper and Queen Atlanna, and his journey to prevent his half-brother Orm Marius, depicted by Patrick Wilson, from uniting the underwater kingdoms and waging war on humanity.
Beginning with “Green Lantern” and disappointing most recently with “Justice League,” the DC Universe has struggled to release critically-acclaimed films. Outside of “Wonder Woman,” which garnered substantial praise, DC’s offerings have generally persisted in being unremarkable.
“Aquaman,” however, was lauded in pre-release-date reviews, generating significant hype and hope among DC Universe faithful that this film would escape the mediocrity that has doomed titles from the series in the past.
Star-studded across the board with performances from Nicole Kidman, Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Julie Andrews and Dolph Lundgren, Wan’s film overcomes the averageness that has plagued DC films in the past, but not by the margin one would hope for.
Wan does a lot of things well in the film, from impressive visuals to well-shot action scenes. If the viewer doesn’t demand serious depth or meaning from Aquaman, the movie is fun and gratifying in an aquatic Star Wars kind of way.
However, if DC wanted this movie to be anything more than decent, there are a few things they could have altered.
The writing is adequate throughout the majority of the movie, but otherwise strong performances from leads Momoa and Heard are hindered in spots by the cheap dialogue. Towards the end of the film they unnecessarily whip out cheesy tropes and the plot becomes too predictable to justify the run time.
Overall, the film is watchable, but has enough self-induced flaws to prohibit it from being more than a sliver above average. A high-quality option for someone looking for a movie they can watch without devoting energy or focus.
Aquaman is expected to stay in theaters for the foreseeable future as it continues to outperform “Mary Poppins Returns,” “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and other box office contenders.
—Landont.stuart@gmail.com
@Landos84