Saturday, December 29, 2018

Film Review - Aquaman (2018)

Aquaman is the newest entry in the DC film universe and concerns Arthur Curry aka the Aquaman (Jason Momoa) as he seeks the power of the King of Atlantis’s Trident as the current ruler King Orm (Patrick Wilson) seeks to unite the Seven Seas in a war against the Surface World though Mera and the Grand Vizor Volko (Willem Dafoe) are convinced the power of the Trident can unite both the Ocean and Surface Worlds.

Aquaman comes at a time where I have been endlessly frustrated with DC on film and that frustration goes all the way back to the very beginning with Richard Donner’s Superman the Movie in 1978 where Donner was fired from the franchise and then Tim Burton’s Batman movies pretty much ended up the same way as this current DC incarnation where Warner Brothers has panic attacks over a dark film, orders a change of direction and then gets so light that the bottom falls out of the franchise and it crashes at the box office does Aquaman sink to the bottom of the sea or does it swim to the top like 2017’s Wonder Woman.

Well it does a bit of both as I am very much in the middle on this movie firstly director James Wan’s eye for spectacle and visual effects is on full display as this movie looks fantastic on a big cinema screen as there is lots of variety to the various kingdoms of the Seven Seas and the way Mr Wan realises these and the huge underwater battle scenes is great and I was never bored watching those scenes.

Where I was bored was in the overall storytelling as it feels like a very generic semi origin story where the hero must prove his worth and go on the quest and save the kingdom from complete doom and it isn’t helped in these moments that both Wan’s direction can’t seem to nail any kind of menaningful emotional response and that Jason Momoa’s overall performance has the same snarky tone that so many lead performances in these big superhero films I mean you could swap him for Robert Downey Jr or Chris Pratt and you would barely notice any difference.

I did however in the performance front like Amber Heard as Mera even if at times it feels like she is mimicking Scarlett Johansson as the Black Widow and Nicole Kidman as the Queen of Atlantis her story arc was probably my favorite of the entire film as it reminded me a lot of a show I loved called ReBoot and when its lead character Bob was lost in the Web.

As for the villains well the Black Manta was really cool though badly underused while Wilson was kind of foppish as Orm and that character is a great one in the Aquaman 2 part episode of the Justice League animated series but here I thought Momoa would squash him lickety split.

And so that was Aquaman and it’s a middle of the road entry for DC there’s still a long way back for them in my eyes and with Wonder Woman 2 now coming in 2020 I won’t hold my breath for Shazam or Joker next year, 2 and a half out of 5.

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