Film Reviews & Movie Analysis

Permission Granted.

Born of land and sea, after the events of Justice League Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), though still a mystery to many, no longer fights in the shadowy depths.

Atlantis is ready to rage war against the surface world led by their King, Orm (Patrick Wilson) however before he can be called Ocean Master, he needs the alliance of the other underwater nations. But that isn’t enough for Orm, he also wishes to squash his older bastard brother for good measure, ensuing nobody else can lay claim to the throne that once belonged to their Mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman).

Divided by loyalty, anger, duty and doing what’s right, Arthur has to realise that the key to unleashing his true potential comes from accepting all parts of himself.

As we’ve already met Arthur Curry aka Aquaman in Justice League, the film was less of an origin story and more of a fill in the blanks. The opening to the movie did a good job of setting up Arthur’s roots and giving the audience a peek into a past that would eventually effect his future.

I won’t lie – I often forgot Aquaman’s real name and instead kept internally referring to him as Jason Momoa. This could go one of two ways – either that he wasn’t good enough at embodying his role, or he made the role his own. For me it was the latter. From now on when we think Aquaman we’ll think Momoa, just like when when we think Batman we think Affleck.

Kidding – we all think Bale, but that joke never gets old!

This movie was filled with all kind of cheese. From the one liners, to hair flips, the slow motion shots, the soundtrack and of course – the shirtlessness. It was everything that critics are supposed to dislike, and audiences to get bored of quickly. Though it did border on both these things for me – my eye roll was normally matched with a wide grin. I don’t know why it worked but it did.

I really enjoyed the beginning of the movie with Atlanna and Thomas Curry, but I think things really got good towards the end. That’s not me being shady, I just seriously mean that the last half was the best part of the movie. The events here should have been the focus of the bulk of the movie. It was where most of the adventure was, along with a vast display of oceanic skill. Things moved forward with purpose here, whereas beforehand the characters and the their goals seemed uncertain.

There is just something missing from DC Movies, and I can’t quite put my finger on what that is… Because of this audiences have a less than average expectancy from the franchise – which is probably why each movie seems slightly better than the last despite the continued flaws.

Black Manta. A secondary villain who is also bent of destroying Aquaman. Unfortunately for Black Manta aka David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) after his introduction he is booted to the sidelines. When he does reappear it seems forced, especially because his motivations are… unjust.

I know he’s a villain, but most villains to an extent have a vision that is in some twisted way valid. Black Manta’s wasn’t and so it was hard to accept him as anything other than an annoying inconvenience.

I didn’t not like Amber Heard’s Mera – but I couldn’t stop looking at her like an R Rated Ariel with that red hair and green body suit. Aesthetics aside, I didn’t feel the energy in her role. Her jokes fell flat, her rebellion didn’t make me admire her and I didn’t buy the Chemistry between her and Arthur – she was bleh.

I felt all 143 minute of this movie. Every single minute. Even during the few action filled go go go scenes, at the back of my mind I kept thinking; wow this has been going on for quite some time now. I honestly think a solid half an hour could have been shaved off.

I think a lot of this comes from it feeling like events were done in the wrong order. Okay so there is no right or wrong order in film, however the way they plotted the movie didn’t feel smooth. I just wanted to lock myself in an editing suite and shuffle scenes to make things fit.

As far as ranking goes with all the DCU movies that have been released to date, Aquaman sits at a close third with Wonder Woman still holding the top spot and Justice League falling in at a second place.

It may not have been great, but it was a fun movie in an underwater world we aren’t normally privy too. Aquaman 2? I wouldn’t say no.