Aquaman

Year: 2018
Director: James Wan
Cast: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Dolph Lundgren, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Kidman


Plot: When King Orm, ruler of Atlantis, seeks to unite the seven kingdoms and attack the surface world, Arthur Curry, his half brother, must go on a journey and face his brother to fulfill his destiny as the true king of Atlantis.


Review: After watching Aquaman, I felt conflicted. On one hand, I had a lot of fun with it, but on the other hand, I can't help but criticise its many faults.

Let's start with the faults. Now, maybe it's because I had watched Man Of Steel and Wonder Woman on TV recently and felt a jarring tone shift with Aquaman, but compared to those two origin stories, Aquaman had a very light tone as Jason Momoa's Arthur comes off as a goofball for much of the first half, with Amber Heard's Mera being the brains between them. Thankfully, despite all the comedic elements, it didn't get as bad as Thor Ragnarok.

Secondly, despite having a long runtime of 143 minutes, director James Wan spends a lot of it sending Arthur and Mera on a quest to find a weapon he needs to fight for the throne. If Wan had shortened this aspect, he could have given more time to developing the villains. Patrick Wilson is a great actor, but he doesn't make a memorable villain out of Orm, depicting him as a king who only sees Arthur as an obstacle instead of hating him for being his half brother. Wilson doesn't even try to chew the scenery one bit, which would have helped. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II's portrayal of Black Manta is better, but doesn't get enough screentime as he's merely the secondary baddie, and some of his lines were downright awful. 

Thirdly, a lot of the stuff that happens here is very similar to Marvel's Thor, Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther. Now, I know Wan and the screenwriters most probably didn't intend it that way and it's merely coincidental, but if you've been following the MCU, a lot of this is quite familiar.

So what's good? The action. Wan is no action expert, but the action sequences were well shot and choreographed. It doesn't quite hit the benchmark set by Wonder Woman, but it still looks pretty awesome. I mean, if Wan can make Nicole Kidman look badass in a fight, doesn't he deserve kudos for that? Best sequence goes to Arthur and Mera versus Black Manta and his posse in the second act.

There's also a lot of CGI sequences to behold here, and there are times when it feels overwhelming, but most of them look good, especially when Arthur and Mera arrive at the Trench kingdom. The final battle is very much like Lord Of The Rings, but unfortunately too brief.

Momoa is great in the role when he doesn't try too hard to make fun of himself. Heard's acting is inconsistent at best. Willem Dafoe and Dolph Lundgren do well as Arthur's mentor Vulko and Mera's father King Nereus respectively, while Nicole Kidman is close to perfect as Arthur's mother Queen Atlanna.

To sum it up, Aquaman is proof that Warner Bros can make a good DC film when it focuses on just one hero at a time. Sure, the film is cheesy (check out the ending haha) and has too much fun at times, but it's good entertainment nonetheless. (7.5/10)