Aquaman (2018, Dir. James Wan)
The Summary: Aquaman (Jason Momoa) gets his first solo movie, wherein his heritage drags him back into the world of Atlantean politics. He must claim his title as king of Atlantis, but not before he has proven himself worthy.
The Good: Worldbuilding on an astonishing level with total and absolute sincerity. Some of the supporting cast is phenomenal. It has great technical skill in its direction, even when absolutely insane things are happening.
The Bad: It’s headlined by two cardboard cutouts of human beings. The writing is completely off the wall, in a real silver-age comic kinda way, which some people may hate. The movie never stops for even a moment to breathe.
The Review: Aquaman is a crazy movie in so many ways. At every turn it kept doing things that confused or baffled me. In the end, though, I think I liked it. It’s really difficult to parse, so bear with me while I sort through my complicated emotions. The story of Aquaman is a bit of an origin story, with additional details about the hero’s heritage and, more importantly, the fantastic history of Atlantis. The previous DC Comics movies are acknowledged by (I’m pretty sure) a single line of dialogue, and then left to lie in their open grave for the rest of the proceedings. This movie is interested only in developing a world of undersea mythology and adventure, and then exploring that world through a relative newcomer to it. Mera (Amber Heard), a princess of one of the remaining four kingdoms of Atlantis, shows up to pull Aquaman back into the world of Atlantean politics. Together they have to prove his right to rule and defeat his hawkish half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson), who is attempting to unite the kingdoms of Atlantis to declare war upon the entire surface world. If that seems like a lot, you’d be right, and that doesn’t even address the entire narrative arc about Aquaman creating a personal nemesis in the form of Black Manta, a high-seas pirate armed with Atlantean tech who blames Aquaman for the death of his father. This movie runs almost two and a half hours, and things never stop happening for even a moment. It is so filled with things that remembering it feels like remembering an entire trilogy of films.
The movie wants very much to establish the world of Atlantis, and to dump as much lore as it possibly can on the viewer. This is something that often happens in sci-fi or fantasy films, and to incredibly varying effect. Sometimes you end up with a Jupiter Ascending garbage-fire, and sometimes you end up with John Carter (a movie for which I will go to bat any day of the week). The example this reminds me of the most, though, is last year’s Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Although far from perfect, the details of the world-building are just so interesting that you’re won over despite many other flaws in the film. Like Valerian, this movie is headed by two cardboard cutouts of people who don’t seem to act so much as wander from scene to scene mugging for the camera. Also like Valerian, I don’t really care much. Momoa and Heard have basically no chemistry, and most of their scenes left me confused and unhappy. Aquaman’s character arc is of maturation into a worthy king, but there’s really no arc there to see. He just starts off as an immature jerk, and then suddenly he is a good king. Mera mostly pouts and gets a few good fish-out-of-water jokes (pun intended). The thing is, though, none of that really bothers me all that much. There is no scene that this movie will not interrupt with an explosion, so I was rarely left with the two of them for long before something blew up and ACTION was happening again.
The cast outside of the two central characters is excellent. I have no idea why Willem Dafoe agreed to be in this movie, but thank God he did. He is amazing as the evil king’s vizier and secret Aquaman loyalist Vulko. Nicole Kidman is in this movie playing Aquaman’s mom! I know she had better things to do, but God bless her for giving me something to cling to in her scenes here. She is the kind of actress that can make anything interesting. The lore dumps are mostly left to these two, and thank God because they can actually sell the patently absurd fantasy they are given as lines. That brings me to the tone of the movie, which is achingly sincere. This movie never once winks at the camera, never indulges in any post-modern cynicism about its subject matter. The script reads exactly like a cheesy silver-age comic, and absolutely everyone was apparently one hundred percent on board with that. This is a movie in which the line “He may only be half-Atlantean, but he is twice the king you’ll ever be,” is spoken with total gravitas and sincerity. There are going to be people who bounce off of this hard. I think that actual comics fans, especially fans of older comics, are going to love it though. The total commitment to the absurdity of the plot absolutely won me over by the end of the film.
In the end, I don’t know what to say about this movie. It features a war between shark cavalry with literal friggin’ laser beams in their heads fighting a giant living lava-crab trebuchet that’s interrupted by what is basically Cthulhu, and I’m pretty sure that’s not even the craziest thing that it does. The lead acting is wooden and boring, but the supporting cast and the total commitment to the melodrama absolutely won me over anyway. It never relaxes for even a moment of its runtime (which is exhausting), but veteran horror director James Wan still manages to make everything clean and clear in its presentation. I absolutely walked away from this movie smiling, but I wouldn’t even question someone who said it was one of their least favorite of the year. If truly fantastic world building and silver age sincerity is your jam, though, I think you’ll be smiling at the end too, despite how weird and awkward the movie can be at times. While I can’t give it an unreserved recommendation, this will be some people’s favorite DC movie ever.
The Score: 