QR Film Review: Aquaman
Josh Tate
Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) discovers his true heritage as the King of Atlantis in Aquaman, sending him on a quest to prove his worth to his people and their world.
I’m a big fan of comics, mostly Marvel, but I have been enthralled by what both Marvel and DC have acomplished in bringing these beloved superheroes to the big screen. However, I was very sceptical on the release of Aquaman, which wasn't helped by the announcement in April 2015 that the movie would be directed by James Wan.
Wan is a director who has had minimal experience within this genre, up until this point his career has been focused around horror such as 'Saw' and 'The Conjuring' so I saw this as an odd choice for DC. But my scepticism didn’t end there, the trailer for the film dissuaded me from being excited about the film, I started having flashbacks to the Star Wars prequels and worse, leaving me with fairly low expectations.
Despite this I don't believe that DC and Warner Bros. could have done a better job in the casting department, espcially with Jason Momoa as Aquaman. He is the perfect embodiment of Arthur Curry and throughout the film you can see that he was relishing every second of being on screen. He brings so much physicality to every fight scene and wasn’t intimidated by the more intimate scenes throughout. Unfortunately, this high standard doesn't reflect the rest of the cast, Amber Heard despite being an amazing actor in her own right was not the right co-star in my opinon as there was very little chemistry between herself and Momoa. Villain Patrick Wilson's acting was flat, uninspired and boring to watch, however this gave Momoa more of the spotlight indicating rightly that he is the driving force of this film. I don’t think this is any of the actor’s fault, given the cringe riddled script they had to work with. I will applaud the cast at giving the material as much as they could which made it more bearable.
On the topic of the material given, the plot of Aquaman is the most glaring failure of this film. On paper it works, a main and sub villain plot with quirky world building scenes and plenty of action. However, with a run time just over two and a half hours about half way through Aquaman falls apart. Aquaman tries to accomplish multiple plots but in the process barely can complete one competently. The “Black Manta” sub-villain plot, a faithful rendition of many comic books fans favorite DC villain, could have easily been saved for a sequel. His story while interesting at first filled with themes of revenge and sacrifice, ended up being a distraction with no payoff or effect to the characters or plot.
The main plot while not glaringly bad, was a boiler plate generic villain story line. This however is fine within a hero’s first story. I don’t have a problem with these story lines which help introduce us to the world and its characters, especially ones with as much lore and world building required as Atlantis. However, I do have a problem with DC and Warner’s timing and planning of these movies. Aquaman features an intense and world threatening plot with billions of lives at stake but falls short of a similar story line released just last year by DC in “Justice League”. This is something that DC’s rival, Marvel continually gets right compared with DCs hero’s. Their solo movies come first, allowing us to get to know the character on a smaller scale building up to bigger battles in team up movies with higher stakes. DC seems to disregard this and goes from world threatening battle to world threatening battle.
Ironically this is something that DC managed to get right in “Wonder Woman” directed by Patty Jenkins exploring a plot with a much smaller scale allowing us to get to know our hero and relationships before throwing her into world ending battles. So, to me Aquaman feels out of place within DC’s cinematic universe storyline.
This was paired with wall to wall action which felt completely unnecessary. I found myself looking at others in the cinema as these action sequences continued for five minutes at a time, all strikingly similar. Everyone starting with a mid-sentence cut off explosion and wide-angle shots of a crazy fly kick leaving me bored after the first three. Removing these scenes of pointless action which only purpose seem to be delaying the plot could have reduced the run time and made the film more engaging.
Negatives aside Aquaman has created a stunning visual world through CGI. Disregarding some small blips it looks fantastic throughout, with James Wan showing off his unique style of directing. Sporting wide shot action sequences with “Wonder Woman” style perspective changes and amazing flow between each moment. James Wan shows that he can seamlessly blend his styles of direction from comedy to outright horror perfectly. Each shot is masterfully created. This is the first DC movie in the past five years which I can say feels like it displays a directors full vision, without a large studio interference.
Younger kids and teens will love the continuous action and large-scale CGI. However, this is a large departure from the audience DC has been building in recent years. Throwing away the gritty serious tones left from Batman V Superman and attempting a more light-hearted feel. This is also seen in the future line-up for DC with hero’s like “Shazam” being added to their roster. Each DC movie has felt like a large course correction to try and keep up with the power horse which is Marvel Studios and it hasn’t really worked for them. I think it’s clear that DC is doubling down on the fun filled adventures and trying something new, which can only be good for the superhero landscape, maybe finally giving Marvel a competitor worth fighting.
I think Aquaman is worth a watch if you have a spare few hours, however I would recommend not rushing to see it as while for the most part it was able to create a cohesive story with fun relatable moments with expert action direction there were some flaws including un-needed plolt and flat acting. with un-needed story and flat acting.