Aquaman (2018)

DISCLAIMER: This is my OPiNIOn. I am human. I am biased. My word is not law. You can like or dislike whatever the heck you want. If you disagree with my review, that is completely okay. Keep it respectful if you want to debate with me in the comments. Then let’s both move on. I genuinely hope you have a great day.

Holy crap, you guys. This movie was definitely an experience. It was just pure comic book insanity. And you know what? That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think a lot of the critics overlooked a lot of the genuinely good elements this movie had in the name of petty nitpicking, which is unfortunate, and I want to draw some attention to them. I’m a huge Marvel fan but I do think DC gets a bad rep and people should give it credit where it’s due. I do think it went way overboard sometimes. But even if it could be kind of cheesy, it was fun, humorous, entertaining, and I had a great time. And it’s a welcome change from being overly dark or grim. If you need a movie that’s going to cheer you up and completely annihilate your senses, this is the one for you!

Setting

Anybody who said that the CGI in this movie was bad is freaking BLIND. Atlantis is drop-dead gorgeous. The costumes are semi-realistic but also pay great homage to the original designs in the comics (ie. Black Manta’s helmet). Some people might find them campy or stupid but I thought they were cool. The colors are so vibrant. The architecture has this half-aquatic half-alien vibe that I really love. The different designs for the underwater ships are pretty cool. I like that King Orm’s throne room literally looks like the inside of a whale’s skeleton. That’s dope.

When I saw the neighing seahorses and the octopus playing the drums, I died of laughter.

There are so many different, unique locations packed into the story. They might be from earth but I’d argue that they’re even more beautiful than Atlantis itself. I adore the set pieces in Italy, the Sahara desert, the Lost Kingdom, the Hidden Kingdom, the Indian Ocean, The Kingdom of the Brine, The Kingdom of the Trench, The Kingdom of the Fishermen, bla bla bla….

However, the problem with having so many action set pieces, worldbuilding, and politics is that there’s a lot of exposition that has to be incorporated into the script. I personally didn’t feel that it took me out of the plot since it wouldn’t make any sense otherwise, and I actually find the explanations quite interesting, but I know that for some people it can be kind of distracting.

And the action. OH MY GOSH, THE ACTION. If the choreography and fight scenes of this movie were a person, I would get down on one knee. And I’ll tell you why I love it so much. I’ve observed that many action movies these days either put way too much slow-motion or way too many cuts. When you use too much slow motion, the action drags. When you use too many cuts, the actions become very awkward, short, choppy, and hard to follow. Aquaman, on the other hand, is VELVETY smooth. James Wan knows exactly when to slow it down and when to speed it up. Everything is extremely well planned out, connected, and linked. The Ring of Fire and the Sicily chase scenes are both excellent examples of this.

THE SHOT AT THE FINAL FIGHT BETWEEN ORM AND ARTHUR WHERE THE SUBMARINE RISES OUT OF THE WATER AND THE SUN IS SHINING THROUGH THE PROPELLERS BEHIND KING ORM ASDL;KJLAKFJSLKA;LK IT IS PERFECTION. PERFECTION.

Also if you like explosions, there are a lot of those. Like, almost too many of them.

Plot

This movie has so much going on that I have a headache just thinking about it. First, there’s a forbidden romance between Queen Atlanna and Arthur’s dad. There’s a quest to find a magical MacGuffin (Atlan’s trident). There’s a revenge plot with Black Manta, who wants to kill Aquaman because he left his pirate dad to die. There’s another romance between Arthur and Mera. Usually, romance subplots annoy me but the chemistry is good and they have some funny banter so it makes up for it. But also Mera is in an arranged marriage with King Orm. Also, King Orm and Black Manta are working together. King Orm wants to start a war against the surface and gather the support of the other kingdoms. And it’s all wrapped up in a superhero origin story for our fishy main character.

It’s like James Wan took the content of three movies and combined them all into one. It was a very risky, ambitious move. But he actually balances all these elements quite well, so on the first viewing, you might not even realize how intense and crammed it is.

I don’t know how to feel about it, to be honest. I don’t know if I like it. But I know I don’t hate it. Because it’s so crazy that you’ll never get bored. Kudos to you, Mr. Director.

Characters

Jason Momoa does a marvelous job of juggling Arthur’s strength and vulnerability. I feel like a huge part of Aquaman’s success is due to his sheer charisma. He made the lamest member of the Justice League cool, which is a huge accomplishment. I like how even though he’s a superhuman he still has his moments of weakness, such as when he opens up to Mera on the boat about his insecurities (ie. “I’ll never be a king.” “My mom probably didn’t love me.”). I feel like he’s a very good role model for the little boys in the audience because he’s being honest with his emotions. That’s very rare for a male lead in Hollywood so I really appreciate the refusal to give in to toxic masculinity. He’s cocky without being obnoxious. I love how much he cares about his friends and family.

Amber Turd is a piece of trash. Just because she’s a woman doesn’t mean she should get away for the horrible stuff she’s done. She deserves a lot more than four years in jail for the crap she put Johnny Depp through. If you really believe in gender equality, you will charge a female domestic abuser with the same severity as a male domestic abuser. Having said that, I thought her performance was decent. She portrayed Mera’s feistiness and take-no-crap attitude well. She managed to convince me that she wasn’t a psychopath so she’s fine, I guess. I don't care if they suddenly re-cast the character, even if it's a little awkward. She'd better not be in the sequel. The visual effects for her water powers are awesome, though.

RIIIIIIIIIIISE ATLANTIIIIIIIS!!!

Patrick Wilson needs to be cast as a villain in another movie because he freaking NAILED IT. He was utterly over-the-top and hammy and he was absolutely one of the highlights of the movie as King Orm. He’s intimidating. He’s a great foil to Arthur in terms of both costume design and character. He’s high class. Arthur is low class. He’s arrogant. Arthur becomes a lot more humble by the end of the story. Both are grieving over the loss of their mother. His motivations line up. We need to treat the oceans better. You know this guy’s going to be trouble when his introductory scene is literally him taking down a whole submarine with an oversized fork. I love how absolutely RUTHLESS he is. He gives Arthur a chance to walk away. Arthur doesn’t take it. He beats the crap out of Arthur, breaks his mother’s trident (Arthur’s only keepsake of her), and utterly wrecks him. He straight-up put a tracker on his fiancee and tried to kill her behind her father’s back. That’s COLD. He puts up a heck of the fight in his final face-off as well. I’m a sucker for great antagonists (Yes, I have issues) and he has definitely cemented himself as one of my favorite supervillains.

I might be reading into it too much but his hatred of Arthur for being a half-breed and his insistence that Arthur can’t be king of Atlantis because he’s mixed definitely has some racial undertones that draw from real life. The choice of Jason Momoa, who is native Hawaiian, to play a protagonist with mixed ancestry and pit him against a “purebred” white male definitely wasn’t coincidental. I thought that was pretty clever of James Wan. So I think that commentary definitely went right under the snobby noses of a lot of critics.

I think Black Manta was underused, which was a shame, since I thought Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s performance was quite good. His reaction to his father’s (Micheal Beach’s role may have been short but it was excellent) death actually made me sadder than when Atlanna and Arthur’s father had to separate. I’M SORRY BUT THAT’S THE TRUTH. The part where Black Manta just kinda yelled ‘YeARgh” out of frustration (relatable) made me giggle, though. But I do have some hope since the post-credits scene implied that he’d get a much larger role in the sequel. I hope he comes back stronger.

I don’t really have much to say about Vulko. It was refreshing to see William Dafoe play a non-villainous/traitorous role for once. He was a very nice mentor to Arthur and just an overall very wise and chill fellow.

King Nereus was pretty interesting. I like how he starts out wanting a war against the surface like King Orm but feels some remorse when Mera points it out. Even though he’s an antagonist, he still cares about his daughter and makes Orm promise to bring her back alive when she betrays him.

Nicole Kidman was a good Queen Atlanna. She was pretty bad*ss but kind of one-dimensional. However, the part where she finally reunited with Arthur’s dad was very sweet.

THE FACT THAT ARTHUR’S DAD WAITED AT THE DOCK FOR HIS WIFE EVERY DAY AT SUNRISE THAT’S WONDERFUL. AND THE FACT THAT HE CAN STILL DRINK ARTHUR UNDER THE TABLE. SO UNDERRATED. DAD. OF. THE. YEAR.

Julie Andrews voices a Kaiju. What more could you want?

Final Score.

Overall, a solid 8/10.