(Reviewed by our Guest Critic, the Movie Knight) A love that was never meant to be occurred between Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), a queen from Atlantis and Tom Curry, a human who manned a lighthouse. Their child, Arthur (Jason Momoa) was from two different worlds and never truly accepted from either. Nevertheless, he became the hero known as Aquaman! Now, with his half brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) threatening war with the surface, Arthur must face off against him in order to save us all.
DC comic book movies now have the unfortunate reputation of fans going into them expecting the worse. Having one disappointing dud after another, they only have themselves to blame. Wonder Woman has been the brightest spot so far. Happily, now they have another one!
One huge reason for Wonder Woman’s success was the vision carried through from director Patty Jenkins. In this case, bringing on James Wan to lead the charge on Aquaman was great decision by Warner Brothers. His background of directing horror movies, like Saw and action movies like Furious 7, gave him the right experience to bring this franchise to the big screen.
Wan brought a good amount of humor to this, something that is often missing from the DC adventures. Momoa has good comic flare and may find himself in comedies some day soon. Wan also does really well with the action scenes and the visuals. You get those wrong and you are going to end up with a bad superhero movie. We’ve never seen people riding giant seahorses going into battle with others riding sharks and it was a lot of fun to watch.
This entry is not the best DC title. Wonder Woman still holds that distinction. At a run time of nearly two-and-a-half hours, it can be overindulging at times. Also, if all you want to do is compare this to Marvel movies, you’ll probably find more faults with it. In addition to King Orm, Aquaman also faces off against Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who happens to be one of the better developed villains we have seen in a while.
Every year it feels we are oversaturated with comic book movies. That trend does not appear to be ending anytime soon. However, if they can keep us as entertained as this fare, it my not be all that bad.
2.5 Tiaras.