by Nick Ferro, Contributing Writer
“There’s a new Aquaman movie out? How have I not heard of this?” my wife exclaimed as I was leaving for the theater.
“Don’t worry. I have heard of it and even I didn’t realize,” I replied. And thus went the conversation that poignantly describes both Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom as well as the DCEU as a whole. I saw someone say, “Goodbye, DCEU. We hardly knew ye,” and I couldn’t help but wonder, is that even true? The DCEU, which began in 2013 with the release of Man of Steel, has been marred with controversy, tragedy, multiple studio ownership changes, leadership changes, and I’m pretty sure an attempted coup d’état by the Dwayne Johnson corporation. If anything, we knew it too well for such a short life span. I swear it feels like they’ve been making movies for 40 years at this point. Alas, it has only been 10 years and 18ish movies (if you count director’s cuts and a TV show), and what do we have to show for it? To paraphrase J.K. Simmons in Burn After Reading, “What did we learn…? I don’t know, but I guess we learned not to do it again. Whatever it was we did.” And with the coming of James Gunn’s DCU, we can only hope that they did indeed learn not to do whatever it was that the DCEU did again. So where do we stand with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom? I can say that an attempt to make a decent movie was made. However, the final product was like a collision of two movies combining to form one big mess of a final product that I really wish was zanier than it ended up being.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a revenge story in which Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) continues in his mission to avenge his father’s death by killing Aquaman (Jason Momoa). When Manta discovers the lost Black Trident, he is possessed by the ghost of its former wielder and imbued with the power to confront Aquaman and make good on his promise. Manta’s evil plan does not stop there: He also has discovered a way to destroy the planet by releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere, which wreaks havoc ecologically across the globe. Aquaman must team up with his arch enemy and brother, Orm (Patrick Wilson), to take down Manta before he can destroy the world.
Nowadays, there is always the concern whether you need to rewatch a dozen movies to understand what’s going on in this big, connected universe. And I can assure you that movie executives both heard you and feel the same way. So fear not, like every other sequel project to be released in the past several years, there is definitely an entire section of the film dedicated to “Previously on Aquaman.” Whether it be through exposition dumps that go for days, narration, flashbacks, visions, or flashbacks of visions with narrated exposition, you will never feel so caught up in your life! Ahh, storytelling at its finest. But “Previously on-ing” aside, there is a lot of wasted time and repeated beats from the original movie that felt like a very lazy copy paste. You get the “Aquaman fights pirates” opening, the “Aquaman shares some product placement approved beer with Jango Fett” moment, the “Aquaman goes to the desert on a quest” moment, and who could forget the “Hey, that octopus is doing something octopuses don’t typically do” moment. Truly a treasure trove of ZZZZzzzzz…
However, after getting all of the obligatory set up out of the way, there is a very solid second act in which Aquaman and Orm have themselves a fun little buddy comedy that leads into an equally fun James Bond-esque volcano lair infiltration and confrontation with Manta’s forces. I had a lot of fun with these two bouncing back and forth off of each other. Momoa does his best to be the funny crazy guy and Wilson nails the straight man act, and for the most part it really works. Likewise, Black Manta’s story feels like it could have been an interesting movie of its own. It had me wondering if that cancelled The Trench movie that was really a surprise Black Manta movie was used here as the villain story instead of a solo film. There were moments where you could tell that his arc was that of a main character, and at times, I was wondering who the actual protagonist was, Aquaman or Manta. If the final act of the movie had been constructed more around the characters and less around the typical world-ending consequences that so many of these comic book movies have devolved into, it might have really increased my enjoyment.
I have a hard time saying that Lost Kingdom was a waste, because it really touches on some interesting and creative beats that the DCEU has never tackled. For one thing, the underwater world is super unique and full of opportunities to throw something wild at the audience. The CGI might have been as bad as we have seen this year, with an extremely brief cameo from The Flash’smicrowave baby. But if you look past the bad CGI, you can see very clever and unique visuals that make Atlantis a place I would want to revisit in the future. Likewise, the brothers’ story with Aquaman and Orm may not be very original, but seeing these two actors play together is fun, and the second act is the kind of adventure I enjoy going to the movies to see. There are even a couple of really well-shot visuals and fight scene choreography moments that woke me up and made me forget I was watching a mediocre film.
This movie has the bones of a couple good movies crammed together; it just isn’t able to bring the monster to life. Unfortunately, there are just too many ridiculous problems that come from rewrites, studio interference, and what I can only assume was an attitude of, “It’s the last one, so who cares.” I mean, Black Manta is stopped from delivering a killing blow in this movie by a last-minute hero save five different times! Two of which take place in the same scene! Not to mention Chekhov’s exploding fuel canisters that we are told from the start will explode and just never do. And of course, I can’t forget the biggest travesty in this movie: They made Randall Park NOT funny?! I didn’t even know that was possible!
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is fine. It is certainly not the worst movie that we’ve gotten from the DCEU (see: Wonder Woman 84), but its also really worth seeing unless its free, you have nothing else to do, or you are a completionist, like me. But if you do decide to watch it, grab yourself a cockroach, slap it on a burger, and take a huge metaphorical bite of what is, for better or worse, the final entry of the DCEU.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is currently playing in theaters
You can read more from Nick Ferro, and follow him on Twitter and Letterboxd