Movie Review: Aquaman

Aquaman *** / *****

Directed by: James Wan.

Written by: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall and Geoff Johns and James Wan based on a character created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris.

Starring: Jason Momoa (Arthur Curry / Aquaman), Amber Heard (Mera), Nicole Kidman (Queen Atlanna), Dolph Lundgren (King Nereus), Patrick Wilson (Orm / Ocean Master), Willem Dafoe (Nuidis Vulko), Randall Park (Dr. Stephen Shin), Temuera Morrison (Thomas Curry), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (David Kane / Black Manta), Michael Beach (Jesse Kane).

 

It’s no secret that DC has stumbled out of the gate in their attempt to build a huge cinematic universe like Marvel has done. A big part of that is that they tried to move so quickly – making the Justice League movie before any characters other than Superman and Wonder Woman really had standalone movies. But a much bigger part is that they have insisted on making the movies so dark and serious. They looked at what Christopher Nolan did with the Dark Knight movies, and took exactly the wrong lessons from him – feeling that they had to suck all the humor (and color) out of the movies and make them “gritty”. The result has been overstuffed films that are lacking in any real sense of wonder and joy. Last year’s Wonder Woman acted as a corrective – and showed a way forward, because the film takes itself seriously, it was also a hell of a lot of fun. And now comes Aquaman, which is hardly a great film, but is certainly a lot more fun than the other DC films (save for Wonder Woman) and thankfully doesn’t try and give us a dark and gritty Aquaman. The film is still undeniably bloated, and there is too much CGI in the film – it all starts to blend together into some kind of visually incoherent soup at times – but it’s a lot better of a film than it probably has any right to be.

 

We already met Aquaman in last year’s Justice League (where, as played by Jason Momoa, he was pretty much a one note bro-joke), so to go back now and get his origin story is a little strange. Still, here it is – the son of the Queen of Atlantis (Nicole Kidman) and a human lighthouse keeper (Temuera Morrison), Arthur Curry grew up as a human, but received lessons from his Atlantian side, after they dragged his mother away, never to be seen again. His younger, half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) now wants to start a war the surface dwellers (to be fair, we deserve it – we have polluted their water). So Mera (Amber Heard) reaches out to Arthur to try and get to come back and take his rightful place on the throne.

 

Of course, it is a lot (and I mean A LOT) more complicated than that. This is a film that runs nearly two and a half hours, and spends much of that time explaining Atlantis politics – and the different undersea kingdoms that need to be united, and complex rules of challenging for the throne, etc. It didn’t need to be this complicated – and would have been a lot better had it not been so complex, because in reality much of that exposition is full. It doesn’t help that Patrick Wilson doesn’t leave much of an impression as Orm. Wilson is an actor who excels when you need him to play bland characters – pretty boys without a personality (Angels in America, Little Children) – but something like a comic book villain just isn’t in his wheelhouse. The same could be said for Amber Heard as Mera – whose motivations are never really clear, except that she’s supposed to be the pretty one. Luckily though, Jason Momoa is actually a delight as Aquaman. Yes, the role and the character are ridiculous – but Momoa completely embraces its inherent goofiness, and makes the role his own. It’s a reminder that you don’t always have to be the best actor to be right for the part – and Momoa is undeniably right for the part.

 

The biggest asset the film has though may just be James Wan as director. Wan has proven himself to be one of the best directors of horror working today (The Conjuring, Insidious, Saw) – and with a Fast & Furious movie under his belt, he added blockbusters to his list as well. Here, he handles the massive amounts of CGI about as good as can be expected. Occasionally, it doesn’t always work – but for the most part, he does bring his own sensibility to the project. No, it’s not the best work of his career – and I really wish he’d go back to making horror films, which he does better than practically anyone around today – but he brings a level of director personality to Aquaman that has been missing from the DCU so far.

 

So no, Aquaman isn’t a great movie – but it’s a step in the right direction for DC. Yes, the film is still too long, too bloated, with too much CGI. But it’s also fun and doesn’t take itself so seriously that it sucks the joy out of watching it. For DC, that’s about as good as it gets.