Aquaman is a 2018 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character of the same name, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the sixth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU). Directed by James Wan, with a screenplay by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall, from a story by Geoff Johns, Wan and Beall, it stars Jason Momoa as the title character, with Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Nicole Kidman in supporting roles. It is the third live-action theatrical film featuring Aquaman, following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and Justice League (2017), and the first full-length feature film centered around the character. In Aquaman, Arthur Curry, the heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, must step forward to lead his people against his half-brother, Orm, who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms against the surface world.
Cast:
Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman A younger Arthur Curry is portrayed by various actors including an uncredited infant, Tainu and Tamor Kirkwood at age 3, Kaan Guldur at age 9, Otis Dhanji at age 13, and Kekoa Kekumano at age 16.Amber Heard as Mera
Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko
Patrick Wilson as Orm Marius / Ocean Master
Dolph Lundgren as Nereus
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as David Kane / Black Manta
Nicole Kidman as Atlanna
Additionally, Temuera Morrison portrays Thomas Curry, a lighthouse keeper who is Arthur Curry's father; Ludi Lin portrays Murk, the Captain of the Men-of-War, the frontline army of Atlantis; Randall Park portrays Dr. Stephen Shin, a marine biologist obsessed with finding the lost city of Atlantis; Graham McTavish portrays Atlan, the first king of Atlantis and the ancestor of Atlanna, Orm, and Arthur; and Michael Beach portrays Jesse Kane, a member of a group of pirates and David Kane's father.
Djimon Hounsou, Natalia Safran, and Sophia Forrest play the Fisherman King Nicou, the Fisherman Queen, and the Fisherman Princess respectively, whom Orm creates an alliance with as part of his plan to unite the seven kingdoms of the sea where the former provided the voice of King Nicou. Julie Andrews provides the voice of Karathen, a mythical leviathan that allies with Aquaman. While Andrew Crawford provides the motion-capture of King Nicou, he also provides the motion-capture of the Brine King, who is voiced by John Rhys-Davies. Leigh Whannell, Wan's long time collaborator, appears in the film as a plane pilot.
Plot:
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| Queen Atlanna (portrayed by Nicole Kidman) was a bad-ass without a shadow of a doubt. Just look at how awesome this sequence looked! |
In 1985 Maine, lighthouse keeper Thomas Curry rescues Atlanna, the princess of the underwater nation of Atlantis, during a storm. They eventually fall in love and have a son named Arthur, who is born with the power to communicate with marine lifeforms. Atlanna is forced to abandon her family and return to Atlantis, entrusting to her advisor, Nuidis Vulko, the mission of training Arthur. Under Vulko's guidance, Arthur becomes a skilled warrior but rejects Atlantis upon learning that Atlanna was executed for having a half-breed son.
In the present, one year after Steppenwolf's invasion, Arthur confronts a group of pirates attempting to hijack a Russian Naval nuclear submarine. Their leader, Jesse Kane, dies during the confrontation while his son, David, vows revenge. David later targets Atlantis at the behest of Orm, Arthur's younger half-brother and Atlantis' incumbent monarch who uses the attack as a pretext to declare war on the surface world. King Nereus of Xebel swears allegiance to Orm's cause, but his daughter Mera, who has been betrothed to Orm, refuses to aid them and journeys to the surface to ask Arthur for help, earning his trust by saving Thomas from a tsunami sent by Orm. Arthur reluctantly accompanies Mera to a rendezvous with Vulko, who urges Arthur to find the Trident of Atlan, a magic artifact that once belonged to Atlantis' first ruler, in order to reclaim his rightful place as king. They are ambushed by Orm's men and Mera and Vulko escape without having been seen, while Arthur is captured.
Arthur is chained and presented before Orm, who blames Arthur and the surface for Atlanna's death. He offers Arthur an opportunity to leave forever, but Arthur instead challenges him to a duel in a ring of underwater lava. Orm gains the upper hand and nearly kills Arthur before Mera rescues him. Together, Arthur and Mera journey to the Sahara desert where the trident was forged and unlock a holographic message that leads them to Sicily, Italy, where they retrieve the trident's coordinates. Meanwhile, Orm provides David with a prototype Atlantean battle suit to kill Arthur, imprisons Vulko upon learning of his betrayal, and coerces the remaining kingdoms of Atlantis to pledge their allegiance to him and his campaign against the surface.
After modifying Orm's technology, a fully armored David rechristens himself as Black Manta and ambushes Arthur and Mera in Sicily, injuring Arthur before being thrown off a cliff to his apparent death. Mera nurses Arthur's wounds as they journey to the trident's whereabouts, and encourages him to embrace his destiny as a hero. Arriving at their destination, Arthur and Mera are attacked by a legion of amphibious monsters known as The Trench, but manage to fend them off and reach a wormhole that transports them to an uncharted sea located at the center of the Earth. There, they are unexpectedly reunited with Atlanna, who was sacrificed to the Trench for her crimes but managed to escape and reach the uncharted sea, where she has been stranded ever since.
Arthur faces Karathen, the mythical leviathan that guards the trident, and voices his determination to protect both Atlantis and the surface, proving his worth and reclaiming the trident, which grants him control over the seven seas. Orm and his allies lead an army against the crustacean forces of the Kingdom of the Brine with the intent of completing Orm's surface battle preparations. As Orm declares himself Ocean Master, Arthur, and Mera, with the assistance of Karathen and the Trench, intervene and lead an army of marine creatures in a battle against him. Orm's followers renounce their obedience to him and embrace Arthur as the true king upon learning he wields the trident. Arthur defeats Orm in combat but chooses to spare his life and Orm accepts his fate after discovering Arthur has found and rescued Atlanna. Atlanna returns to the surface to reunite with Thomas while Arthur ascends to the throne with Mera by his side.
In a mid-credits scene, David is rescued by Dr. Stephen Shin, a scientist and conspiracy theorist obsessed with the Atlanteans, and agrees to lead Shin there in exchange for his help in his revenge on Arthur.
The Verdict:
I saw this film twice - once opening night and then again Christmas Eve with my siblings and their children before my birthday that evening. It totally slipped my mind that I didn't do a review for this until recently when I was combing through my drafts and noticed I never did a write-up on this film.Casting
Jason Momoa was fine in this role. I didn't have an issue with him during Justice League playing this character and that opinion hasn't changed here. Amber Heard's delivery comes off a little dry at times (oh the irony there...) on the comedy/punchlines, but she wasn't bad either. At least they had acting veterans, Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe to pick up the slack though. I almost didn't even recognize Dolph Lundgren underneath that hair and CGI. The worst out of these actors without question was Yahya Abdul Mateen II though. That dude's performance came off as bad as Roy Jones, Jr.'s performance in The Matrix Reloaded. Fortunately, Mateen II's performance vastly improved when his voice was being filtered through the Black Manta costume and he didn't have to speak as much during that fight. Even with Mateen's shortcomings, I didn't think this was a bad casting of actors for these characters in the least. They all managed to make this work for the most part.
Narrative
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| I kinda wish they gave us a little more backstory on Mera outside of her just being mostly Arthur's tourist guide to Atlantis and it's lore for the bulk of the story. |
I thought the narrative's pacing was fine for the most part, even though the middle dragged a bit after Orm's soldiers wear allegedly "tracing" Mera and Arthur, yet didn't detect that they were still alive after crashing into that volcano? This is a minor nit-pick, but the story could have mentioned a small bit of dialogue to explain how and why Mera (Vulko and Orm too...) is able to breathe outside of water unlike the most of the Atlanteans who are required to wear specialized suits to breathe outside of water. I personally chucked it up to a side effect of her hydro-kinesis powers that subconsciously allowed her to draw the moisture she needed to breathe from her surroundings.
Much like Wonder Woman that proceeded this solo cinematic debut, there's a few inconsistencies in the story here in comparison to the team-up Justice League that proceeded this film in terms of the timeline. Arthur and Mera both reference the events of that film, but they have little to no impact on anything here. One would think that maybe since Arthur Curry played a hand in teaming up with the surface dwellers to protect the planet from Steppenwolf and the potential invasion from the forces of Darkseid, that maybe, just maybe Orm and the other Atlanteans would have listened to what Arthur had to say without any fighting being necessary. A better motivation to rally the other kingdoms of the ocean would have been Orm urging them all to take action before Darkseid's forces return again and they takeover the surface to ensure that it's fortified and protected from another potential invasion. The whole hostile takeover seemed forced by the film's end, especially when Mera's father seemed like he didn't care in the least that he was manipulated into doing Orm's bidding. Taking over the other kingdoms' armies in that manner should have resulted in mutinies left and right given the circumstances.
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| Why did Arthur see fit to take King Atlan's clothes after taking the trident? He was already grave-robbing the guy to take the weapon, no need to take his damn clothes too. (Laughs) In all seriousness though, I wasn't too crazy about the look here, but maybe it's the gloves and the boots... |
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| "Sword of Omens, give me Sight beyond Sight!" |
I know I can't be the only one who was scratching my head about that one and seeing the same comparison there. Besides, how the hell can Arthur call himself a "nobody" when he's the son of damn Queen Atlanna? C'mon...
Another thing that needed a bit more of an explanation is that if Atlanna was cast out from Atlantis then why the fuck didn't she just come back to be with Arthur and his human father? Better question, how the hell did she survive down in the center of the Earth for that long in that cave. Eventually she would have had to worry about getting attacked by those creatures within the Trench. I get it, Atlanna's a bad-ass, but even that needed a bit of an explanation.
I do like that they kept both Orm/Ocean Master and Black Manta alive in the film's finale and credits teasers, so we can look forward to more developments with those characters. I'm sure Orm will want to have the heart to heart with his mother Atlanna that he needs to get his head back on straight while Black Manta will be more motivated than ever to avenge his father's death, along with the near-fatal injuries that he suffered at the hands of Aquaman in this film. Think about it, Arthur has a lot to lose if they do a sequel. His human father and Atlantean mother are both still alive. He has a budding (yet rushed...) potential romance with Mera. And one would be crazy to think that Orm is going to sit back and allow Arthur Curry to take the throne, despite having Atlan's trident. Petty jealousy will more likely consume him like Thor Odinson's "brother" Loki in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. DC and Warner Bros. are wise here not to dispose of Aquaman's two greatest enemies here in their first appearances when there's a lot more that can be done with them down the road. It's nice to see them not repeat Marvel Studios' mistake(s) by treating their villains as disposable assets.
Action & Visuals
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| Atlantis is truly made of the stuff of legends... |
I had to give James Wan a hand for making Atlantis look truly like something of legend here. It was just as gorgeous as Wakanda and Asgardian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That's one thing I appreciated here. I understood that they had to green-screen a lot of this film since it takes place primarily underwater, but not once while I was watching this, I was saying to myself, "Goddamn that looks so painfully fake..." that I oftentimes find myself uttering.
If I may add, ALL of the costumes in this looked amazing too. I'm still in awe on how comic book accurate that Black Manta's armor looks here.
The action sequences in this film are freaking amazing without a shadow of a doubt. I dare say that they put the action just about everything in the DC Extended Universe to date to shame with excellent cinematography to boot.
As cool as were the two trident battles between Orm/Ocean Master and Arthur Curry/Aquaman throughout the film, I thought the action hit it's peak of awesomeness with the Black Manta fight.
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| I can't wait until the Aquaman sequel for we can get Aquaman and Black Manta fighting each other from start to finish. I felt like this encounter was an appetizer for something MUCH better down the road between them. |
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| Damn that shot looked AMAZING, no matter how many times I see it. |
There was so much to love about that fight, despite a lot of it shown in trailers previously to the film's release.
That being said, I felt like the film's final battle went too far into the deep end (no pun intended) of CGI territory to the point that it felt as unnatural and distracting as the finale of Marvel Studios' Black Panther last year.
Closing Thoughts
For a character that was often joked at and ridiculed for as long as I can remember, especially growing up from the old Superfriends stuff in my childhood, Aquaman was well represented here. For his first solo appearance in a feature-length film, I thought this film did it’s job. It got more people invested into his character and gave fans - old and new - an in-depth look at his world, even if it merely scratched the surface of what will be expanded on with sequels down the road. It’s not perfect - there’s some wrinkles that need to be ironed out in the narrative sense while other things, such as maybe a modern tweak to his costume (those Batman-like wings on the gloves and boots REALLY irk me) and shed some more light on secondary characters, such as Mera (boy does she need some backstory and clarification on her powers/abilities at times), Black Manta, Orm/Ocean Master, and especially Queen Atlanna. I know that I could have been the only one who thought that whatever she was up to before the film’s finale had to be a much compelling narrative to see her journey from when she left Arthur and his father to return to Atlantis and all that led to her banishment.
I'm no expert on DC Comics, but I guess that with that teaser that has Dr. Stephen Shin rescue the dying Black Manta after his loss to Aquaman, Shin and Manta are going to form an unlikely partnership to get what they both want. Shin wants to know the location of Atlantis while Manta merely wants his revenge. I wouldn't be surprised if he breaks Orm out of the Atlantean prisons and manipulates him to aid him in that task. It's cool to see that Aquaman's end of things has a plan on where they want to go next, unlike the bulk of the DC Extended Universe up to this point. I mean, sure, the only thing we were left with at the end of Justice League was a tease/set-up for the Legion of Doom starting with Deathstroke and Lex Luthor, but there has to be a bigger narrative than that going forward if they want people to continue being invested in these characters - at least on the silver screen.
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| I think I spent far too much time oogling Amber Heard during this film than I care to admit. And here I thought I got that out of my system from her being in that last Machete film... |
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