Over the Holidays between visiting family, parties, and New Years my wife and I hosted some of our friends for a few days. This has become an annual tradition. To add to that tradition, we usually go see a movie (the guys have always gotten to pick so far). The first year, we went to see The Force Awakens. We followed that up with Rogue One and have kept up that trend of seeing some type of Sci-fi/comic book movie. This year we went to see Aquaman.
I was pretty skeptical about seeing Aquaman. He’s not exactly one of the most popular comic book heroes ever. In fact, he’s been pretty much crapped on for forever.
But I was wrong.
Aquaman is the best DC movie since The Dark Knight.
Story
For the most part, the story is standard hero’s journey fair. The cast-out-hero must return home with a weapon to conquer evil. There’s nothing special here. No real twist or turns.
I could pick out what was going to happen by the beginning of Act 2 but that didn’t detract from the entertainment of the film.
Ignoring the section of the movie in the desert, there were things happening fairly often. Character moments felt earned. Maybe not as emotional as it could be, but there was some drama. One of my biggest complaints about the DC movie universe since The Man of Steel has been that things were just boring, or didn’t make sense. Batman vs. Superman felt like the biggest offender. Don’t get me started on the whole “Martha” thing.
More than that, Superman’s death in BvS didn’t feel earned. It was just shock and a grasp for something that hadn’t been done before. You can’t kill Superman in his first sequel and expect it to have an impact. He wasn’t Superman for the entire first movie, and BvS spent the entire movie showing how people didn’t really care about the man.
Anyway, I got off topic. The beats here felt earned. Aquaman had to work for his title. His reunion with his mother felt emotional. Even the budding relationship between Mera and Arthur “Aquaman” felt natural – it felt rushed at the end, but it was a gradual attraction.
Acting
To that end, the relationship between Aquaman and Mera worked because of the actors. Jason Momoa brings a playfulness that isn’t usually associated with Aquaman. Momoa plays him as a simpleton with muscles – and it works. It really works.
Momoa is the reason why this movie really works.
The rest of the cast is great as well. Amber Herd’s wig is definitely the weakest of all the acting, but I felt like she played the Princess Leia character well.
I really liked the casting of Willem Dafoe here. Dafoe is a great actor, but for once he was cast as a good guy. Sure, a good guy that sneaks around behind the backs of the King of Atlantis, but for good reason. After the movie, my wife even mentioned how it was hard for her to see the bad guy from Spiderman as a good guy. I think casting him in this role gave the part a little more mystery. I wonder how many people were wondering when he would turn evil.
Maybe in the sequel.
Visuals
This movie takes place mostly underwater. I have no idea how they pulled off the visuals for the movie, but they look pretty great. Hair was floating around, the everything in the background looked as if you had opened your eyes underwater.
I can only imagine what it was like moving and acting like you were underwater, but for the most part, I think Director James Wan pulled it off. There was only one time, towards the end that I really laughed out loud because of someone moving on the screen.
Above water looked great as well.
Directing
I think James Wan needs to get some props here. I’m not sure this movie would have been a success with anyone else in charge. He really seemed to embrace the underdog status of Aquaman and made it a great movie.
I’m interested to see how they follow up this movie.
Wrap up
I don’t think this movie should win any awards (other than maybe visuals) but this movie really was a good ride. It was better than I thought, with enough eye candy to keep anyone interested.
I just wish the rest of the DC universe could bring this kind of fun to their movies.
What did you think of Aquaman? Did you think the story was boring or did it hit the right notes for you?
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