Aquaman follows Arthur, played by Jason Momoa. He is a man born from an Atlantean queen, giving him powers to breathe underwater, swim very fast, and talk to fish. When he learns that he is heir to the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, he must rise up and defeat his brother King Orm, played by Patrick Wilson, who wants to take the throne for himself and go into war, which will result in the destruction of the world.
It's no secret that the DC Cinematic Universe has been very spotty. With the exception of Wonder Woman, which I found great, every single one of their movies has ranged from okay (Man of Steel) to downright terrible (Suicide Squad). And while I was not that impressed with Aquaman, I must admit, there are some aspects of the movie that are the best of any movie in the franchise. Unfortunately, it suffers from a lot of the problems of the other DC films, resulting in an overall mixed experience.
Let me start off by talking about the best aspect of this movie- the visuals. This is definitely the best looking movie of the franchise. The colors are beautiful and pop off the screen with gorgeous blues and reds and yellows. There are some images that could easily be desktop backgrounds. Plus, the cinematography is the best of the franchise. The lighting is bright and colorful, and the camera follows the action quite well. It's a great looking movie.
The special effects are also the best of the series. Sure, sometimes it looks a little goofy, but the CGI is actually put to good use here. Nothing here feels blatantly fake and for the most part, everything fit well into the environment. The aquatic monsters in particular look fantastic.
What elevates the look of the movie overall are the designs. Everything from the city of Atlantis to the costumes are phenomenal. They have their own distinct style that looks grand, majestic, and futuristic. Combine that with the aquatic theme, and everything about the look fits well without a single misplaced aspect.
I also found Jason Momoa to be very good as Aquaman; a lot better than he was in Justice League. He was charismatic, charming, and seemed quite committed to the role. Plus, I enjoyed the chemistry he had with Amber Heard, who played Mera. Their scenes together were fun and I could tell they enjoyed acting with each other. In general, all the performances were quite good. Patrick Wilson probably gives the best performance of the movie, and Willem Dafoe, while not doing much, did a good job as a smaller character. This is a solid ensemble that did quite well throughout... especially considering what they had to work with.
Now it's time for me to talk about what didn't work. In my eyes, Aquaman had two big problems: the storytelling and the script. It sounds like the same thing, but trust me, they are very different, and they are the two things that hurt this movie. This film follows my absolute least favorite type of story for these action/adventure movies. It's the prophecy story- a character learns that he is the hero of an epic myth that spans centuries. He doesn't believe it at first, but then through many trials and tribulations, he becomes the hero he was destined to be in the first place. I am sick of this story. It's done to death and its rarely told in an interesting way. This film does nothing new or interesting with the story. It's all predictable.
However, this can be forgiven if the story is told well. My philosophy is its not how many times the story is told; it's how well the story is told. Unfortunately, Aquaman's storytelling is pretty sloppy. Granted, it's not as bad as, say, Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad. But it's still quite irritating how this movie tells its story. There is a pattern to this movie. It's a pattern of exposition, action, exposition, action, etc. As a result, the pacing of the film is repetitive to the point where the film is kind of boring, especially in the first half. It does pick up a bit when Arthur and Mera go to Italy, but the movie as a whole could have flowed better. The storytelling is choppy and I found it hard to sit still as a result.
The worst aspect of Aquaman is its script. The writing is downright terrible. None of the dialogue felt human and the humor that they tried to put into the movie fell flat on its face. The way the characters interacted with each other was beyond cheesy. Granted, this isn't the worst script in the DC Cinematic Universe. I give that distinction to Suicide Squad. However, Aquaman's script is still poor and hurts a lot of the enjoyment for me. It wasn't self aware enough for it to be cartoony fun.
Aquaman was just okay. It had some fun action scenes and some beautiful visuals, but the choppy story and terrible dialogue hurt this film a lot. I can easily tell this was better made than most of the movies in this franchise. In that respect, it's quite a lot better than almost everything the series has to offer. People have been enjoying Aquaman as a big dumb action movie. In that respect, I think it went over okay. However, I think the pacing and the dialogue prevented me from feeling that way about the movie. If you want some stupid fun, you might get a kick out of it. It's definitely a step up for the DC Cinematic Universe, but the franchise still has a ways to go in order to truly be a beloved series.
Score: 5/10 (Average)
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