At DC, they fertilized what they could, so despite the great affection and uncriticalness of many fanboys, the Snyder era ended in collapse. Although Justice League brought together the biggest non-Marvel heroes in one team, an event that had been expected for at least two decades, it did so in such an uninviting and uninteresting way that it took a toll not only on the chatter of viewers and critics, but also on sales. So the comic book universe crumbled right before our eyes, leaving only two survivors – Wonder Woman, who will no doubt have a tough time in her 1980s summer sequel, and then Aquaman. which we have already seen a few times, but its own full-fledged origin allows it to get off the ground more or less from scratch.
And indeed, from Batman and the Man of Steel, the demigod of the sea has completely cut himself off, and his only connection with the universe so far is Jason Momoa. True, he is not exactly an actor of Oscar parameters, but his appearance and musculature perfectly match his role, while director James Wan does not even allow him to do any very big tasks: A few announcements, simple one-liners and modest dialogue exchanges that somehow have the plot of attraction C move to attraction D.
Aquaman: PHOTO GALLERY
At the same time, Aquaman is obviously designed as a big family popcorn entertainment, aimed at children around twelve years old, so its story is not at all sophisticated (it is a classic origin, which only replaces about ten attractive locations) and the motivations of the characters are not exactly elaborated. The Dark Knight does not hunt here. On the other hand, simple templates and straightforward attempts at Indiana-Jonesian boxes are better than, for example, want-to-be exciting irritations and boring attempts to build one’s own mythology, such as we saw in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels.
Wan’s film is certainly guilty of excessive footage (143 minutes!) and along with half an hour of material, it could easily get rid of two or three characters. However, all the material is of the highest quality, the individual scenes have a seamless rhythm and technically it is the absolute top of Hollywood. It just lacks the total drive – like in Fast and Furious 7. And yet it is a spectacle that you should not miss in the cinema because it is one of the most spectacular projects of Hollywood.
I don’t measure my budget. I measure with epic battles, fantastically rendered flights through the underwater realm, and audiovisually polished confrontations with various monsters – the most impressive of which is probably the foray into the Deep among thousands of Venom’s descendants with the Alien. In terms of costumes, set design, and all that flashy/neon stylization, Aquaman is a mesmerizing spectacle whose creators have distilled the best of Abyss, Avatar, Tron, Star Wars Blade Runner, and The Matrix into a family blockbuster that’s always something to gawk at.
There is no danger of a digibordel (at least in 2D), although we are still below the surface and in some passages, clouds of armed sharks with lasers on their backs are racing with shoals of seahorses in neon armor, among which the Kraken and thousands of other aquatic creatures run rampant. Amber Heard is shooting in a porn costume, and Dolph Lundgren, Nicole Kidman, and Willem Dafoe (we’ll probably never see these three together again) are going to make jokes. Nevertheless, the spectacle is clear, generous, as it should be, effective and full of ideas, in short, 100% realized.
This step towards younger viewers, who will try to entertain the villains from Power Rangers and a lot of figures that probably came off the toy store shelves on the screen, will of course not appeal to everyone. And Aquaman himself didn’t become a real god this time either, what could be equal to Iron Man and co. But he got a very bold, epic, and professionally luxurious initiation adventure, which is definitely good to see in the cinema because in terms of its scale and trickery, it does not have much competition among comics. I would watch it a second time more than any other DC movie since The Dark Knight Rises.
Also, Read On Fmovies