2018 Film Review: Aquaman (2018)

Directed by: James Wan
Written by: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Will Beall, Geoff Johns, James Wan
Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson
IMDb Link

Aquaman has a little bit of everything I love: a kaiju, laser sharks, a hidden world at the centre of the Earth filled with dinosaurs, Dolph Lungdren, etc., and despite the fact that these are largely used for a few fleeting moments of spectacle, the ambition of said moments and the skill that executes them is enough for me to appreciate this movie despite the film's other shortcomings.

Arthur Curry, the Aquaman (Momoa), now in the habit of saving people after the events of Justice League, fights against the destiny thrust upon him. Princess Mera (Heard) and Vizier Vulko (Willem Dafoe) come to him in dire urgency, pressing upon him the chance to lead the Atlantean people and prevent a war between the land and sea lead by his half-brother King Orm (Wilson), but Arthur doesn't believe he will be accepted by a people who killed his mother and only see him as a half-breed mongrel. It's a fairly standard hero's journey that packs in the scant details of the convoluted history of the Atlantean people and the increasingly violent political machinations of Orm between the steps Arthur takes to being the person the world needs him to be.

Each beat of the story is punctuated with incredible set-pieces filled with a child-like glee for the ridiculous. Groups of Atlanteans on giant, armored sea horses fight other groups of Atlateans riding sharks equipped with guns that turn water in to lasers (yes, that's the literal in-movie explanation), who also fight crab people that use giant crabs as catapults, all directed with surprising clarity and momentum that keeps it exciting. A chase through a Sicilian village involving big laser eyes is stylised with long takes that slide smoothly between two escapes that feature two different yet equally tense paces. Another chase where Arthur and Mera must run from mutant fish monsters is reminiscent of director Wan's early work in horror. Each moment of action is not only insanely fun as a concept, it's also expressed with considerable talent.

That said, as good as it looks, none of the action feels weight because of the unexceptional story behind it. The convoluted mass of reasons for everything that happens that gets layered on top of the simple conflicts between Arthur and Orm and within Arthur himself are given far too much uninteresting exposition to be the main thrust of getting invested in the action scenes, so even though the skilled hand that moves them makes the action exciting, it is often in spite of the way the film contextualises it, rather than because of it. There's not a lot to really care about in the broader strokes of the Atlantean conflict, and Orm isn't given much in the way of characterisation in these scenes, so he comes across as little more than a cartoon villain with mother issues. Arthur himself is given what he needs to have a functional character arc, but he too often fluctuates between trying to make us laugh and trying to make us feel, and while Momoa approaches both with equal aplomb, it's never more than enough for things to things to work.

The Short Version: While the story and characters are mostly forgettable, the pure scale, skill, and imagination on display in the set-pieces still make it worth watching. Aquaman is a big, dumb, cheesy superhero movie of epic proportions and ambition, and I had a good time watching it.

Rating: 6/10

Published December 29th, 2018