Aquaman

Starring: Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, Dolph Lundgren

Director: James Wan

Based on "Aquaman" created by Mort Weisinger and Paul Norris

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is the son of human father Tom (Temuera Morrison) and Atlantean mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman). Ever since birth, Vulko (Willem Dafoe) has been secretly training Arthur to challenge his younger brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) and claim his rightful spot as the king of Atlantis, a job Arthur hasn’t had any interest in until now. Orm wants to start a war between the ocean realm and the human realm and needs to unite the seven undersea clans so he can become Oceanmaster. The only way to stop Orm is for Arthur to find the long lost Trident of Atman. Vulko, as well as Orm’s future wife Mera (Amber Heard), need to convince Arthur to embrace his destiny, find the Trident, and stop Orm’s plan.

There are certain expectations that I have now whenever I step into a DC movie, and I will say for all its pros and cons, I liked it more than I was expecting. The last 30 minutes are pretty awesome, Jason Momoa does a great job leading his first blockbuster, and the color palette and action are shot competently, where you are able to tell what is happening on screen.

Despite the positives, this movie didn’t need to be almost two and a half hours long, as there were too many spots where the pace flagged. One minute I would be into the film and the next I would be bored for quite some time. This happened fairly often until those final 30 minutes.

A root cause for that could have been the story telling choices made by the writers and Wan, choosing at times to flash back to a young Arthur either training with Vulko or learning about his abilities. We had already seen him use them up to this point, so it seemed unnecessary to me. Also, once Mera and Arthur start their quest for the trident, they make time to chat and throw out one liners to each other, mostly with Arthur making a reference to the human realm that Mera doesn’t understand. It just became so tedious.

While the film is quite colorful and the special effects aren’t bad, Wan and his cinematographer, Don Burgess, shoot things so crisply that the effects end up looking very noticeable and not look as great as they should.

Also disappointing is the Black Manta subplot. The villain, who is played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, is barely in the film outside of an action scene very early in the film, which sets up his back story. He does turn up, but could have been used more effectively, considering the cool gadgets and abilities he displays.

It’s not the worst DC movie and they have come a long way since they have started their cinematic universe. They just haven’t quite hit their stride yet.

C-