Review of Aquaman (2018) by Tracy W — 14 Jan 2019

So, I finally watched the muched talked about and obviously over hyped Aquaman. I've heard some fans even calling it the best in the DCEU even surpassing the highly entertaining Wonder Woman. My take on it? MEH. While I'm happy it's making money and that DC finally scored a profitable win it's just not that good of a film.

My first problem is jason momoa himself, who in my opinion isn't a very well casted Aquaman. His delivery and line readings are bad and while that could be just the fault of mediocre dialogue written for his character, his acting is still questionable. Which is a shame because I loved him in the game of Thrones. Patrick Wilson (the films protagonist and arguably the better actor) would have made a better Aquaman. He looks the part and he has the chops.

The cgi varies from amazing to chuckling bad. I know nothing more about Arthur curry. from before I started the film to after I finished. He is neither a compelling super hero or a interesting character for that matter. The film seems like something that would have been ground breaking in 2005. From the plot, to the action scenes everything seems to be going by the numbers just cruising by on autopilot; checking the super hero origin blocks as it moves along to its predictable ending.

The worst travesty of the film is it's tacked on extra villain BLACK MANTA. You killed my father (even though it was his own fault) now I want revenge. ???? Perhaps the character could have been used in some fashion but more as an Easter egg for future installments and not a full on villain.

Anyways. I only fret because I fear due to its success there will be more films like it in the dceu universe. Mediocre, half baked, poorly plotted, over blown, over manned, over sexed and worst of all over here. ?? The Dc universe has an array of rich iconic characters with amazing stories to tell. They have literally decades of source material and this is the best they could muster. ???? two stars out of four.