Ladies, and gentlemen, today, in preparation for the newest DC superhero film, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom being released as of recently, we review the newest Aquaman film that was just released around Christmas. It is the one, and only film that stars Jason Mamoa as the title character, alongside Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, and quite a few other people. Presenting to you all my review of 2018 DC film, which is simply titled Aquaman.
Plot: In 1985, when a lighthouse keeper named Thomas Curry (Temuera Morrison) rescues Atlanna (Nicole Kidman), the Queen of Atlantis, from the ocean after she gets injured, they fall in love, and have a child, whom they name Arthur. When Arthur grows up, and discovers that he’s destined to become King of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis, it is up to him, with help from Princess Princess Mera (Amber Heard), Atlantis’ royal vizier, Nuidis Vulko (Willem Dafoe), and some other new friends to dethrone the current ruler of Atlantis (Patrick Wilson), who has currently put the kingdom of Atlantis in jeopardy, and then become the rightful ruler of Atlantis.
Well, folks, was the first Aquaman film from 2018 a good film? Well, yes, very much so. First off, though the film could potentially feel a little fast-paced at points, the more well-paced points seem to outweigh the fast-paced ones by a long shot. Then, there are the characters. They are all well developed. Not only is Aquaman himself really well written, but you have other characters like Arthur/Aquaman’s brother, Orm Marius, and Nuidis Vulko, the vizier of Atlantis, who end up being rather complex characters. The movie also does some excellent jobs with the relationships. This goes not only with the love relationship with Arthur, and Princess Mera, but also Arthur, and Vulko, who is revealed to be like a mentor to him especially in his younger years, and other relationships like those as well. It was great how well established the relationships in this film were in the end. I’m not sure if it was due to this film being around 2-2.5 hours, and/or other factors, but it would seem as if the film’s long running time seemed to help balance out the action, the character development, the world building of Atlantis, and elements like those by helping them all be well developed as best as possible. Honestly, you can probably tell that the filmmakers were trying to go all out as much as possible for this film. The only thing I will say is that as far as the villain, David Kane/Black Manta, goes, his motivations for being a villain were probably both understandable, but also somewhat lame at the same time. Anyway, then, there’s the visuals. Wow, these visuals are amazing, especially when you see the underwater kingdom of Atlantis. As I was watching this film, I remember thinking to myself that if Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire had the world of Atlantis this well developed, and/or it didn’t have to have a bit of a time constraint likely due to that one being a Disney animated film, just think of how better that one could have been, but not having the superhero element. Anyway, back to fully Aquaman! I’m not sure how many people that went, and saw this film back in late 2018, or early 2019, saw it in 3D. Either way, I’m sure that a great majority of the underwater shots, or the kingdom itself probably looked cooler, despite it probably being more expensive to see it in that format. Rupert Gregson-William’s score was also amazing. Would it have been worthy of an Oscar? Probably not! Still, it was definitely nice that the score had an 80’s vibe before the film fast forwarded from 1985 to the present time of the 2010’s (or should we say present time back then?). Even when the film fast forwards to that time period, it was nice to hear the score have a beauty, and nostalgia of a type of music that played back in the 1980s. It was almost like it helped the audience, figuratively speaking, transport into the world of Aquaman even more. Oh, and another thing! The climax was very well done. Basically, because of some of the struggles that occur throughout that portion of the film (which I won’t go into details on), it ends up being an additional highlight for this film. Finally, as far as positives go, Aquaman provides great lessons about not letting our mistakes define our present, or future, repaying those who wrong us with good, and lessons like those.
That all being said, the only potential flaws for this film would be that the villain’s motives are both understandable, and sort of lame. In addition to this, people may find themselves ambivalent about how certain situations in this film were handled.
And that’s my review for the first Aquaman film, from 2018. If you haven’t seen this film, then you need to. If you want to see a DC film with a mostly good storyline, then do so. That is especially since DC didn’t seem to have a lot of great films at the time, but started to get better after this slowly but surely. This film has a good, and creative story, fun characters, a lot of heart, excellent world building, and more than one could ask for. Also, who wouldn’t want to see a film in which Willem Dafoe doesn’t play a villain (minus animated films like Finding Nemo)? Just a thought there! So, especially if you plan to see the second film, definitely make an effort to see this one. You won’t be disappointed, that’s for certain.
Final Grade: A-
Matthew’s Animated & Live-Action Movie Reviews 