Movie Reaction: Aquaman

Formula: Waterworld / Black Panther

Superhero movies have been around for a while now. They've been printing money for studios more often than not. So, in my mind, there are three possible reasons why a superhero hasn't been given a movie yet.

1. The character isn't well known. This is the most common reason. There are hundreds of superheroes in the comics. Most of them the average person has never heard of. Studios have been cherry picking characters to give an increased profile to for a while. Black Panther was fairly obscure before introducing him to the MCU. I wouldn't be surprised if people thought the Guardians of the Galaxy were an invention for the movies.
2. The rights were sold off and are trapped. I'm sure there are some cases of this. Lord knows a lot of characters are stuck under the X-Men umbrella.
3. The studio worries that the character won't translate to the screen. This is when the powers are hard to visualize or could look a little silly. While Doctor Strange is certainly in that first scenario as well, I suspect there was also some hesitation by Disney due to his cerebral skill-set.

Aquaman is one of the better know superheroes. He's a tier below Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man, but he's certainly in the Wonder Woman tier right below them. He's by far the biggest name not to have a movie before now. Maybe a tiny bit of it had to do with the fact that it - I can't believe I'm saying this - couldn't live up to the fake James Cameron smash hit from Entourage. Most of the delay comes down to the fact that it's in my third group of previously unmade superhero movies. It's really hard to do Aquaman right. The potential for looking silly is higher than in any other major property. But, with DC's movies finally looking something like a film universe, it was worth a try.

True to expectations, Aquaman is a movie that requires some buy in. More than most superhero movies. It's about Arthur (Jason Mamoa), the son of a human lighthouse keeper and the queen of Atlantis (a human who lives underwater, basically). His parents' union was forbidden by the Atlantians*. His mother was taken from him by them. He's never forgiven them for that, so he's mostly lived as a land-dwelling human. Well, Arthur has a half brother (Patrick Wilson) who is king of Atlantis and  kind of a warmongering dick. Arthur gets tracked down by Mera (Amber Heard) to stop his brother, since he sort of has a claim to the throne as well. Oh, and his brother, Orm, wants to reveal the Atlantians to the humans and make war with them. To beat Orm in combat though, Arthur needs to get a special trident of legend. So, Aquaman is part chosen one story, part Indiana Jones adventure, and part battle to save the world movie. It's a lot.

*I assume I'm messing some of this verbiage up. Oh well.

Aquaman is a movie I enjoyed, but it wasn't all that good. The strengths barely outweigh the flaws. A lot of it comes down to that buy-in I was talking about. I couldn't buy in the way it needed me to. The entirety of the underwater world is silly. There is a race of fish people and crab people in addition to the human-like ones. None of them speak with a trace of irony. There are massive logistical problems. The physics always feel a little off when characters are fighting there. The societies are designed in two dimensions when they should be designed in three. For example, the city of Atlantis has guard walls. In the sea! No guard ceilings though. As world-building, that doesn't make much sense. Repeatedly, there are explanations for things that feel way too convenient. Like, only nobles can break above water. Why does that need to be a thing? Even the sound mixing has some trouble underwater. When characters talk, they add an underwater effect which makes it a little harder to hear them. Most of the time it's fine, but when someone decides to really monologue, it got hard to follow. You can say I'm nit-picking about all that, but this is directly in response to assorted snickers and comments I heard in the theater. People were chuckling at the sight of characters and asking what someone just said.

Then there's Jason Wan: the director of this movie. Wan made his name as a horror director (Saw, Insidious, The Conjuring). What got him this job was his fine work in Furious 7. Aquaman very much looks like it was directed by someone who just made a Fast and Furious movie. There's an old story about George Lucas when he was directing Star Wars. His only two notes ever to the actors were "faster" and "more feeling". I think the crew actually bought him signs saying those two things by the end to save the need to talk at all. I imagine James Wan's signs for Aquaman would've been "Cooler" and "Bigger". He shoots Jason Mamoa like he is the coolest guy who ever lived. I probably just imagined this, but every time Aquaman hits someone, there's a guitar solo. Blood and sweat went into making sure that Arthur/Aquaman is the biggest badass ever to be a Super Friend. Wan went for broke in terms of scale. I sincerely don't know how they could make Aquaman 2 much bigger. This movie kind of rolls the small-scale origin story into the large-scale fulfilling one's destiny story and doesn't leave much room to grow. I kind of respect that he was focusing on what he could do in this movie and not thinking 3 movies down the line. It was a lot to pack into the movie though. He's a good director for this kind of thing. There's a fight in a Sicilian town in particular that is messy and fun that was him at his best. Given the challenge of shooting underwater battles, I think he did as well as possible in those parts.

Jason Mamoa is not an actor with a lot of range. What he does well, he does very well. Other than Gal Gadot, Mamoa was the stand out from Justice League. He's good as the hard-drinking superhero. He's the kind of guy who is a lug, but he knows it. The fact that he isn't a polished fighter or hero is what makes him such a dangerous opponent. He will play dirty if he needs to. He and Amber Heard have a nice teacher/pupil dynamic (as romantic partners, I'm not as sold). It even reached a point where I was sad that this couldn't be Mera's movie with Arthur as her sidekick. Whenever he's asked to be physical, Mamoa is obviously great. I assume the fact that he's so bruising is what got him cast in the first place. When he hits, it hurts. There's nothing elegant about this Aquaman. There are enough finesse superheroes (Superman, Wonder Woman, any of the Marvel guys other than Thor and the Hulk). It's good to see a brutal, pulverizing hero on occasion. Aquaman does force Mamoa out of his comfort zone on occasion, and that's a different kind of brutal (for the audience). I simply don't buy sincerity from the guy. He looks so uncomfortable when he's asked to deliver any serious line. The movie spends a lot of time forgetting who Arthur is. Sometimes he's a reluctant hero. Sometimes he's cocky. Sometimes he seems annoyed by the whole thing. I never bought the entire character, only pieces at a time.

I was surprised by how much I liked Amber Heard in this. If I'm being honest, I've mainly only liked her in sexpot roles before this. In this, if you took away the "one true king" and "destiny" stuff, she'd be the hero of the story, and I'd happily watch it. Patrick Wilson as the King Orm is a pretty uninteresting villain. Weirdly, I sided with him a lot until he started killing people to underline the fact that he's the villain. He just didn't like humans filling the sea with trash and warships. Is that really so unreasonable? Orm doesn't have much personality though. The movie needed a villain, so there he was. Willem Dafoe plays the aid to King Orm and a covert operative for Arthur and Mera. The game within the movie is looking for the Green Goblin behind those eyes. I kept waiting for Dafoe to snap in the middle of some bland scene of Orm being dryly evil and show him what a real deranged villain looks like.

I realize that I've spent more of my time talking about what's wrong with the movie, even though I said I technically liked it. That's because the things it does right are mostly the things that come with the ticket. It's a $100+ million superhero movie. There's big action. The sound is loud and the battles play well on the big screen. It zips along at a nice pace. The lead has plenty of swagger. The rest of the cast is overqualified and happy to put some effort in and give it some legitimacy for that sweet, sweet paycheck. That's why it rates better than the Ghost Riders and the Fantastic Fours. My problems with the movie are the things that I don't take for granted going in. The world building could use some work. The story is contrived. The dialogue is uninspired. This is the kind of stuff that make Wonder Woman or Black Panther memorable. For what it's worth, it's probably my second favorite of the DC Universe movies, well below Wonder Woman and a little above Man of Steel and Justice League.

One Last Thought: I'm a little confused about the powers. Getting Atlan's trident is supposed to give someone power over the creatures of the season, but Arthur already has that power. Did they have that backwards? Like, did they misunderstand the legend and it's "only one who has dominion over the creatures of the sea can wield his trident"? Or is it an amplifier effect. Like, because he could already control a hundred fish at a time, the trident allows him to control thousands. Also, what's up with Mera's powers? She's the only one who seems to be able to do that waterbender stuff. Is that maybe something explained in the comics?

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend