After failing to defeat Aquaman the first time, Black Manta wields the power of the mythic Black Trident to unleash an ancient and malevolent force. Hoping to end his reign of terror, Aquaman forges an unlikely alliance with his brother, Orm, the former king of Atlantis. Setting aside their differences, they join forces to protect their kingdom and save the world from irreversible destruction.
What We Thought:
Unfortunately for Jason Momoa, Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom is going to be dead in the water. It has some strikes against it to begin with and on top it, it’s not a good movie. Fans of the first film might like it, but like Blue Beetle and The Flash before it, it’s not going to make the type of money it should at the box office.
The first issue is that we all know James Gunn is gutting the DCEU and none of these storylines matter. The actors most likely aren’t returning to these characters and there are zero stakes at play. Unlike the MCU, none of the movies matter in terms of what is being built in the DC Universe going forward. I’m fine with standalone films, but knowing it’s most likely Momoa’s last turn as Arthur Curry pretty much brings the film down. There’s no real marketing push to promote the film because Gunn doesn’t care what happens to these movies.
Another reason it’s not getting the marketing push it should is because of an actress in it. I won’t even say her name, but if you’ve seen the first film you know who plays Aquaman’s wife/mother of his child. The actress took an absolute beating in the real world in a court case with her much more famous husband and WB/DC wants us to ignore her being in the movie despite having a much bigger than I expected role in it.
As for the movie itself, if you’ve seen any Star Wars film (especially with Jabba the Hut), Thor Ragnarok, John Carter, Black Panther/Wakanda Forever then you’ve pretty much already seen this. It’s the same film as the first one including the same villain mixed with the Loki/Thor brother dynamic of Ragnarok. I honestly have no idea how many times the word brother is spoken in this movie. You have the hero Aquaman with the half-brother he can’t quite trust, but ultimately is a hero played by Patrick Wilson. That’s Thor and Loki. I will say that Patrick Wilson is the only positive thing about the film because he’s acting like he’s in a very different movie than everyone else. At least someone was trying.
Like all the DCEU flicks Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom is heavy on CGI and low on storytelling. It feels like a dozen other movies, but is never as good as any of them. I know you can’t film people in water all day long, but the reliance on CGI really makes the movie look fake. The submarine, the underwater boats and animals are all just so fake looking. Even Momoa’s amazing hair moving under the water looks terrible. I find this version of Arthur Curry to be too much of a frat bro and a lot of the action is over done especially the third act/big bad guy battle. You can say that about all of the DCEU films too. This isn’t going to open big and it won’t have legs either. The average person is going to wait until it hits MAX or one of those services like they did with Blue Beetle.
The Nerds Templar 