Aquaman

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I will be the first to admit that when it comes to DC, there's a bit of a disconnect with me. I tend to lean more towards Marvel's collection, and tend to consider most of what DC cranks out to be fantastic eye candy, but with minimal story-telling and character development, being a huge rush to try to catch up with Marvel.

While I can't say I've ever really and truly hated any of DC's stuff, most of it has been disappointing with the exception of 'Wonder Woman'. Call me a band-wagoner if you must, but keep in mind that films like 'Suicide Squad' and 'Justice League', I still managed to give a pass to, despite seeing their flaws.

The real question since mid 2016 has been "will anything ever be better than 'Wonder Woman', or even as good?" While the short answer is "probably not" (let's face it, the strong female superhero is one thing DC managed to beat Marvel to), I have to admit that 'Aquaman' here actually does come out pretty well, all things considered. In fact, this pretty much makes second place for me as far as DC's collection is concerned. A frank surprise, considering that by all rights, Aquaman ought to be about the lamest superhero in the DC Universe.

Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is born to a lighthouse keeper named Tom (Temuera Morrison) and an Atlantian woman named Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) who strongly believes that one day Arthur will unite the worlds of land and sea. However, Atlantian rules dictate that the love between Arthur's parents is forbidden, and Atlanna is pretty much hunted down into exile for her "crimes". Meanwhile, Arthur takes up the role of Aquaman, being stuck somewhere between his appreciation of land dwellers, along with his father, and being half Atlantian, but not necessarily able to show his face around Atlantis due to what he represents.

Orm (Patrick Wilson), Arthur's half-brother (and full-blooded Atlantian) uses a pirate named David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) as a link between worlds in order to wage a war on the surface dwellers, after decades of our pollution causing problems. His betroved, Mera (Amber Heard) wants no part of it, and calls Arthur to Atlantis in an attempt to stop the worst from happening.

To me, this is sort of DC's answer to 'Thor' (the powerful being who is after a specific weapon [the Trident of Atlan, here] in order to make things work, and eventually take his rightful place on a throne, after proving himself worthy). However, plenty of challenge lies ahead for him. perhaps a little less so here, though, as Aquaman is already an established member of the Justice League, and has been for a year. So we do get the best of both worlds here. This is slight origin story blended with hitting the ground running, and the execution of it all flows quite nicely. Up until this point, a strong criticism of mine when it comes to DC has been that things feel rushed and kinda messy. This one isn't that bad.

I suppose my only real criticisms here lie within the overall bland acting, as so much of it is taken so seriously by so many, save Momoa, who seems to fully recognize that the whole thing is kinda silly, and goes for the 'Thor: Ragnarok' execution. First coming out of this, I thought the opposite, but after sitting on things for a while, it's clear that Momoa had the right idea for his role, so kudos to him. More criticisms go with a lot of the CG animation here with the impression that at this point, things could look much better. But all in all, this one really isn't that bad at all.

Maybe it's due to my overall unfamiliarity and disinterest I've always had with this character, or perhaps I've just lowered my expectations so far, but I was pleasantly surprised by this one overall. While it's no 'Wonder Woman', and still feels rushed in parts (which is odd considering its 2.5-hour running time), it manages to do its own thing without going so incredibly over the top. And while I'm not exactly standing and cheering when it's over, I can nod my head with approval and assume that DC is starting to get their shit together. Despite it being a 3, it's certainly a high 3.

3/5

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