Here’s our review for “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” which opens in theaters nationwide on Friday…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s officially the end of an era.
With the release of “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” the last remnants of the so called Snyderverse are dead and now we await the new storylines, characters and actors that will join a new DC Extended Universe as crafted by James Gunn.
There was a time not that long ago where it appeared that DC (and by extension its business daddy at Warner Bros.) might just shelve the “Aquaman” sequel forever, especially after reports about expensive reshoots and lackluster responses from target audiences. This is the same studio that torpedoed an entire “Batgirl” film that had already finished production and they just used it as a tax writeoff so it wouldn’t be a shocker if that same exact fate befell “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.”
But now the film has been released into the world with low expectations about a huge impact during the holidays in what will ultimately serve as Jason Momoa’s final appearance as the man who speaks to fish.
This movie along with a few others released over the past year or so — here’s looking at you “Shazam: Fury of the Gods” — hit theaters with audiences already knowing these characters and the actors who played them wouldn’t be sticking around once Gunn revamped the storytelling for his new shared universe. While a few characters will stick around, the vast majority including Momoa’s Aquaman will be saying goodbye after this final film.
The first “Aquaman” — directed by noted horror fanatic James Wan — made over $1 billion at the box office so a sequel was inevitable even if the timing for this release couldn’t be much worse. The sequel limped into theaters without much fanfare and there was already negative press about the movie due to the legal situation involving co-star Amber Heard and the messy trial she went through with ex Johnny Depp.
Originally there were supposed to be appearances from at least one Batman and perhaps even more crossover characters that would have existed in the larger Snyderverse that no longer really exists. Those plans were obviously nixed so “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” had to stand on its own two fins and create a story completely independent from anything else DC created.
So how did they do?
Well, Momoa exerted so much bro energy in this movie that he should have been walking around with a fraternity sweater in one arm and a keg of beer in the other. That kind of performance might work with some characters but Momoa apparently forget that he left the set of the latest “Fast and the Furious” sequel set in another dimension and he carried that same Vin Diesel swagger into the new “Aquaman” movie.
While a few other characters managed to pull back the reins on him a little bit — thank you Patrick Wilson — Momoa’s overwhelming machismo was really a lot to handle amid a fairly predictable script and some really poorly put together CGI. The same problems plagued “The Flash” movie and apparently DC must have hired a company with a 2-for-1 special because “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” suffers from the same cartoonish violence and bad graphics.
There are a few shining moments — particularly when Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is on screen — but this movie was largely forgettable, although not totally terrible either. That said, let’s get to our full review for “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”…
PLOT
A few years have past since Arthur Currry (Momoa) took over as the King of Atlantis except he’s now splitting his time living in the underwater city while also helping to raise his son, Arthur Jr., up on the surface alongside his father. He’s married to Mera, although her appearances are few and far between in this movie, and Arthur is struggling to deal with the day-to-day bureaucracy that comes along with running a kingdom that also has a council that can veto every decision he makes.
While he’s begrudgingly still at his post, Arthur soon finds that his kingdom and the entire world are once again being threatened — this time by an old enemy named David Kane aka Black Manta, who has been seeking revenge ever since his father was killed and left for dead by Aquaman. Kane’s thirst for vengeance has him searching for Atlantean technology that could not only help him repair his super suit that was damaged when he last did battle with Arthur Curry but perhaps the kind of firepower he could use to conquer Atlantis and burn it to the ground just to prove his point.
David eventually finds that power when he runs across an ancient, evil black trident that gives him immense power but it also possesses him with a newfound purpose the free a former dark lord that’s been imprisoned for centuries. It’s safe to say, this evil dark lord wants Atlantis for himself and he’ll use anyone or anything to gain that power — and that includes Black Manta.
ACTING, DIRECTING AND SCRIPT
The screenplay from David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick is fine, it’s just nothing that we haven’t already seen 100 times before in this time of standard superhero fare. A bad guy wants revenge and another bad guy seeks world domination. These are the kinds of comic books that were written back in the 1960s and there’s certainly nothing wrong with them … if it wasn’t 2023.
To be fair, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” isn’t poorly written — although they really let Momoa run wild with his jockular attitude that rivals “Thor: Love and Thunder” for levels of cringe — but the story isn’t anything exciting or particularly surprising.
You know exactly where it’s going and when you end up there, you’ll likely say yep saw that coming.
The performances in “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” are fine by superhero standards but it’s Momoa who does way too much scene stealing and you begin to realize that maybe he’s better off in smaller doses while serving as part of the Justice League rather than leading his own film franchise.
Meanwhile, you’ll barely recognized that Nicole Kidman returns as Arthur Curry’s mother because there’s so many digital effects washed over her face that she might as well have been animated. You could probably say the same thing about Amber Heard’s Mera — if they wanted her out of the movie so badly, just a few more keystrokes in post digital effects and it would have looked like a completely different person anyways!
The two real stars in this film are the villains from the first “Aquaman” movie with Patrick Wilson returning as Arthur’s wayward brother Orm and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II playing Black Manta. With Wilson’s serious approach towards his character, he thankfully grounds Momoa through some of his more ridiculous moments on screen.
As for Abdul-Mateen, he’s quickly becoming one of the best actors in Hollywood and his sinister stare as he seeks vengeance on Aquaman is pretty believable. You can tell he’s driven by rage and a thirst to make Arthur Curry pay for everything that was taken away from him — it’s just his means to get there feels like another poor attempt at creating a solution for a problem that didn’t exist.
A good old fashion revenge plot probably would have worked just as well and required far less mental strain to get there, at least where this movie is concerned.
When it comes to direction, Wan is great at what he does but it’s hard to imagine getting all of your creative boxes checked while filming against a green screen for 15 hours a day and then spending the rest dunked in a tank of water. The CGI and digital effects in this movie are just plain bad and that can’t be blamed on Wan but instead the studio, which should really invest more money into finding a better group of artists to work on these films moving forward.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH THE MOVIE?
Well, that’s a loaded question because it’s a lot.
As previously stated, the plot feels like a color-by-numbers comic book movie with a bad guy hell bent on world domination and we spend more than half the movie trying to get there. Bringing back Wilson’s Orm was definitely necessary and it gave Momoa something to do while Black Manta was quietly plotting Arthur Curry’s downfall.
The CGI is so bad in this movie that you’ll wish they just abandoned live action and ultimately decided to make an animated feature, which always kind of fit Aquaman as a character anyways given the ridiculous realities that surround an underwater kingdom with an octopus drumline and a sea horse transportation system.
Abdul-Mateen does an admirable job as the main villain but then they decided to also saddle him with this extra plot about an ancient Atlantean dark lord Voldemorting his way into the movie that just felt totally unnecessary. David Kane seeking vengeance for his father was all they needed but this film does some serious mental Olympics to fit in another villain that really serves no purpose and offers nothing to the movie other than resurrecting the undead army from 1999’s “The Mummy.”
All in all, this is just a very predictable but not totally unwatchable film. That might be the most frustrating part because with enough tweaks and changes, the bones of a potentially good movie exist but it’s completely wasted away with Momoa’s over the top performance and a wildly predictable story.
FINAL VERDICT
The Snyderverse produced a couple of great films — the Zack Snyder cut of “Justice League” at the top of the list — and several really bad movies but more than anything, just a whole lot of mediocre fare. That’s exactly where “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” falls — it’s not terrible but it’s not really that good either. It just exists and chances are if you see it once, you’ll never really feel the need to see it again.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” receives 2 out of 5 on the Skolnick Scale
