Aquaman

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I think the thing I find most frustrating about DC movies is the wasted potential. Where Marvel seems capable of making anything work, DC has had few real successes (particularly when you consider that the “Dark Knight” trilogy was created independantly of the DCEU); there really is only “Wonder Woman.” Now, admittedly, Aquaman is a difficult proposition from the get-go. He is a goofy, goody-goody character whose major powers all occur underwater, which would be extremely difficult to capture. And, yet, those are all the things that DC got right. Re-inventing Aquaman as a tough, sullen Jason Momoa was a stroke of brilliance. And his character really shone in “Justice League.” Also, director James Wan (known primarily for directing/producing horror films like “the Conjuring, “Saw,” and “Insidious” serieses) somehow found a way to capture all of that underwater action beautifully. In fact, his special effects were by far the best part of this film. All of the ocean scenes were gorgeous. I loved the look of Atlantis and how all the people genuinely looked like they were underwater. The battles scenes were, for the most part, fun as well. The film was almost non-stop action from beginning to the bitter end, a tiring 142 minutes later. By the time we entered our last battle scene, I was a bit fatigued by the constant battles/blur of CGI action. But, honestly, I was impressed. All of the really tough stuff that could have doomed this film really worked. Where it fell flat was on all the stuff that should have been easy. Continuing to follow an oft-tried, and failed, story technique (think “Batman v. Superman”), this script was all over the place. It tried to take on too many things. The entire sub-plot of the Black Manta could have been saved for a different film. It added probably a good 30 minutes to the film and just distracted from the main plot. Additionally, all of the time spent on the complicated mechinations of the various Atlantian tribes and getting them to align for war, felt entirely unnecessary. The heart of the film was brothers at war with each other, if the story had been more tightly focused, we might have gotten deeper character development and trimmed the film to around 90 minutes. Instead, we had a rambling and exhausting mess. But, worse even than the plot was the dreadful dialogue. Virtually every line sounded like a bad cliche. I groaned over and over again at dialogue that sounded like it had been written by a middle school student. And it was never worse than when those awful lines were coming out of Momoa’s mouth. The dialogue turned Aquaman into the wise-ass, dumb jock who nobody liked in high school. His funny lines weren’t funny, and his dramatic lines were. That’s a problem. At one point, Aquaman actually asks, “what could be better than a king?” Really? You live in the 21-Century and you’re incapable of coming up with an alternative form of government? Under Wan’s directing, Momoa’s Aquaman came across as brutish, stupid, self-involved, and more than a bit condescending. It was not a flattering performance. And, perhaps, Momoa isn’t capable of more than that. He may do best when he is saying as little as possible. Here, his mugging for the camera and line delivery came across as a Dwayne Johnson wanna-be. Early in the film, tidal waves destroy cities around the world, yet no other superhero seems to take notice. Apparently, Superman, Wonder Woman, et al all have more important things to do. If they had showed up, perhaps Momoa could have shut up, and we might have had a better film. Again, such wasted potential. It felt like they were on the verge of a really good film but just couldn’t quite get there. What a shame. Visually, this film was worth every penny, but everything else was absolutely worth skipping.