Time for a superhero movie, just for a change. In this case everyone's least remembered barbarian Jason Momoa as Aquaman, or Arthur to his friends. See this is what I would classify as an exercise in over-indulgence. Not in the dark and grey Man of Steel sense but in a wild and ridiculous adventure sense. It's bloated and messy and often contains way too many neon laser blasting armour costumes, but at the same time this feels like an all or nothing effort with a lot of creative energy. There's also a lot of cheese. It's not a film that I would really call good... but one that I still found myself enjoying for one reason or another.
This is a film that looks like it cost a lot of money, and a lot of that money is up there on the screen. Except when it's not. Unfortunately visual effects are a finicky thing and not everything can look perfect all the time, especially that old chestnut digital de-ageing. Which is awkward when the prologue of the story shows the meeting of Arthur's parents, lighthouse keeper Thomas (Temuera Morrison) and sea queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman). But hey there's only so many hours in the day and 2,300 visual effects shots in the film. After some fish of water jokes (what else) and a quick romance Atlanna is taken away by her people leaving Aqua-dad to look after their newly born son.
A lot of this is fairly standard stuff but like many of the simple story beats they can't seem to help cramming in extra fight scenes. Some of them are pretty interesting with great costumes and inventive camera work, but at the same time it's pretty exhausting. Pacing is not one of the film's strengths, and little restraint is shown when even smaller exposition moments are capped with sword fights and laser battles. Arthur's training by Atlantean advisor Vulko (Willem Dafoe) is sprinkled throughout while bits of his childhood as an outcast show up every so often. But really it could have done with tighter editing and more momentum.
Even pirate and later super-villain David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) aka Black Manta gets an origin story and even a super suit construction montage. His motives for revenge against Aquaman are so awkwardly executed that it's almost laughable, as if this is a parody of the usual lost loved one tragedy plot. But it's still somehow fun, particularly the scenes where he gives undersea technology a new coat of paint and turns a plasma cannon into a gigantic comic book style helmet. The tone here if it's not obvious is generally pretty earnest and it never feels like it's trying to be dark or edgy. They're having fun with the material, and a lot of the time that translates into the viewing experience.
Elsewhere Aquaman's evil half brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) gets to wear a whole lot of totally absurd costumes made from silver, gold and even purple armour scales. Again some of the CGI is pretty questionable, but the ludicrous nature of the proceedings sort of negates this having any major impact on the movie itself. His plan to unite the Seven Seas in a war against the surface dwellers is as basic as you can get, although his ruthless moustache twirling is often pretty engaging. I have to wonder why he doesn't just threaten the land above if he doesn't like pollution and garbage, particular when it's the land where Superman lives. But then it's hard to question too much in a story that culminates with a shark riders versus crab people battle sequence.
Orm's assault on his neighbours (and the audience) does at least wait until a few smaller scale set pieces as Arthur challenges him to a duel for the crown before he's forced to escape and follow his new mer-friend Mera (Amber Heard) on a lost artefact quest. These aren't great characters and these aren't particularly great performances, even from the veterans in the cast, but there's always a kind of energy to the film as it jumps from one eye popping location to the next. It's a story with Julie Andrews voicing a sea monster after all, I can't help but smile even when it all gets really loud and really incoherent. For all the swarming fish and clashing soldiers on screen it's at least never a big grey mess like some of the previous DC/WB efforts.
Some of the underwater locations are actually pretty impressive, including the creature feature trench sequence. But after a while all the spectacle does become tiring, and I start to wonder about minor things like Dolph Lundgren's flowing mane of red hair. Is that an effect too? Things are at their best when it's just Black Manta and Aquaman fighting in a (mostly) real Sicilian locale. Mera's water manipulating powers in particular are a lot of fun. Like some of the lighter moments in Wonder Woman this often feels like a big dumb '90s throwback, but this is bigger and dumber. It's probably more Romancing the Stone than Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it's more adventurous and colourful than could be expected. It's clunky and corny and it's over stuffed, but it's still probably the most consistently fun this particular franchise has been so far.
3/5
BONUS REVIEW
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018)
So just one more crime fighter... at least for today. The big Spider-Verse movie promise a lot and delivers quite a bit, even while Sony's own live action efforts are still looking kind of questionable. But at the core this is just another Spider-Man origin story and all the bells and whistles can't distract me from that familiar feeling. This time it's newcomer Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) taking the reigns, as well as all the typical spidey-burdens. He's got problems with his family, with his strict dad being a cop and his laid back uncle being a cool but shady character. There's tragedy, there are girl problems, there are a lot of scenes where he tries to avoid school work or has to make tough choices when real trouble arrives.
Meanwhile of course there's a big particle collider experiment happening in Wilson Fisk's secret basement (played by Liev Schreiber but now looking like an extra from Belleville) leading to the whole alternate dimensions plot. Soon there are several new and old spider-powered heroes on the scene, each with a similar histories but wildly different looks. One's a different Peter Parker, one's a girl, one's a girl and a robot working in tandem... you get the idea. One's a talking pig. There's a lot of fun to be had here and a lot of comics history is mixed up with all the wacky antics. They even reference Toby Maguire's terrible dancing, and that gets a thumbs up from me. But the story about Miles and his teenage life takes precedence and all the craziness takes time to arrive.
It's often looks really nice with a mixture of modern computer animation and classic comic ink effects being used in ways that are pretty novel. They use actual text boxes to show character thoughts and there are plenty of big visual explosions to show movement and speed. And y'know Spider-Man fights his classic rivals in some guise or another while learning to grow as a person. It's odd that the style of the visuals and all the music and camera work is trying so hard to be fresh but the material is still the same as ever. It feels like I'm being way too negative on a story that everyone can enjoy, one that's executed in a really creative way. But I could have done with a few extra narrative punches amongst all the giant onomatopoeia sound effects.
3/5
