“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” Movie Review
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.
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” has the dredged task of putting an end to DCEU to an end, and making way for the new DCEU that director James Gunn envisions for himself. If we take into consideration the recent movies Warner Discovery has shelf or is planning to shelf for tax write-off purposes and the failing numbers The Flash brought to the table you would think we should expect the same results from Aquman 2. Yet honestly if found myself loving this entry of Aquaman as much as I did with The Flash, even though I needed that this was all meant for nothing.
What worked:
Storywise we see Arthur coming out of his shell but still trying to adapt to the role of King of the Seas, Black Manta gets an even bigger spotlight put on him as a main baddy and the family dynamics come into play once again when Orm needs to work side by side with this brother in order to save the Kingdom. The story while generic as a superhero movie the premises centers around an action-packed of revenge and a family finally coming together and understanding their roles.
Character-wise, actor Jason Momoa was undoubtedly built to play Aquaman, from his screen presence and his humor, he brought exactly everything we loved from Arthur in the first Aquaman and just continues to add more with his performances with this sequel. As did actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II with Black Manta as this time around we see a more driven villain, a more motivated one with his quest for revenge against Arthur and his family, again even with this generic superhero comic-book movie, the performances by these two actors are awesome and their action-packed scenes turn this night out at the movies to a really fun entertaining outing.
What did not work:
For some reason, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” suffered from the same issues “The Flash” did in the CGI and Visual Effects department, As the VFX looked dull and uninspiring at moments. We could see from a mile away that many of these scenes were shot in front of a green/blue screen and the editor did not do a great job at blending both these scenes between the VFX and the Live Action actors.
Mera, played by Amber Heard, given the controversy with the Johnny Depp case. It completely took me by surprise with her screen time. Again, I am here mostly to judge her performance given the actions taken by Warner Discovery against Johnny Depp, and while her role is mostly forgettable at best, it truly took me by surprise Warner Discovery did do more to lower her screen presence,
Storywise was ultimately that double-edged sword that made this entry of Aquaman an unoriginal directionless one. Much like The Flash, Aquaman 2 falls into the too little too late argument when the story just fails to bring something new and impactful to the table. Again, I failed to understand why Studios are putting these stories out to fail if we know they are going to fail. If we are moving all together with the franchise in another direction just get rid of them all, because there were certainly no incentives for fans to sit through these movies if nothing is coming out of them in the long hall.
In conclusion:
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom”, much like “The Flash”, is an action-packed generic superhero comic-book movie, and it works as a fun time at the theaters, and the performances of their leads and villains are great, and in the end, it fails to provide any hype for anything coming soon that would make any fan of the DC franchise wanting to see more.
