(dramatic music)
- [Aquaman] They made me what I am.
- [Jacki] Aquaman's greatest superpower
isn't controlling the seas or communicating with fish.
It's the ability to embrace and absorb
his own inherent cheesiness and use it to make himself
more entertaining to watch.
- Permission to come aboard?
- In this trident resides the power of Atlantis.
- [Jacki] His first solo movie is often corny,
but it owns all that with the audacity and fearlessness
to just go for it.
It's precisely because it's so damn zany,
unafraid to embrace its comic-bookiness,
and it's just plain out there that Aquaman is a blast.
(joyous shouting)
This is the movie Green Lantern was too reluctant to be.
It's the most unabashedly DC Comics-embracing movie
in the current shared universe,
introducing film goers to the wondrous realms of Atlantis
where sci-fi and fantasy converge
like a river into an ocean.
It's chock-full of glorious geek-out eye candy,
from the different corners
of Atlantean civilization we visit
to the climactic underwater battle royale
where all its many different groups and species square off.
(tense music) (monstrous roar)
It's a wonder Aquaman works as whole,
given how many ingredients have been thrown
into this seafood stew of a movie,
and for that successful balancing act,
credit must go to the director James Wan
for managing to keep this overloaded ship from capsizing
and concocting something palatable from all of those parts.
- What could be greater than a king?
- [Jacki] The story is clunky, its pacing erratic,
the middle stretch where Arthur Curry and Mera
venture on to dry land in search of
an ancient trident drags on too long,
and it's often hilariously melodramatic,
but the movie seems mostly hip to its own shortcomings
and forges ahead blissfully and defiantly.
- Shouldn't we have written it down first?
- I memorized it. Didn't you?
- Oh, yeah, totally.
- What'd he just say?
- Something something trident.
- [Jacki] While Momoa's title character
is largely the same Aqua-bro we met in Justice League,
- My man!
- [Jacki] he has more humanizing aspects here,
such as his bond with his dad
to keep you invested in him
and his tried-and-true hero's journey arc.
Momoa balances the wit, earnestness,
and physicality of the role with ease.
(dramatic orchestral music)
- [Mera] Welcome home.
- [Aquaman] This is badass!
(Aquaman shouting)
- [Jacki] Amber Heard has to play it straight as Mera,
an Atlantean royal delivering exposition one moment
then pivoting to love-hate
cutesy interactions with Arthur the next
all while performing stunts and hand-to-hand fights,
and all this in a ridiculously bad wig.
Yet, she pulls it off.
(cannon firing) (tense music)
There's some cringe-worth dialogue throughout
with Patrick Wilson's Orm getting a boatload of it.
Wilson delivers it all with a combo
of straight-faced solemnity
and regal cheesiness usually reserved
for local Shakespeare in the Park productions.
- The time has come for Atlantis to rise again.
(monstrous roaring)
- [Jacki] It's precisely because of the actors and filmmaker
are so sincere and committed to the material
that you can forgive any dopiness and just enjoy the ride.
- I already got one of those.
(dramatic orchestral chord)
- Not like this one, you don't.
- [Jacki] Meanwhile, as pleasing as it was
to see such a faithful rendition of the cool DC villain,
Black Manta could've been saved for the sequel,
and this movie wouldn't have suffered for it.
Manta's storyline ultimately proves a distraction
instead of adding anything substantial to the movie.
(cannon blasting)
There's so much cool world-building in Aquaman
with Atlantis and its many regions
receiving distinctive treatments.
While we do get to see some Atlanteans
who aren't royals or guards,
it would be nice to see Atlantean civilization
and its citizens explored even further in future films,
much as the Thor films gradually opened up Asgard
by the end of that trilogy.
(dramatic orchestral chord)
(soldier screaming)
(tense music)
The glee that director James Wan clearly has
playing in the world of Aquaman is infectious.
He's made a movie for both types of 10-year-olds,
little kids and those who are 10 at heart.
Aquaman is one hell of a popcorn movie,
a fun time and a big bet for the DC movie universe
that pays off in creating an exciting new realm
for future installments to hopefully explore further.
Wan's geeky epic is chock-full of ridiculous elements,
and on paper, it really shouldn't work as well as it does,
but it's also inherently weird and brazenly bonkers
that the siren call of this giddy, otherworldly romp
is hard to resist.
(dramatic music)
- The war is coming to the surface,
whether you like it or not.
(joyous screaming)
- [Jacki] For more reviews,
check out what we thought of Bumblebee
and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,
and as always, be sure to follow and subscribe to IGN
on the platform of your choice.