Film of the Week: Aquaman

Warner Brothers, during their own cinematic universe have released 5 films. 2 of which have been decent: Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. Both are good, standalone superhero movies, with a strong plot, and characters. They’re both visually pleasing, but Aquaman towers above Wonder Woman simply because of how absolutely stunningly beautiful every underwater scene is. Whilst the CG was noticeable and their process for de-aging Willem Defoe seemed to be a little rough around the edges, compared to Marvel’s attempt with Samuel L Jackson, and Robert Downey Jr. in Captain America: Civil War. However, I can push those complaints to one side as the overall film was definitely an unexpected hit.

Aquaman has been the butt of many jokes throughout the year for various reasons, but Jason Momoa’s performance squelched those jokes underneath his feet as he battles his way to being king of Atlantis, ending with a rather epic climatic battle sequence which a lot of attention was given to, which unfortunately, is a rarity when it comes to Warner Brothers DC films.

Whilst there are a few elements which can be attributed to being clichéd, James Wan’s direction overshadowed those few moments. I’m a fan of James Wan’s horror work, and I was intrigued how he’ll handle something completely different, but he absolutely nails the task, even slipping a few vague references of common horror tropes, which I found rather fascinating how he worked that into a non-horror, superhero film. Those clichéd story details with James Wan’s unique talent made them feel fresh, and therefore enjoyable. Instead of attempting to come up with something different, embrace what has already be done and put your spin on it, keeping it interesting, enjoyable, memorable, and easy to watch in a rather colourful environment and action packed scenes. A rather brilliant idea.

I do not consider Aquaman and Wonder Woman as a part of the DCEU, because their brilliance shouldn’t be side by side the atrocity of trying to hide a moustache, or using Batman as comedic effect, or eradicating the entire development of Lois Lane’s character only one film later, or having only five minutes showing what your film is called, Batman Vs Superman, only to finish as quickly as it started by Batman uncharacteristically crumbling at the mere mention of his mother’s name, which if he was represented as a master detective has his comic book counterpart is, Superman’s mother should be easily accessible knowledge, shouldn’t it?

There are many more superheroes Warner Brothers can make films with, so there shouldn’t be an excuse for their being another bad DC movie. Robert Patterson is going to be playing Batman in a future film. I have to admit, I’m a little surprised, but hey, we all though Heath Ledger was going to give us a bad performance as the Joker, and now we can’t think of anyone else who can play the Joker as well as he did, so we should give Robert at least some benefit of the doubt. If Wonder Woman can be good when we though Gal Gadot wouldn’t do a good job, and given Aquaman’s notorious reputation throughout the years – we need to start giving DC some chances – it’s just a shame Warner Brothers forced them to ruin a lot of what we really wanted to see on the big screen, such as Batman versing Superman.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)