‘Aquaman’ Review: The ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Little Mermaid’ Mashup You’ve Been Waiting For?

I went into Aquaman having rather low expectations. The original trailer for the film had me less than excited, but when I saw the extended trailer – my interests were peaked again. It looked stunning! And I have to admit, I’ve been rooting for DC films since the success of Wonder Woman – a film that was everything I hoped it would be and so much more. So did Aquaman deliver? Eh…

The film’s official description reads: Aquaman spans the vast, visually breathtaking underwater world of the seven seas and reveals the origin story of half-human, half-Atlantean Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), which takes him on the journey of his lifetime—one that will not only force him to face who he really is, but to discover if he is worthy of who he was born to be…a king.

There are so many things to say about Aquaman… it’s 30 minutes too long, it has one too many villains, and it feels like they tried to combine 7 different films into one (Star Wars, Stargate, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Transformers, The Little Mermaid… I could go on…). It certainly is visually breathtaking, and the acting isn’t bad… but the dialogue is downright painful and cheesy and the plot is severely unorganized.

The film starts out with Aquaman’s origin story and brings us to the present day – diving into the first encounter between Aquaman and Black Manta. Honestly, I feel like if the film had held Black Manta’s introduction until the end as a teaser, we could have cut out 30 to 45 minutes of the 2 hours and 22-minute movie – and had a plot that was way more engaging. Instead, we have Black Manta in the mix and then we add in Aquaman’s half-brother, Orm, as our main villain. It’s a battle for control of the ocean which ultimately will dictate whether or not they wage war on mankind for all the damage they continue to cause to the seas.

Overall, I have to say I was rather impressed with the visual effects and I kinda had fun… you could even say I was entertained. Aquaman isn’t a great movie, but it’s not a bad one either. But ultimately it’s a film I’d throw back into the waters. Keep fishing DC fans, this isn’t the film you were hoping to catch.

Aquaman Review

Grade: C+