Aquaman

Dir: James Wan

2018

**

I really don’t want to start a review of a DC film by comparing it to the films made by Marvel but I find it impossible to do so. On one hand I think it is commendable that Aquaman is a standalone film whereby you don’t have to have watched the other Justice League films in order to understand it all, which I think is important, but then on the other hand the nerd inside feel a little hungry and forgotten. I was far more of a DC reader growing up, so I wanted to be thrown a tid-bits to get my chops round but there was very little here for me to chew. However, I’m going to start with the good. Jason Momoa is the perfect Aquaman. The character was always going to be a hard sell and is probably one of the hardest comic characters to bring to the screen. The MCU left Namor the Sub-Mariner out of their universe for good reason. The new look DC developed for Aquaman, is very clever and Momoa has the charm, humour and humility – as well as the muscles – to perform such a superhero. The possibilities for scope seemed endless and I’m really glad DC/Warner Bros went full on outrageous when depicting the underwater kingdom. I loved how the sea-folk rode on the backs of Seahorse and Sharks and I loved the vastness of their kingdom. The could have toned it down and I’m glad they didn’t. Everything else I liked about the film cannot be accredited to the film, but rather to the films Aquaman has copied. Everything from The Abyss to Disney’s The Little Mermaid has been copied. I’m not overlooking the fact that all these films are set under water either – many parts of the ocean of course look the same – but the design of the underwater worlds are near identical. The DC movies have been criticized a lot for being too dark but Aquaman is far too colourful at times and for a film that rips off so many nautical-themed movies, I do wonder why they didn’t take a few notes from one of the greatest aquatic films ever made: Jaws. The majority of the film takes place underwater – as it should – but the above water action came across as a poor-man’s version of an Indiana Jones movie and I don’t mean any of the first three, I’m talking a poorer version of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Aquaman could never have been made on this scale back in the 1980s or 90s because the CGI needed hadn’t been developed yet but still, in 2018 I think the effects could have been better. Some of the underwater scenes are cartoonish and some look like polished scenes from old episodes of LEXX and seaQuest DSV. Sometimes less is more, I do admire them for going all out but so many of the scenes looked utterly ridiculous that I found it too hard to take seriously. I can’t accept escapism as an excuse either, this should have filled audiences with wonder but it didn’t, it looked cheap and the comic characters just looked like uncomfortable actors in wet spandex – which is exactly what they were. Stop me if I’m wrong but aren’t Superheros meant to be super and heroic? Patrick Wilson’s Steppenwolf has to be the most two-dimensional villain of every comic book adaptation put together. His plan is as transparent as the water he breaths/drinks/pees in, and yet all of the masterful and great thinkers of the Ocean kingdom can’t see through it. Considering they can speak to all marine life, you would think that an eavesdropping pilchard would have let slip or something but no, in the DC universe the heroes are as equally dumb as the villains and strength means everything. The story is predictable and boring. The special effect technology has advanced but Aquaman is ever bit as bad as it would have been had it been made decades ago. I’m not saying DC should copy Marvel, they certainly shouldn’t, but the bar has been raised and they needed to do better. Marvel isn’t really doing anything that unique – they are using all the best elements that already exist in the comics and are weaving them together. The structure of the Marvel films is pretty formulaic, they actually use the same tricks time and time again, they’re just far more creative with it. They understand that the villain has to be just as developed as the hero at least and for me that is Aquaman’s biggest issue. That and the fact that it has two crap villains instead of one. The script was given to David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Will Beall to write, Johnson-McGoldrick having written the Conjuring films and Beall only having one credit to his name. Was there really no one else more qualified? I get why James Wan was offered the directional post but he really wasn’t suited to it. The big problem is the distinct lack of charm. Jason Momoa has it in spades but the script and the villain do not. Loki is one of the most popular characters in the MCU, why can’t DC understand this? This isn’t just a superhero/comic book adaptation thing either, this is a fundamental story telling thing. Marvel have made it seem like they’re breaking all the rules when they’re not, DC are just abiding by all the rules and are making boring and predictable movies that are less interesting than the stories kids come up with when playing with their action figures. There is a wealth of source material they could have used but it is clear that no one involved has ever been a fan of the comic, and for me that is a problem. Aquaman’s origins are actually quite interesting, as he was first written as an allay during the Second World War, defeating Nazi U-boats. I’m not sure how they could have re-visited that chapter of his incarnation but it would have been far more interesting than this. It was because DC insisted on copying Marvel that things went wrong. Each character should have been established first and then the Justice League film should have been made. Still, it is actually quite apt and authentic that Aquaman has stolen from so many films, after all, he was based on/created as a rival of Namor the Sub-Mariner who was sinking Nazi U-boats a good three years before him. A spectacular film, but not in a good way.