Aquaman Review: A New King is Here

DC's latest foray into their mixed Universe has just hit cinemas, but is it worth a trip to the cinema ?

Let's get this out of the way Jason Momoa's Aquaman is a star, he is everything you want in a leading man, strong, commanding, charming, handsome. He is alive in every scene and has a great presence. He takes a punchline hero and makes him a formidable hero. His Arthur Curry is a thoroughly enjoyable character to behold, an outcast trying to figure his place in 2 worlds and he is the driving force of what works best in this film. I didn't really enjoy Amber Heard's Mera much, she wasn't particularly bad and she was given urgency and a solid character arc, but the performance was often a bit flat and not always engaging.

Our villains are pretty compelling and understandable. The power hungry Orm who is deeply angry and rightly so is very compelling and engaging, also the vengeance seeking Black Manta kept me wanting just a bit more of him, they were a stronger part of my experience with this movie.

The story and it's structure are a little all over the place, not in chronological manner and is stuffed with lore and worldbuilding. It gets a little hard to follow and at times too handle, and comes across as overstuffed at points. The final act takes a lot of unexpected detours and was a pleasant surprise with the way it played out. The tone is middling, and the effects while beautiful and impressive, with Atlantis being a beautiful standout can get overwhelming at times with it faltering at times. The action sequences are very good with some jaw dropping set pieces and sequences. Seriously, James Wan is a really good action director and I seriously commend what he achieved in Aquaman.

Aquaman is a lot of things, one part Indiana Jones, Avatar, Thor/Black Panther type superhero origin story. It has really really great highs going for it but also middling lows. It combines lot of things that shouldn't work together but just manages to work.

Final score : 7.2/10. (Good)