Rating (2.5 out of 5)
Summary: The film ran 2 hours and 23 minutes and the movie required 20 minutes shaved from the running time to receive a higher score. DC indeed suffers from a dreadful overuse of CGI and Aquaman is no different. Jason Momoa performs excellently in his role and brings a sly bantering toughness to his role. This tied with decent action sequences make for a movie on par with “Venom”.
Plot: Aquaman’s (Jason Momoa) half-brother King Orm (Patrick Wilson) leads the Atlantians to unite to battle the land dwellers. Aquaman must recover the missing trident of an ancient king to defeat King Orm and save the world.
Detail: OMG did we need the 1/2 hour introduction to our character? I think not! The director should have led with an action sequence and then jumped back to furnish background. Even then we didn’t need to visualize their history, it could have been a brief narrative.
“Aquaman” has many scenes and lines adding humor to the movie. The humor provides the appearance of humility and vulnerability to Aquaman’s character, which make him likable. I thought the joke around Pinocchio was rather funny, especially since Aquaman’s reference was a movie and not a book. DC needs to remember to thread humor into their movies more often.
Patrick Wilson literally sucked the soul from my body when on screen. Patrick Wilson’s performance as a police officer in Minnesota in the series Fargo borders on fantastic. His slow dry delivery worked admirably for Fargo, but failed in “Aquaman”. I have never seen a King focused on world domination show so little enthusiasm and spark.
The best part of the film occurred on their trip Sicily. Fighting the Atlantians and Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the movie engages the audience. Mantra’s outfit is excellent and a little intimidating. The sequence also included humor, with an Atlantian having to stick his head in a toilet bowl. However, they never established Manta’s ability to work on hi-tech. So when the Atlantian’s provide him with weapons and armor, Manta surprisingly modifies the arms to his own liking.
Many of the action films currently produced lack focus and “Aquaman” has joined this club. “Aquaman” provides our main character with too many objectives, making the movie excessively long. In this film, we had two villains, King Orm and Manta. With only 1 villain, the director can focus on those two characters, the villain and the hero. Manta’s character brought power and emotion to the screen with his few appearances. Had we been provided more background about how his father raised him to be a pirate. With both characters valuing their fathers but working on opposites of the law, the conflict would have added a provocative tension.