It wasn't too terribly long ago when Aquaman was more of a punchline than anything else- witness Entourage's full-on, season-long skewering of said superhero, which had no less a fan of all things underwater than director James Cameron participating in the ongoing roasting. If the bro-tastic likes of Entourage- which doesn't exactly have the moral right to be talking down to anyone, let's face it- much less box office giant Cameron, not exactly known for his withering sense of humor, are making fun of it, then it doesn't exactly scream: "Let's make that movie for real!"
And yet, I have to hand it to the folks at DC Films- casting hulking actor Jason Momoa as the titular character was nothing short of a stroke of genius. I mean, just look at the guy. Are you gonna make fun of him? Even the poster above has Momoa glaring at the viewer, as if to say: "You got something to say, buddy? Bring it on." I don't know about you, but I will be taking a hard pass on all that noise. I mean, that's Drogo, for Christ's sake.
Indeed, the film gets all of those "Ooh, he can talk to all the fishies" put-downs out of the way early on, in a clever way, as some bullies attempt to torment a young Arthur Curry at a local aquarium for seeming to do just that. Arthur gets a certain look in his eyes, then the fish all come swimming towards him, with a particularly threatening shark taking the lead, as if to say: "Yeah, I can talk to fish, but guess what, asshat? That includes sharks." Needless to say, the bullies back off.
In a sort of sister scene, when Arthur is a full-grown man, another group of seemingly sinister bully-looking guys approach him... only to ask him for a selfie! Lol. Arthur begrudgingly agrees, taking several, as the crew of guys get progressively drunker and more aggressively silly, thus defusing what seemed to be an iffy situation.
Between these two scenes, the Aquaman "controversy" is swiftly dealt with, so that any still dubious viewer is placated enough to get on with the real story at hand. It's pretty smart thinking all around, and a sign early on that this isn't going to be your typical DC superhero flick.
Of course, you can't really blame fans for being a little dubious. After all, in comparison to Marvel, DC films are almost notoriously hit-or-miss. For every genuinely good one, like Wonder Woman, there's several others that are not so great, most infamously the dreary Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is just as laborious as that title- a better title might have been: Batman and Superman: The Middle-Aged Grumpy Years.
Justice League was only slightly better, but one senses that it would have been just as bad, had former Marvel man Joss Whedon not have been brought in to add a bit of zing to the dialogue, so that it didn't just play like DC's version of the Thanos story-line from the most recent Avengers flick. But no amount of CGI-abetted Henry Cavill mustache-cleansing could cover up the fact that the film was still a bit of a slog.
Aquaman seems to have learned the lesson of the last few Marvel movies, particularly The Avengers: Infinity War and Black Panther, which is that a superhero movie is only truly compelling if the main villain is, as well. Both those films featured villains that weren't so much bad guys as they were concerned citizens that had valid complaints that did, in fact, need addressing. It was only their respective approaches to solving said problems that were on the iffy side. But underneath it all, they had a good point: mankind can be the absolute worst.
Aquaman gets that, and provides us with a likewise worthy villain in that of Orm Marius (Patrick Wilson, an ongoing fave of director James Wan- he was in both The Conjuring and two of the Insidious films), who also just so happens to be Aquaman's half-brother to boot, upping the moral quandary that much more. Orm's complaint is that the "surface world" inhabitants have already essentially declared war on the undersea kingdoms by dumping all their waste and the like in the oceans for centuries now, to the point where it's starting to have a disastrous effect on the underwater dwellers.
As such, he wants the various kingdoms to band together to wage war on the land-bound humans, to put a stop to them before they spell the end of underwater kind for good, to say nothing of potentially destroying the planet in general. In short, this is sort of the ultimate climate change horror movie, if you think about it. Suck on that, deniers! 😆
And lo and behold, ecological conservatives, lest you think this was all falling on deaf ears, damned if Aquaman didn't clean up... at the box office, at least, where it made a hefty $1.147 billion at the box office on a roughly $200 million budget. Wow- that's a lot of clams! And I wouldn't be the least surprised if a lot of kids that saw this end up becoming activists looking to save the oceans in a way that's hopefully less destructive and evil than what Orm gets up to here. Not too shabby for a superhero flick, much less a DC one.
The movie itself is admittedly a lot of fun, thanks to Momoa's near-effortless charisma, which is wonderfully deadpan and snarky. He's definitely a different kind of superhero, that's for sure, and damned if he hasn't almost single-handedly ret-conned Aquaman for a whole new generation. That's a pretty impressive feat, considering what an uphill battle it was, given the character's laugh-inducing reputation.
Another key part of the solution is undeniably the drafting of James Wan into the DC-verse. Wan has already worked wonders for the horror genre, having spawned a host of franchises, including the Saw series (eight films to date) and the aforementioned Insidious flicks (four films to date) and Conjuring-verse (two main films, plus six spin-offs and counting, with more on the way), to say nothing of his re-invigorating the whole Fast & Furious series with the seventh installment, which alone is pretty impressive, considering how terrible most franchises are upon reaching that many given films. Hell, most are lucky to eke out a worthy trilogy.
Given all that, it makes perfect sense that DC would recruit someone with such a solid track record, even if they were unproven in terms of big-budget superhero flicks. But one look at Wan's elaborate planning ahead for Aquaman in the extensive behind the scenes features on the Blu-Ray and it's clear they made the right call- dude went above and beyond.
One thing I loved was how the horror genre continued to inform his choices here. Wan didn't just toughen up Aquaman himself, he even managed to butch up the likes of seahorses and mermen/mermaids. And don't get me started on how cool those trench creatures are, which are like a cross between the Creature of the Black Lagoon and the Humanoids of the Deep. Also of note is the H.P. Lovecraft-inspired Karathen, a massive, miles-long leviathan that guards the Trident of Atlan, which Arthur must claim, in order to have a prayer of defeating Orm and becoming the rightful king of Atlantis.
Wan's imagination here is as expansive as the incredibly detailed underwater world he creates here, which gives Cameron a run for his Pandora money, quite frankly. I didn't see it in 3D, but I kind of wish I had in retrospect. Either way, Wan- and by extension, DC- cleaned up at the box office, so DC can clearly clock this one as another win, as the film not only made lots of money, but critics essentially dug it as well, myself included. That's progress, as far as I'm concerned.
From what I hear, the next film in the DCU, Shazam!, which I haven't seen yet, is quite good as well, and I have high hopes for Birds of Prey (I not only read the comics for that one, I even watched the short-lived TV series, and own it on DVD) and Wonder Woman 1984 as well. If what they say about Shazam! is true, then DC is officially on a roll, so let's hope they can keep it up. Certainly hiring the likes of Wan and Whedon is a step in the right direction.
I will allow that Aquaman is perhaps a bit longer than it needed to be, and that the story is a bit convoluted, but the characters are pretty endearing overall- I particularly liked Aquaman's dad (Temuera Morrison, Once Were Warriors); Vulko, his trainer (Willem Dafoe); and it was a kick seeing Dolph Lundgren (who is experiencing a career resurgence of sorts, between this and Creed 2) and Randall Park (Fresh Off the Boat) as Dr. Stephen Shim, an Atlantis obsessive that clearly will be a more prominent part of the follow-up, if that mid-credits scene is any indication.
However, this movie is undeniably boosted that much more by the presence of its leading ladies, including my long-time crush 😍 Amber Heard (my faves of hers are All the Boys Love Mandy Lane and Drive Angry) as Princess Mera, who- no shrinking violet she, a la your typical movie princess- might actually be more powerful than Aquaman himself, given her unique powers; and, of all people, Nicole Kidman, who has never been more kick-ass on screen as she is here as Queen Atlanna. Those two know how to fill out a swimsuit, if you know what I mean. Oh, and if the voice of Karathen sounds familiar, that's because it's none other than OG Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews.
Factor in the stunning visuals, Wan's able direction and fertile imagination, and excellent cinematography by Don Burgess- no stranger to superheroes, water-logged epics or fantasy flicks, thanks to his prior work on the likes of Spider-Man, Cast Away and Enchanted- and you have all the ingredients one needs for a completely worthwhile superhero flick.
While it still remains to be seen whether DC can reach the lofty heights of the Marvel-verse, they've certainly been rising to the occasion as of late, so that's something. If they can keep making movies on the level of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, they might just eventually give Marvel a run for their money. Nothing fishy about that. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) 😏
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