Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 2 hours, 23 minutes
Director: James Wan
Quick Impressions:
I went to Aquaman with a group of nine family members–my husband, our three kids (aged almost 16, almost 10, and 3 1/2), my parents, my younger sister, and her boyfriend. Reactions were decidedly mixed.
The Good:
What impressed me most about this movie was its trippy, electric-neon score. First I didn’t know how I felt about it. Then I hated it. Then gradually, I began to embrace it. By the end, I loved it.
I guess composer Rupert Gregson-Williams also did the score for Wonder Woman, and I like her new theme music, too. He is a daring fellow. This is a bold, unusual, dominant score. There is nothing subtle about it, and whether you like it or not, there is no escape. As I listened, I kept thinking, “What if the movie Tron were about aliens who disguised themselves as fish?”
Nobody else has ever made me ask that question, so I suppose this is my way of congratulating Gregson-Williams on opening the floodgates of my imagination with his music.
Aquaman deserves additional congratulations for not only its meticulous world building, but also its exhaustive exploration of ways water can act as a dynamic story element. (I was particularly impressed by that last thing.)
I will admit that in the past, I’ve perhaps not given Aquaman enough credit. When I was a little girl and loved all the DC heroes like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Superman, Batman, my reaction to Aquaman was pretty much the standard, “So…he talks to fish, huh?” Maybe I would have felt differently if I’d read the comics, but I was never interested in this guy until he suddenly became a dead ringer for Khal Drogo (my favorite character on Game of Thrones. I wish I could just stand and scream a defiant yell into my enemies’ faces. I mean, I can, but I can’t carry it off like Jason Momoa. Me wanting to be Khal Drogo is like the way my three-year-old sometimes sobs after he cries out in rage. “That sounded like a sad little girl! It was supposed to be a man yell!”)
Can a feature length film focused on a guy with fish telepathy actually be good? Well, surprisingly, yes. If you ask me, this beats everything else from DC except the first half of Wonder Woman. Why?
For one thing, Zach Snyder didn’t direct it (though he did executive produce). I’ll concede that Snyder is a talented director, but I always find his films arduous to watch. I won’t say that they don’t work. (He’s got a huge fan base, and I respect that.) They just don’t work for me. This movie may not be a masterpiece, but it is extremely straight forward, not taxing to experience at all.
But the greater strength of Aquaman is that it finds so many ways to make water cool and relevant. The makers of this movie clearly brainstormed at length about what can make water exciting to watch on screen. I mean in just one movie, we get submarines, pirates, aquariums, diversely organized and populated water kingdoms, lighthouses, fishing villages, storms, shipwrecks, hidden aquatic realms, areas formerly under water, puzzles that work with water, a character with the power to draw out and manipulate water, a whole series of exciting marine monsters. This movie has its faults, but it’s about the farthest thing from lazy. Somebody put a lot of thought into this story and its execution, and I respect that kind of effort.
The film also does a lot with marine life. We get characters who ride aquatic creatures, characters who wear aquatic creatures, characters who are aquatic creatures. Even the Atlantean ships are shaped like marine animals.
And Atlantis looks really cool in general. It’s all a bit overwhelming to the senses at first, so neon and futuristic and glowy. But it batters our senses for so long, it finally wears us down and wins us over. It reminded me of some kind of wild, underwater-themed street party set in the imagined future of the near distant past. It was kind of like Tron in an aquarium. (This movie kept reminding me of Tron, possibly because of the look of the helmets and visors. I’m honestly not sure why.) It’s also kind of a trippier, wetter version of Asgard.
The film also interestingly teases out the parallel between Arthur Curry and King Arthur, something I never noticed before (because I don’t often meditate on Aquaman, truth be told). But his quest to be worthy to wield a magic trident that will make him king is pretty clearly playing on the implications of his name. (So I guess that makes Julie Andrews the Lady of the Lake, though in this movie, all the women are sopping wet.)
As I watched, I thought, “Now here is a major difference between DC and Marvel. Except for Thor, the Marvel heroes get their powers through mutation, innovation, invention, exploration. New stuff. But in DC, Wonder Woman is from an ancient race empowered by a Greek god, Superman is from a dying alien civilization, Aquaman is from Atlantis, even Batman is old money.” I’ve always enjoyed mythology, so I really liked the mythological, legendary elements of this story, material I wasn’t even expecting.
The movie has a big cast, too, and Willem Dafoe is conspicuously good as Vulko, the Atlantean watching over Arthur. After seeing Dafoe play Van Gogh so recently, I marveled, “Gosh, he’s versatile!” I already knew that, of course, but this movie only reinforces my already high opinion of Dafoe’s talents. And he’s not just phoning it in for the paycheck. He gives by far the best performance in the movie.
And Dolph Lundgren gives the best performance by Dolph Lundgren. While watching, I thought the actor playing King Nereus was kind of weak. Then when I saw in the credits that it was Dolph Lungren, I wanted to yell, “Give that man an Oscar!” Lundgren’s acting has really improved with age. He’s come a long way from bellowing in monotone, “Let her go!” at Skeletor in Masters of the Universe all those years ago.
After the movie, my family collectively decided that Nicole Kidman probably really is Queen of the Sea or some sort of fay, otherworldly being. She’s the film’s most conspicuous example of satisfying casting. I agree with James Wan that she’s the obvious choice for Queen Atlanna.
I was really happy to see Temeura Morrison, too. He’s also perfectly cast. Patrick Wilson, on the other hand, doesn’t exactly strike fear into my heart. I would never have thought of casting him as the menacing villain, but he pulls it off pretty well, and he does look vaguely like Nicole Kidman. Apparently she was six years old when her second son was born, but that’s the way it is with magical empresses of the sea.
I have to admit that I felt extremely distracted and agitated during the first twenty to thirty minutes of the movie. My three-year-old insisted repeatedly that he was dying to see Aquaman, so we went as one large group, but apparently he wasn’t dying to see the first thirty minutes of it. Well, I mean, he watched it, but he kept wandering restlessly from lap to lap. Then sometimes he paced provocatively in front of us all, careful to remain just out of reach. I must confess I thought he wasn’t even paying attention. But then later when he sat down (just in time to watch the first fight between Arthur and his brother), he knew everybody’s names and what was going on. (Sometimes he sat upside down in his seat. Fortunately, the lights are dimmed in movie theater auditoriums, so nobody could see my older son and me leaning over to whisper plot exposition to a tiny airborne butt.)
Much of the movie upset my wiggly son (because he is three), and he kept up a whispered running commentary for at least the last hour and a half. It’s possible that watching with him made me think more highly of the movie than it deserved. I mean, if anything in the first thirty minutes or so seemed off, I just assumed it was because I felt distracted. And then my son’s charming questions and remarks kept me completely engaged for the rest of the film. (“Oh no! I didn’t want HE to win! That’s his brother! But he is so mean! Where is his nice brother and sister?”)
But I liked Aquaman. I really did. My husband and son (the older one), liked it too. My daughter fell asleep for twenty minutes early on, possibly because she was exhausted from sharing popcorn during the previews with someone who insisted on sitting on her shoulder like a parrot and then gradually sliding down into her lap and taking over her seat. (She now comments, “The dinosaurs never fit with anything, and the dialogue?” She shudders and adds in an ominous whisper chased by derisive laughter, “Call me…the ocean master!”) So I’m not sure how much she liked it, but probably better than my sister who completely and utterly hated the entire thing.
I was absolutely captivated by the scene involving what my daughter was delighted to dub “sea Gremlins!”
“Oh no!” I whispered. “They’re always wet! They never stop multiplying!”
And my son gasped in awe, “How beautiful!” The image that inspired his awe is lovely, even though what’s happening in this moment is quite alarming.
(A few beats later, he saw Amber Heard floating unconscious and rhapsodized, “How peaceful!” seconds before a fearsome creature almost bit her head off.)
Best Action Sequence:
All of the action set pieces in this film are unusually good, particularly that amazing scene in the Italian village that seems to last forever.
I was particularly aware of its length because my son found it so scary. I kept telling him, “I promise, the good guys will win.” I thought the fight would probably be over soon. But it wasn’t. (He wasn’t terrified the whole time, though. At one moment, he burst out laughing in terrifying glee. The thing is, he only likes it if the good guys have the upper hand.)
Sometimes I zone out during action scenes, but I liked this one. The action is layered on the screen as we alternate between the adventures of two characters moving across parallel planes. What’s great is that Arthur’s heroic nature is illustrated here. It arises organically from the circumstances.
And I really like what Mera does with the wine. (I also really like what she does with the fountain water not long before the fighting starts.)
Best Scene:
That part in Italy is my favorite section of the movie. It doesn’t often happen that an action scene is my favorite part of a movie, but Aquaman is really strong in that Italy sequence.
Next best is probably the long awaited retrieval of the trident, especially because we’ve been waiting and waiting for the reunion that comes right before.
Best Garment Made of Sea Creatures:
Amber Heard’s jellyfish dress is probably the best looking thing in this movie. Even my sister liked it, and she can’t stand Amber Heard and didn’t have many positive things to say about the movie, either. The jellyfish dress was basically the only thing she liked. It is incredibly beautiful and glowy. They need to find a way to sell a replica to little girls (and thirtysomething younger sisters). They’ll make a fortune.
The Negatives:
Even those of us who liked the movie acknowledged an ongoing problem with what my (older) son called “cringey dialogue.”
For me, the far greater problem was a lack of chemistry between Jason Momoa and Amber Heard. That’s probably why so many of the action scenes seem outstanding. The type of character driven moments I usually prefer just didn’t work between Heard and Momoa. Their dialogue wasn’t great, and the spark between them wasn’t there.
I do like Jason Momoa as Aquaman. I like Jason Momoa in general. I especially liked him as Khal Drogo. Too bad he couldn’t inherit the iron throne. (Of course, if the Lannisters had taken my advice in the beginning and quietly killed Joffrey in his sleep post haste, they could have gone on ruling through the more tractable Tommen before so many mistakes had been made.) Anyway, the point is, I wish I were Khal Drogo, and I don’t want anyone but Jason Momoa playing Aquaman.
Now Amber Heard I am unfairly biased against, and I spent the entire movie actively trying to fight against my poor opinion of her. I mean, nobody is asking me to marry her (which I would never do, incidentally), just to watch her in a movie for a couple of hours. I keep telling myself, “If you met Amber Heard in real life, and she said, ‘Let me just tell you all about myself from my point of view,’ you would probably like her.” I know I would. (For one thing, I usually like everyone.)
My sister hates Amber Heard, too, and unlike me, she doesn’t seem concerned about it. As far as I can tell, she’s perfectly happy to go right on hating her.
What disturbs me is that I was actively trying to like Heard’s performance, and yet I still didn’t. Granted I’ve had an instinctive dislike of Heard practically ever since I first became aware of her. (This is not really about the difficulties in her relationship with Johnny Depp. Obviously, if he did abuse her, he shouldn’t have. But I didn’t like her long before any of those allegations.)
As my older son pointed out, Heard is an attractive woman, and (as I’m pointing out), she’s not a bad actress either. She’s just given lines that aren’t great, and most of her scenes are with Jason Momoa with whom she has no chemistry. I don’t mean just romantic chemistry. I mean often when they are in the same scene saying lines back and forth, they don’t appear engaged with one another. The part where they go solve the clue in the sand should be really cool. Well, actually, it is pretty cool, but the energy in their interactions is lacking there. They’re just not great scene partners, and they are together most of the time. This is actually the biggest problem of the movie for me. Mera is a cool character, and Heard is doing her best, but she’s not given great lines, she lacks chemistry with her co-star, and her hair looks like it escaped from The Little Mermaid. (Actually sometimes I liked the hair. My daughter got a bunch of Prisma Color markers for Christmas, so I’ve been thinking about comic panels, and Mera’s ultra-red hair does look like it was freshly inked in. I could never decide if I loved it or hated it.)
Another small complaint I have is that I didn’t like the effect sometimes used to create an underwater sound when Atlanteans speak. It sounded inadequate to me. When I mentioned this, though, my sister was not aware of any such effect being used at all, so possibly I am delusional.
But I do think that the early fight scenes with Manta are some of the dullest in the movie. We all agreed that Aquaman would benefit from tighter editing in general, though among action movies, it is far from the worst offender in this respect.
And, as I mentioned, according to my sister, we do not get nearly enough shots showing off Jason Momoa’s fabulous physique. I won’t argue with her. Actually, I thought we did not get enough shots of Momoa in general. His words and actions always seem to be interrupted or cut away from quickly. Let us look at him and listen to him longer. He is the star, after all.