Aquaman Movie Review: Sink or Swim?

I will admit right off the bat that I am not a big comic book fan. I know about a lot of the different characters and some of their origin stories, but I am not a “comic book geek”. Not that there is anything wrong with being a comic book geek; they are great people. So, I was not crazy excited when the news of an Aquaman movie came out. I knew of Aquaman in his yellow and green suit riding on sea creatures. And I knew he was a DC character and not Marvel. That’s about it. But any opportunity to see Jason Momoa without a shirt beating people up is a good thing, so I went in to Aquaman ready to see a big budget action flick and, for the most part, I was not disappointed.

The movie stars the above mentioned Momoa in the titular role. Arthur is a half-breed called to Atlantis to help the Atlantaians and help save the world (you know, your run-of-the-mill superhero movie storyline). He stars alongside Amber Heard (3 Days to Kill, Zombieland) as Princess Mera. Mera acts as his guide, navigating his new world and his new title as king. Willem Dafoe (Murder on the Orient Express, Spider-Man) costars as Vulko, who teaches Arthur as a child the ways of the underwater world. Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge, The Stepford Wives) portrays Atlanna, Arthur’s mother and the queen of Atlantis. The antagonist of the film is played by Patrick Wilson (Watchmen, Insidious) who is King Orm, Arthur’s half-brother and one of the kings of Atlantis. There is a secondary, minor storyline that involves Arthur and Black Manta, played by Yahya Abdul-Manteen II (The Get Down, The Greatest Showman). The movie is directed by James Wan (Insidious series, Furious 7).

Okay, my review: I thought Aquaman was a great movie. DC movies (except for Wonder Woman) have been a bit disappointing when compared to their Marvel counterparts. But Aquaman did not disappoint. The visuals, especially of Atlantis, were gorgeously done and looked truly like what one would imagine it to look like. The action was constant but not over the top. It made sense and sped the movie along; it wasn’t there simply because it was an action movie. The interaction between Momoa and Heard worked well. The only part of the movie that I felt was a bit useless was the secondary storyline with Black Manta. I understand why it was included (to set up a sequel), but I felt that it added unnecessary time to the movie and a sequel set up could have been accomplished in a post credits scene (which there is one). It didn’t really add much to this movie.

Overall, I feel Aquaman is great year-end action movies to quell your thirst until the new batch of films comes out in the new year. I would give Aquaman 3.75 tridents out of 5.

Author: Angelica Colby

Angelica has her Masters in Teaching and uses that daily in her job as an educator and Boy/Girl Scout Program Specialist at the USS Midway Museum in San Diego. She loves movies of all sorts (except horror) and is a reality TV show junkie. Newer to the convention scene, she is getting her feet wet and hopes to be covering WonderCon, SDCC and DragCon LA in 2019.

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