Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the final installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU) as we know it. Now that Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) has established himself as the king of Atlantis, married the love of his life, Mera (Amber Heard), and had a son–life seems like it’s pretty good. However, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), now having procured the menacing black trident, will set out on a journey of revenge once again–hoping to put an end to Aquaman and everything that he loves.
My first complaint may seem like a small one, but it leads to larger issues throughout the course of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Again and again I found myself wishing that scenes were longer, even just a second longer. Director James Wan made the decision to often jump aggressively from scene to scene rather than include a simple transition. Adding just a second to allow for a better transition would have helped to ease the slow burn of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and simply made the film more cohesive. All in all, Wan would have had to add a mere forty-five (or so) seconds to his film, costing Warner Brothers just pennies.
What these frumpy scenes ultimately cause is a lack of cohesion. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom can’t find its footing, and as it bounces around from place to place and from time to time viewers become lost. It’s not that the film is difficult to understand, but Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is anything but linear, and it continues to lose its luster as it barrels forward.
In a world where CGI is becoming more and more prominent, and films are becoming more reliant on what CGI has to offer, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom fails to live up to expectations. From the computer generated sets to the fact that many of the characters look completely fake, the CGI is Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’s greatest hindrance. The most frustrating instance of this is with Dolph Lundgren’s King Nereus. As he moves around in the water, his hair, which has clearly been computer generated, can’t keep up, moving in weird ways. This may seem like a small detail, but it distracts from everything else going on throughout, and as time went on it became more and more frustrating.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a film that should have never seen the light of day. It should have found its way to the chopping block and the often superhero genius of James Gunn should have overruled this film’s release. Nothing about this film works. From the CGI to the choppy scenes and the dialogue to the acting, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom fails in a number of ways. It’s a sad way to end the DCEU, potentially being the worst of a series of films that were often met with backlash (and deservedly so).
I had low expectations going into this film, meaning that it had every opportunity to surprise me. It never develops into anything other than a boring mess incapable of entertaining. With every issue that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom suffers, it ultimately sinks, incapable of drawing on emotion or really doing anything that might intrigue viewers.
Directed by James Wan.
Written by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, James Wan, Jason Mamoa, Thomas Pa’a Sibbett, Mort Weisinger, & Paul Norris.
Starring Jason Mamoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, Randall Park, Temuera Morrison, Dolph Lundgren, Martin Short, Jani Zhao, Indya Moore, Amber Heard, John Rhys-Davies, Pilou Asbæk, etc.
⭐⭐½/10
