Aquaman (2018) - Movie Review (Non-Spoiler)

Cast: Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry / Aquaman, Amber Heard as Mera, Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Patrick Wilson as Orm / Ocean Master, Dolph Lundgren as Nereus, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as David Kane / Black Manta, Nicole Kidman as Queen Atlanna. Directed by James Wan.

HOME IS CALLING.

Aquaman is the sixth installment in the DC Extended Universe, and it stars Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry A.K.A Aquaman, the heir to the Kingdom of Atlantis, and he must step up to take his rightful place as king and helping him along the way is his 'love interest', badass heroine Mera (Amber Heard) and I use the term love interest very loosely because she's not the typical damsel in the distress, his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms and declare war on the surface world and also, in Arthur and Mera's way is Black Manta, (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) who is hellbent on killing Arthur.

To sum up this movie, everything that either James Wan or the cast said that, Aquaman is "Star Wars underwater or a mixture of Indiana Jones and Star Wars" is true. My GOD, this was a great movie and to be frank, I wasn't that entirely surprised, James Wan is one of my favorite directors and he has been delivering fun movies for fans and general audiences. So let's get down to business, shall we?

Now, this is a pretty straightforward origin movie for Aquaman but, what makes it a great intro to the character is the fact that Warner Bros and DC pulled no punches into giving us an Aquaman movie that will no longer make fun of the character for the years to come. He is straight up a badass. The film starts off with a nice introduction to how Thomas and Atlanna met and fall in love and in that intro, I gotta admit, Nicole Kidman was great as Atlanna. She basically had a fish out of water scenario in Thomas' house and it was funny, and when soldiers from Atlantis are to take Atlanna by force, Atlanna shows these guys no mercy. As always, James Wan is a master when it comes to one-shot action takes, its famous in Marvel's Netflix TV show, Daredevil and it is done beautifully in this movie.

Just one of the many one-shot action takes.

One of the key things, you will notice in this movie is that for the first half of the movie, you get to see how Arthur first awakened his powers to him training to use his powers with Vulko via flashbacks but, its filmed in a way that it flows with the scene of the movie and doesn't just come up out of nowhere, something that Man of Steel and Batman v Superman did very frequently, and it made the pace of those movies very, VERY slow. I know other directors won't exactly do the same for their own movies (e.g. The Flash, Green Lantern Corps etc) but, I hope they look at this movie as an example. I can't stress enough how James Wan made this movie come to life, the visuals of Atlantis and the battle sequences are just insane, dare I say, he managed to top Zack Snyder, in terms of visuals in my opinion.

One of the best scenes in CBM history, it's on par with Thor arriving on Wakanda and No Man's Land from Wonder Woman.

The action sequences were great. had some slow-mos but, it wasn't so slow like in Wonder Woman.

The main cast of the movie all did a great job, they fully embraced their character, especially Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Almost all of the cast members had a chance to shine in their roles. A lot of people liked Jason Momoa as their main hero but, what they were concerned with was can he handle a movie on his own and I say, YES he sure can. Throughout the entire movie, you can easily tell that Jason is having a good time in this movie, he's confident in his abilities, has a laidback personality and he loves to drink beer. But, he's able to bring a sense of humanity to the character, ensure that he wants to be King of Atlantis. There's so much self-doubt on him to the point that it takes Mera and another person to give him the pep talk he needs to actually step up. I especially like the chemistry between Jason and Amber, they have a love/hate relationship in the first act and a bit of the second act of the movie and I for one, really want to see more of their relationship develop, hopefully, the positive reception will give us a sequel.

Jason Momoa completly nailed the role. Hope we see his and Mera's relationship more in the future.

This last shot is straight up from Wonder Woman.

Amber Heard as Mera is by far the perfect casting, she's beautiful when the scene kicks in and when she is fighting, she's a force to be reckoned with and her powers are really cool. She's basically a waterbender, can control any form of liquid from anywhere and she's never in any real danger, the typical damsel in distress is not for her, in fact, she is the one who saves Arthur a couple of times. Some of their comedic banter didn't always land but, there were parts that did. Humour is pretty subjective when it comes to these type of movies so, it's up to you whether or not that line is funny or not.

I can't think of anyone who could be a better Mera than Amber Heard. A lot of people are going to walk away saying she crushed it.

Mera, warrior and daughter of King Nereus

Patrick Wilson as Orm A.K.A Ocean Master was just amazing, he has previously worked with James Wan before on The Conjuring Universe and Insidious franchise, so I knew that he would be great in his performance. He wasn't the A-typical villain, "I want to destroy the world so I can rule it" etc etc. His reasoning for wanting to wage war to the surface world was justifiable, the world as we know has polluted the oceans with so much wastes that it has destroyed the ocean. The costume/suit that he wore in the third act is pulled right from the comics, specifically New 52 by Geoff Johns, I couldn't stop staring at it. I hope we see more of Patrick's character in the future because I can certainly guarantee that he is the best villain in the movie. I would say he's number one on the list, Ares is second, Zod is third, Enchantress/Fake Doomsday/Lex Luthor and Jared Leto's Joker are dead last, they are pretty terrible those four. It's either bad casting (Jesse as Lex Luthor) or just a big CGI monster that became pointless in the overall movie (Fake Doomsday in BvS).

Ocean Master is by far the best villain in the DC Extended Universe, hands down.

His suit is ripped right from the comics and it's so perfect.

Yahya as Black Manta is one character, I hope people will remember because at the beginning of the movie you will get a clear understanding of his drive/revenge against Aquaman. I think Yahya did an amazing job and it's pretty clear that this movie was an introduction/origin movie for him and they are setting him up for a sequel or maybe he can be in other movies, e.g. Suicide Squad 2, a Justice League movie. The visuals of the movie are jaw-dropping, Atlantis is where they spent most of their budget on, it literally looks like you are watching an Avatar movie. I really like in one scene where Arthur and Mera are entering Atlantis, we get to see the world of Atlantis and how it functions, the ins and out of the kingdom, we get to see the sea life and people of the kingdom. I hope we get to see more of the kingdom in the coming sequels. One of my main issues with Black Panther was that we didn't get to see enough of Wakanda, we only saw the palace, the backyard of the palace, the science division where they develop their weapons and that's it.

Yahya is Black Manta. His theme music is the best and I can't wait to see more of him in the future.

I can guarantee people are going to walk away saying 'Black Manta is so cool and his suit is so awesome'.

Now with all the positives out of the way, its time to move onto the negatives. As I said before, the humour for the movie doesn't always land, but there are parts where I do expect audiences to have a good laugh/chuckle at the characters. The CGI for the movie is a lot and it has to be because we're having a superhero movie set underwater, no other movie has done this before and that goes for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, so even though the CGI is great at times, it may pull people back from the movie. As for me, I didn't have a problem with it because it was required and how the actors/actress had to move around underwater was really great, how their hair flow in the scene was really great. I understand why this took so long to make, again, this has never been done before on the big screen. I'm pretty sure in the sequel they will get hang of it.

Since this is an origin movie, there's a lot of world building/exposition for this movie, this movie has to tell the audience the history of Atlantis so expect a lot of explaining in the first act of the movie. And I think, this will be an ongoing thing for the DC Extended Universe because their universe is so vast and rich with mythology that for certain heroes first movies, they will be a lot of explaining to do.

To sum it up, Aquaman is a great way to kick things off in Phase Two of the DC Extended Universe, the movie managed to give me and audiences a reason why Aquaman needed his own movie, and I hope people will no longer think Aquaman is a joke and in fact, deem a badass. The cast did an amazing job, everyone had their moment to shine. I hope we get a sequel in the future, I hope James Wan comes back to direct it. The visuals will be one of the many things that people will spread word about on social media and the score/soundtrack for the movie is great, especially, Black Manta and Ocean Master's theme. I had a big smile on my face whenever it came up. If WB/DC stick to this formula in their future movies, I'm pretty sure we won't get any divisive movies for a long time.

Aquaman will no longer be a joke, thanks to Jason.

Aquaman is everything I wanted Man of Steel to be back in 2013, but this feels more like a Wonder Woman. I'm pretty sure that WB/DC are going to look at the feedback and box office of Wonder Woman (2017) and Aquaman and apply what works in those movies to the future DC Films.

This movie is definitely rewatchable and I hope this makes a splash in the box office, pun intended. The DC Extended Universe is here to stay, I'm going to give Aquaman:

B - Excellent/Great movie overall, a few problems here and there.

So, Aquaman, have you seen it and what do you think about it? What was your favorite moment in the movie and who was your favorite character? Do you want a sequel? Comment below, spread this article around, remember to follow me on Twitter (@DammySensei) and I'll see you next time. Later.