Directed By James Wan

Starring – Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II

The Plot – Having failed to defeat Aquaman (Momoa) the first time, Black Manta (Abdul-Mateen II), still driven by the need to avenge his father’s death, will stop at nothing to take Aquaman down once and for all. This time Black Manta is more formidable than ever before, wielding the power of the mythic Black Trident, which unleashes an ancient and malevolent force. To defeat him, Aquaman will turn to his imprisoned brother Orm (Wilson), the former King of Atlantis, to forge an unlikely alliance. Together, they must set aside their differences in order to protect their kingdom and save Aquaman’s family, and the world, from irreversible destruction.

Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some adult language.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom | Trailer (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Without question, the heartbeat that still gives this franchise a pulse stems from its imagination for world-building, which Wan once more seamlessly brings to life from the pages of a comic book, with immersive depth and adventurous exploration from one part to the next. Considering this is a film where a majority of its material takes place under sea, leading up to this lost kingdom of Necrus, it doesn’t spoil in scope, instead being shot breathtakingly with IMAX cameras to capture the extensive magnitude that, with the balance of bureaucratic policies and government imbedded into the dynamic of these sea people, feels lived in with its rich history and traditionalism, leaving this easily the most fleshed out world of the entire D.E.C.U, for my money. On top of this, the brotherly bond between Arthur and Orm helps to override some of this disastrous material and underwhelming dialogue that saddle this film with a very unappealing taste, with their brand of buddy beat humor that felt like the only time the material was working cohesively with the movie’s tonal consistencies. Instead of feeling too dependent on humor, or too sternly serious in the same manner as most of the films from this universe, the script just lets Momoa and Wilson bounce feverishly off of one another with kinetic chemistry and bountiful charisma that brings these characters to life where their contextual themes simply can’t, and I for one wish more time was spent on their road trip of sorts to Necrus, because that feels like one of the only time the ball of momentum rolls in the movie’s favor. The only other time is during the movie’s climax, where Wan’s influence can finally be felt the loudest, with occasionally creepy imagery and explosive cinematography that leads to the only enticing action set piece throughout the film. As to where clarity is a bit of an issue with the rest of the surrounding set pieces, here, Wan marries complex movements of the lens with an enriching urgency that finally establishes some tension for the proceedings, in turn solidifying a final battle with all of the stakes and subplots that one can expect from these supernatural beings.

NEGATIVES

As the final goodbye to the D.E.C.U that we’ve come to know over the past decade, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is a pitiful wimper in nearly every measurement of effort, or lack there of, conveyed by the movie’s production, primarily its disjointed elements of storytelling, which continuously made the movie feel at odds with itself. Aside from the characterization of every single character arc falling so flat and ineffective, the sequencing is a bit suspect, with narrative directions and character motivations quite literally coming out of nowhere, with editing schemes that feel like they’re continuously omitting many structure building scenes between them. This can especially be felt with Manta, who doesn’t even feel like one of the five most important characters in a film supposedly surrounding his revenge angle on Arthur, but definitely on Amber Heard’s Mera, who after being an unstoppable feministic force during the original, here is subjected to throwaway line drops and momentary demand when the movie absolutely requires her. This is obviously pertaining to Heard’s off-screen troubles with the public eye, but her absence feels strange over a film pertaining to the birth of her character’s own child, and one that the movie only uses as a framing device into Arthur’s own vulnerability during the third act. In addition to sloppy structure, the film’s dialogue also can’t rise to the occasion, with exposition-heavy unloads between character interactions that don’t feel even remotely natural or believable from the mouths of the people who deliver them. Because this film introduces so much to the Atlantis world that we only started learning about during the first film, the exposition works overtime to try to find ways to constantly shoe-horn them in, and with the use of so many flashback exposition dumps, only slows down our movie about every twenty minutes or so. This is all sandwiched in-between the movie’s tonal capacities, which are trying to establish so many contrasting emotions and angles, which afford it to shift at the drop of a hat in mere seconds. One second it’s overtly dramatic, as Arthur mourns losing someone dear to him, and the next it’s Arthur quite literally taking urine to the face and mouth, as the parent of this newborn, and while some films are able to competently capture both sides of the unique spectrum, Wan’s sequel never gels as one cohesive product, instead feeling like it’s continuously throwing creative angles at a wall, just to see which will properly stick. As for first movie problems that transfer seamlessly to this sequel, the special effects, with their lack of gravitational influence, frequently feel like actors standing in front of a green-screen, especially since so many of their movements here are sedated for sequences of sitting or standing in place, which doesn’t challenge the notion of this capture for even a single solitary second. This obviously changes slightly during some horrendously jarring action set pieces, which can look and feel like bubbles splashing with one another, but even the luminance of the colorful backdrops that was present during the first film, looks unappealingly grim and bare here, robbing the cinematography of its articulance in capturing Atlantis as this breathtakingly beautiful and vibrant escape, far from the mundane pallets of other D.E.C.U landscapes. Finally, if it’s closure you seek in either the resolution of this world, or the emergence of another in the next chapter of James Gunn’s arrival to the D.E.C.U, be warned that this film really doesn’t have much of either, especially with a post-credits scene that is as much of a loud fart in an empty theater as any post-credits scene that I have seen ever. The scene in question points to a call-back of one of the movie’s throwaway jokes, and while it may jolt a gag out of a desparate audience member looking for any kind of accidental pay-off for sitting through two agonizing hours of the movie, it’s as big of a backhand as imaginable to a hardcore fanbase, who have supported these films and its characters in the face of the world’s most antagonizing cynics.

OVERALL
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is the regretful last wimper to the once prominent D.E.C.U, which now faces a future of uncertainty with a new architect coming to tear it all down. While James Wan does imbed some momentary artistic flare for the occasion to remind audiences of his magic behind the lens, this film drowns under the pressure of having to contend with disjointed storytelling, timultuous tonal shifts, and artificiality of imagery so jarring that it completely sinks the immersive imagination of the audience, leaving only the groaning walk through the auditorium as the epilogue towards discussing where it all went wrong.

My Grade: 4/10 or D-