The Facts:
Synopsis: Aquaman is forced to protect Atlantis and his loved ones from devastation after an ancient power is unleashed by Black Manta obtaining the cursed Black Trident.
Stars: Jason Momoa, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Patrick Wilson, Nicole Kidman, Amber Heard, Indya Moore, Dolph Lundgren, Randall Park, Vincent Regan, Martin Short, Jani Zhao, Temuera Morrison, Pilou Asbæk
Director: James Wan
Rated: PG-13
Running Length: 124 minutes
TMMM Score: (4/10)
Review: When 2018’s Aquaman became the biggest solo outing for a character in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU), all anyone wanted to know was how soon star Jason Momoa could get back into the water and film a sequel. Despite commitments to other projects within the DCEU and joining another amped-up franchise (2023’s Fast X and its 2025 concluding chapter), Momoa was keen to come back, this time with more creative control over a character he had taken a vested interest in. Resigning director James Wan (The Conjuring), I suspect Warner Brothers thought they had a shiny new constellation in their DECU when the film was announced.
Then, well, many things veered off course. The pandemic pushed an already prolonged gap between films even longer, which only exacerbated fan consternation over the presence of beleaguered co-star Amber Heard as she endured a very public trial with her ex-husband, Johnny Depp. Early test screenings weren’t positive, leading to many reshoots that reshaped the original story idea Momoa brought to the studio (Momoa retains a story credit in the finished film). Actors scheduled to return could not meet the production demands, which required screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick to either remove their arcs entirely or awkwardly absorb them into those of other characters. Oh, and the creative heads running the show changed hands and decided to reboot the DCEU fully, effectively making Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom the 15th and final film to be released in the original cycle.
Watching the movie (in murky 3D, which does no service to the already ill-defined CGI effects), you can’t help but feel the enormous pressure it has endured. All the tinkering and maneuvering has left Wan’s sequel flat as a pancake and missing the fun spark that elevated the first film. The many edits and reshoots in post-production leave scenes feeling slapped together and, at times, barely comprehensible. Editor Kirk Morri does what he can with the shreds he was given, but look at the film’s schizophrenic pre-title opening sequence (which plays like an action-adventure take on Baby Boom) and try to piece together what is happening at any given moment. Characters speak about subjects, people, and events like it is common knowledge so much that the title should be Aquaman Gaslights the Lost Kingdom.
Now the king of Atlantis, Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Momoa, Dune), can add diaper-changer to his list of skills. Fathering a son with his wife Hera (Heard, The Danish Girl), their child lives on land with Arthur’s dad Tom (Temuera Morrison, The Flash), while his parents rule their underwater kingdom. Between riding his neon seahorse through the waters to fend off various dangers, Aquaman loves to spend time with his son, and it isn’t long before his offspring displays some of the same powers he possesses. Rewrites/Reshoots Royal duties have taken Heard’s character out of the picture, so Aquaman is more of a single parent, something he actually laments about to his dad at one point.
In another part of the ocean, marine biologist Stephen Shin (Randall Park, Totally Killer) is participating in a research expedition led by David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Candyman), who is not-so-secretly using the exploration in his plot for revenge against Aquaman. Hunting for a secret kingdom frozen within the ice, they find a cursed Black Trident, which feeds into Kane’s plan to use his power as supervillain Black Manta to destroy everything Aquaman loves, including Atlantis. Knowing little about this lost kingdom, Aquaman turns to his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson, Insidious: The Red Door) for help, even though his sibling has been jailed for treason toward his people throughout the events of Aquaman.
Together, the two brothers will venture through the depths to learn the truth about the lost kingdom, which was ruled by an evil king (Pilou Asbæk, Run, Sweetheart, Run) and has been bound by a strong spell for ages. With the help of their mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman, Faraway Downs) and King Nereus (Dolph Lundgren, Minions: The Rise of Gru), Aquaman and Orm have little time to track down Black Manta before he unleashes a power that can threaten not just Atlantis but the entire world above.
I won’t talk much about a shameful finale or MacGuffin stolen straight out of one of The Lord of the Rings films because Warner Brothers owns both franchises, so they obviously thought they could get away with it and not sue themselves. There are many terrible CGI effects in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, some so bad I can hardly believe anyone signed off on the film being released with these sequences intact. There’s often nothing tangible onscreen except for the actors, and everything else is blatantly fake, making everything feel phony and low impact. The faces/heads often look bigger than the bodies, creating the effect of strange alien characters swimming around so quickly that you can hardly see who is who under a curtain of bubbles. When they do stand still, they look waxy and washed out. Only Momoa maintains his movie-star appeal throughout…but the man is a screen charisma personified. If you want to spot the reshot scenes, keep your eyes on Wilson’s hair and count how many different styles (and shades of blonde) he has from scene to scene.
I’m glad to see Abdul-Mateen’s role beefed up for this follow-up film, but I wish the writer had found something more to do with his character and developed a different driving force instead of the simple revenge he sought in the previous film. There’s more to Black Manta than we have seen, and Abdul-Mateen is the right actor to pull off the kind of exciting performance we rarely get in these genre pics. It’s too bad that Park is thrown into the mix because he’s never been an actor you can root for, and Wan cannot create a compelling case to change our mind about Park here. I cringed a bit every time Heard was onscreen; she’s not particularly bad or good (the film does her dirty by bluntly cutting her role down instead of editing around it), but I winced because the obnoxious row behind me kept “boo-ing” and making indecent comments whenever her flame red hair appeared. Be better, people.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is passable entertainment that rounds off the DCEU in a rather ho-hum fashion. It’s not as embarrassing as the Marvel movies have been of late, nor does it take any of their big swings either. Rumors of Batman cameos were debunked before we walked in the door, so it’s no spoiler to say that there’s no world-building going on at the end or during the one mid-credit sequence we are offered. If you can get past the bad CGI and a lack of overall ambition from anyone, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom might float your boat.