AQUAMAN (2018) - I just don't get it

Aquaman is a superhero film and the sixth in DC Extended Universe, directed by James Wan and starring Jason Moma, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman, and Temuera Morrison. Taking place sometime after the events of Justice League, the movie follows Aquaman as he gets caught up in a battle for the throne of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis in order to stop his half-brother Orm from uniting the seven underwater kingdoms as Ocean Master and waging war against the surface world.

So I don't get it. I just don't. That's how I felt after watching Aquaman last Saturday (early screening, baby!) and reading all the reviews and #Aquaman tweets that followed. Because I'll just skip straight to the point and say I didn't like this movie. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad movie--unlike like many of DC's previous flicks, it's not actively inept. It's actually quite ept. It's competently made and pretty well directed and seeks to offer a fun and enjoyable experience that maybe stretches a bit too long but ultimately is just a fun ride for the whole family in Christmas 2018.

But the thing is, whenever I don't like a movie that many people like or I like a movie that many people didn't, I can always understand why people's opinions would differ. I liked The Last Jedi a lot, but I can totally understand why many people don't. I liked Hereditary a lot, but I can totally understand why many people don't. I wasn't a big fan of Spider-Man: Homecoming or Doctor Strange but I can see why those are some people's favorite movies and vice versa for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Iron Man 3.

But I just don't get it for this movie. While most people agreed that the story was maybe a bit overly safe and basic and some agreed with me that the forced and underdeveloped romantic subplot was unnecessary and way too corny, a lot praised the acting which I thought was mostly passable and the villain which I thought was way too bland.

But a great deal of praise was universally given to the movie's CGI and action scenes, which I thought were some of the worst CGI and action scenes I've seen in any superhero movie, and that's what really throws me off. To the movie's credit some bits of CGI were quite nice and one or two action scenes were good, but this was the first time I had ever watched a superhero movie and was actively distracted by how bad the CGI was. And don't get me wrong, it's not nearly as bad as PS3-level Justice League, but there were so many times when I'd look at the screen and I'd think, "That just looks fake." I was having some serious Star Wars prequels flashbacks with the way too pristine and clean to be real designs of some parts of Atlantis.

And that's to say nothing of the action scenes, which range from passable to laughably bad. The very first action scene about five minutes into the movie had my jaw on the floor with how bad it looked, especially since good action scenes were kind of the DCEU's few redeeming qualities. As with previous entries, there is a heavy reliance on slow motion to emphasis the badassery of the fights (a Zack Snyder classic), which isn't technically bad but it does get distracting. But with Aquaman it seemed as if director James Wan had watched Daredevil and realized that long take fight scenes were really cool, but didn't seem to understand that it's not nearly as cool when everything is CGI.

That's ultimately what really bothers me about the fight scenes in this movie. They're technically really good but they're just surrounded by so much fake that there are no stakes. Every enemy feels like a rag doll and the camera is constantly flying everywhere and refusing to cut even when it would heighten the intensity of the scene. I do prefer this to the godawful shaky-cam trend that got super popular the past decade or so, but it just feels so lame.

I've also seen a great deal of praise for the final showdown of the movie between the two sea armies which looked really cool in the trailers and, don't get me wrong, does visually look great in the movie, but when you actually watch it and realize there are absolutely no stakes to that entire battle because you don't really know or care about any of the two sides, it feels really lame.

That's really all that's actively bad about the movie, and everything else is just relatively minor stuff that everyone seems to be fine with ignoring. The story and the characters are incredibly basic and bland, the acting is fine, and the forced and unnecessary romantic subplot is forced and unnecessary. Mera seems like should could have been a good/great character if she wasn't so bound by the "hyper-competent female meets relatively incompetent male and she hates him but they fall in love and she relies on him to save the day" archetype.

Orm as a villain should have been great since his motivation was originally to fight back against decades of pollution and to save his people from literally dying out, but all that just goes flaccid by the end when it's revealed that it's more mommy-issues than anything. Black Manta is an absolute joke and is honestly treated more as an unintentional comic relief character than an actual villain who has a place in the story (which is why the mid-credits scene's attempt at hyping him up to be the next villain just falls flat).

If there's anything I can say is mostly great, it's the costumes. This is the most colorful we've ever seen a DC movie and everyone proudly wears whites and oranges and greens and purples. It's a great departure from the weirdly overly intricate and desaturated designs present in Justice League but--and I can't believe I'm saying this about a DC movie--I kind of wish the colors were a bit more muted. Don't get me wrong, they do look really nice and comic accuracy is something DC has a problem with, but the bright oranges in Aquaman's suit is maybe a bit too saturated? Idk, just might be me tho.

Finally, probably something that bugs me more than it would most other people though is how cliche'd and "power fantasy"-y the movie gets. Namely, the start of the movie actively shows that Aquaman is not fit to be king because he doesn't really care about anyone or anything and all he wants is for people to not die. He clearly doesn't have any love for either Atlantis or the surface world; his primary motivation is to get revenge on the people who killed his mother (which... isn't Orm, so it feels strange that Aquaman would bear any real grudge against him). So it really bugs me that halfway through the movie, everyone just *accepts* that Aquaman would be a great king even though he never showed any real sign of character development.

Final Verdict

If there's anything this movie has going for it, most people would likely find it fun and enjoyable. Many will like how the movie constantly bounces from one location to another. Many will love the visuals and the fight scenes. Many will love the romantic subplot and how the movie presents Arthur Curry as a man worthy of being king of Asgard Wakanda Atlantis.

But I didn't. I didn't find it bad, just boring. And I don't get why it's getting all this praise when I just found it comfortably average. Everything in this movie I've seen done better in better movies, so I just really don't get it. But hey, maybe that's just me.

Side note: You know how some movies have a scene where two characters are talking and there's an explosion and suddenly the bad guys show up and there's a fight scene? Yeah, that happens a LOT in this movie. Like, I think it was somewhere between 5-6 times. 

Score: C-

I mean sure it looks really good, but it's kinda lame when you realize you know nothing about either side