Movie Review: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

December 22, 2023

by G. E. Uke, Reporter

After I watch a new movie, I’m usually left with a fairly clear idea of whether or not I liked it. Every movie has its pros and cons, and very few are overwhelmingly great or overwhelmingly terrible. This is because movies are not graded solely on one rubric. A whole lot goes into making a movie, so as a reviewer I need to give each one a fair analysis. To do anything less would be unjust. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was a lot…

I’m going to say that right now to give you some context, gentle reader. There was a lot to love, a lot to see, a lot to think about, and a lot to hate. There was so much going on that I decided to write this review “the good, the bad, and the ugly” style just to address it all. Warning: spoilers ahead.

Image provided by Warner Bros. Pictures / DC Entertainment

Let’s start with the good. Much like its predecessor, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was a feast for the eyes. There were enough stunning visuals, dramatic landscapes, alien weapons, crazy mecha, super weapons, sea monsters, and ichthyoid critters to satisfy even the most diehard hyperactive Disney-obsessed ADHD case. The fight scenes between individuals were appropriately cool and superhero-like. Some of the banter was fun, and the interplay between Jason Momoa and his baby son was charming. The outfits and props were neat, and you could tell the crew responsible for those had a good time. It was bombastic, over the top, and felt very much like a comic book. That’s the one thing I will say about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – more than anything, it felt like a comic book.

Now for the bad. There was nothing unique about this movie at all. Every single element of the plot was some form of pre-existing trope, and none of them were done particularly well. Evil magical weapon that possesses people? Check. Lost evil kingdom? Check. Baby in danger? Check. Villain reconciliation? Check. Nothing shocked or surprised me, and none of the acting moved my heart. Most of the serious lines were delivered in a long-winded and campy fashion that robbed them of depth. The acting was poor.

On the matter of the ugly….oh boy. There were a number of plot holes that made no sense at all. The devastation of the planet and death of millions didn’t warrant the appearance of any other superheroes at all. It was like they didn’t even exist. The villain suddenly and miraculously knew where to find the hero’s family, with no explanation. The plot reveals were heavy handed and blunt, and adding ‘Mos Eisley Spaceport’ to the undersea world of Aquaman was….fun to look at, but thematically a lot like getting hit by a truck. In fact there were so many inconsistencies it made the rest of the movie a bit hard to take.

Thankfully it isn’t hard to rate the acting of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, mostly because only a handful of characters got any screen time. Jason Momoa was great as Aquaman about half the time. Patrick Wilson was probably my favorite actor as Ocean Master, mainly because he made a decent fall guy. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II did well enough as Black Manta, but the way his character was written didn’t give him a lot of opportunity to do much more than be an obsessed crazy man of few words. Randall Park has a fairly prominent place in the movie as the hesitant scientist Dr. Stephen Shin, but his spinelessness was too ham-handedly written to be graceful.

To summarize things, I will say that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was much like the first. Not a great movie, but not an awful one either as long as you take it in the spirit in which it was made. If you don’t go looking for Avengers level plot development, you won’t be disappointed.

Rating:
ComicsOnline gives Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom – 3.5 out of 5 starfish.