Thoughts on Aquaman (2018)

So I just saw Aquaman.

And I thought it was pretty decent.

Before I say anything else, I just want to say that I have very little attachment to the DC Cinematic Universe. I’ve seen almost every MCU movie and they’re mostly good, and I care about the universe to an extent. The only movie I’ve seen in the DCU prior to this was Man of Steel, once, in theaters. So I was basically going in blind. Plus, I really didn’t care about Aquaman at all.

So that being said, well, this is not a really bad movie. It’s got some cringeworthy elements but it’s also got some good parts. The CGI I found to be pretty good, to be honest, and there were some really amazing shots. And the action scenes were pretty good but sometimes a bit bloated, and the CGI did get a bit overwhelming sometimes. And it felt kind of off with the hair underwater.

I also found some of the character interactions to be pretty enjoyable to watch. Arthur (Aquaman) and Mera were entertaining enough a lot of the time although I found it pretty predictable and a bit cringeworthy when they kissed near the end. I also enjoyed Arthur interacting with his dad. I don’t know, I just like seeing a nice little father-son bond like that.

However, there are plenty of problems that kind of bogged down the experience. First was the tone. The movie wasn’t completely able to decide what kind of movie it wanted to be. It was funny at one point, super serious at another. It felt disjointed. It would have been much better if it had stuck to a single tone.

Next is the dialogue. It’s not all bad, especially with just pure character interaction, but it’s very easy to tell when it switches to exposition because the characters are just spitting words at the audience in plain terms so they know what’s going on, and it feels weird. I laughed a bit when Willem Dafoe’s character muttered “this isn’t a competition, it’s an execution”, while alone, while Arthur was almost certainly getting beat. It was very plain to me and it felt like the script had to explicitly mention it so the audience didn’t have to think too hard about it.

The movie, as I mentioned a bit earlier, is also pretty predictable. I was able to predict some pretty crucial plot points and I felt it took a bit away from the movie. The soundtrack was serviceable but pretty forgettable, and the acting was mostly alright save for the people who played younger Arthur, especially the one who was supposed to be sixteen. And the villains, while they had good connections to Arthur that should have made them interesting, just felt forgettable, and I didn’t find myself attached to them at all really.

Aquaman is a fun movie, though, don’t get me wrong. I liked it and it shoukd satisfy anyone who wants to turn their brain off for a couple of hours and watch superhero stuff. But it’s far from perfect and while I wouldn’t mind seeing it again, I also would rather watch a Marvel movie like Thor Ragnarok (for the comedic tone) or Avengers Infinity War (for the serious and dark tone). While I liked Aquaman personally, it’s not enough to definitively call this movie good and the highest score I can give it is a five out of ten.