Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom: One Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish New Fish

Several years after the events of the first Aquaman film, Arthur Curry / Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Mera (Amber Heard) married and had a son. The family splits their time between the ocean world with his kingly duties in Atlantis and the land with his family.  David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) a.k.a. Black Manta, has also returned and with the help of Dr. Stephen Shin (Randall Park) he is attempting to find Atlantean technology that will allow him to repair his Black Manta armor and take his revenge against Arthur, his family and all of Atlantis.  Manta eventually finds what he is looking for and a whole lot more when he discovers the Black Trident, an ancient weapon forged by dark magic by Kordax (Pilou Asbæk), the original King Atlan’s brother who was enslaved in ice after waging war on his brother.  Through the trident, Kordax gives Manta additional powers and offers everything Manta desires if he sets him free.  In order to achieve that, they must speed up global warming to melt the polar icebergs and get the blood of a descendant of Atlan, and there are only four of them left.  To find Manta, Aquaman must join forces with his half brother and enemy, Orm / Ocean Master (Patrick Wilson).  Can Arthur and Orm work together without killing each other, long enough to defeat Black Manta and prevent Kordax from destroying the world?  Watch and find out.

I know that Aquaman is a joke to some, but for a long time he has been one of my favorite comic book characters and I have enjoyed Jason Momoa in the role, although not exactly congruent with the source material. So, I am excited whenever I get to see this character portrayed in live action media, and with all the drama surrounding the DCEU’s new direction and one of the actress’s lives being spattered all over the headlines, I am happy that this film saw the light of day at all.  But was it worth the wait and does it match up with the high hopes and expectations?  I am going to say a qualified “Yes”.  I do believe the first film had a better story and was told a bit better, this film is entertaining, with mostly good special effects and visuals, a bit of humor, great fight and action sequences and a little bit of heart.  It is short on story and the script and acting felt a bit forced, but honestly, this movie was made to just be fun and exciting, and it meets those criteria.

The film has received mixed to average reviews, ranging from one star to four with the average audience consensus giving it a B rating on an A+ to F scale but only half of those polled saying they would recommend people definitely see the film.  The Guardian writer, Peter Bradshaw gave the film one star saying “Where the first Aquaman movie was in enough trouble, …now we have a terrible sequel”.  The A.V. Club’s Matthew Jackson gave the film a B and called it “the kind of film that wants to leave everything it has out on the field, and that produces a kinetic, often scattered, but nonetheless entertaining popcorn movie that truly gives us everything it has and then some.” And along those same lines, Common Sense Media’s Tara McNamara wrote, “This action fantasy is best described as ‘dumb fun’; you can’t help but enjoy yourself, even if you feel brain cells dripping out of your ear.” I have to agree with the latter two reviewers.