Brian Roffino

Few might have guessed at the overall high quality of Wonder Woman and the disappointing mishmash of Justice League, but both films left fans of DC’s universes wondering about Aquaman. If you haven’t see it by now, it may be because you’re not a superhero fan (and then what’s wrong with you?) or possibly a parent (What parent has time for fun?), but, despite some glaring flaws, Aquaman sets a new standard in terms of special effects in worldbuilding.

Let’s start first with the weak plot. Yes, stuff happens, which leads to other stuff, and anyone who has seen more than five action movies will predict a lot of the formulaic events.

Here’s the setup: Arthur’s mother is a queen of Atlantis, who washes up on the shore and falls in love with a human lighthouse keeper. (And by the way, these Atlanteans don’t look like Jabba the Hutt or anything; at least the main group look like humans. In fact, they’re mostly Nicole Kidman beautiful, but don’t get your hopes up: the Atlantean immigration policy appears to be similar to President Trump’s.) Their kid, Arthur, or Aquaman, is then a kid of “both worlds,” the land and the sea. Except that really means he doesn’t feel like he really belongs anywhere.

Meanwhile, back in Oz, I mean Atlantis, Queen Atlanna’s other son, Orm, hates the way the “surface” is treating the earth and the oceans, and wants to unite the seven tribes of Atlantis to then attack and subjugate surface-dwellers. Is this sounding familiar to anyone? A plan to invade another sovereign country(ies) with no exit strategy? Except that actually happened in the US. But I digress. The only possible solution (other than talking sense into the king, of course): Arthur Aquaman must come be king in Atlantis instead.

As far as plot holes go, there are quite a few. In fact, this movie could be used as an example for what to avoid to help those DC people get their writers to up their game. Plot holes, by the way, come in many types, but are generally gaps in logic or storytelling that make the audience question character choices or the flow of the plot.

One of the bigger plot holes (slight spoiler from about first 15 minutes) comes when grumpy King Orm sends mini-tsunamis to all the Atlantic coasts with tons of ocean garbage back to the surface. But where does he get the power to do that, and if he can do that, why can’t he just kill most of the surface dwellers with bigger tsunamis (since so much of the world’s population lives within 50 miles of an ocean)? And if he’ so powerful with Tsunamis why can’t he use water as a weapon like the one water wizard in the movie? And how is there a water wizard?

The biggest plot holes are sort of spoilers, so I won’t mention them, but they make the movie harder to watch a second time. Wait, but why are they doing that? What can’t that guy just relax? Why don’t they just… Oh because that’s what the script says?  Not a good enough reason. The characters have to do A, B, C, and D before they can F, even though no one gives an F about the fact that there was no E after the D.

The characters were also rather weak overall. Essentially there are three stronger characters who have the essential elements of interesting character: showing conflict between warring values and making hard choices. Jason Momoa’s Aquaman (Arthur), Amber Heard’s Princess Mera, and the amazing Willem Defoe’s Vizier dude, Vulko. Almost all the other characters are one-dimensional, as in they act more like robots than thinking people.

And yet, for a superhero movie with a mediocre plot, and mostly basic characters, there were moments of authentically good acting. Essentially every scene with Nicole Kidman is better, not just because of her, but because her character draws empathy toward the other characters around her. This is some of the better writing, and some of the best acting in the movie. Fans of action movies and Kidman should see her scenes as a recipe for a heck yes. Momoa was also quite fun and unexpectedly funny at times. His performance in Game of Thrones is interesting, but slightly one dimensional. He is a foil for his counterparts.

In Aquaman, Momoa gets to be the beefcake in action scenes, but the better moments are where he gets to be amusing and self-deprecating. Willem Defoe is just incredible in anything. This is a rather simple character for someone who is so talented and multifaceted, but he elicits sympathy well. Despite some rather basic language and writing for Mera, Amber Heard even has a few strong moments where the audience feels her struggle and grow. Patrick Wilson of Angels in America fame generally doesn’t have many strong lines – King Orm is basically a simple jerk (wake up DC: villains can be multi-dimensional too) – but even he has a few moments of clarity and fun. There’s at least one extremely well placed smirk that shows nuance. Look for it. It’s worth it.

But the worldbuilding? Ah, what a masterpiece.

I almost don’t want to spoil it, but it’s worth mentioning how much detail clearly went into so many aspects of the world of this movie: the scenery; the differences between the seven Atlantean tribes; the history of “Atlantis” and the long ago master civilization that dissolved into seven pieces; how Atlanteans are able to move underwater and their relationships with other undersea creatures.

It’s worth renting the disc for the separate 20 minute featurette called “James Wan: Worldbuilder.” I know. Exciting, right? This director put so much energy and revision into the style and look of the each design. One scene from the featurette shows Wan considering about 7 different tridents as they picked and tweaked which elements looked best for different characters. This was definitely time well spent.

Probably my favorite bit of worldbuilding was the looks and the feel of the several different underwater cities and populations. Imagine a collaboration between the undersea Frank Lloyd Wright and the Aliens artist H. R. Giger, and then throw a ton of color at it. These buildings are magical. This makes the movie worth seeing even for people who may not be giant fans of fighting men in leotards.

Overall, Aquaman tells a good story without being memorable, other than the incredible color and detail of this complicated and nuanced world. Fans of super heroes will like it regardless, but this movie could be a good entry point to the DC universe for fans of good worldbuilding. 

While many women may be less interested – the only two female characters were written by men and could have used a bit more depth – fans of action will likely love it. In fact, many less-uptight parents could become heroes themselves by allowing their preteen boys to see it, since it is sex-free and shows mostly CGI fighting without much blood or gore.