“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is being hailed as the final chapter of the DCEU, and for my money, it is too much of a relentless spectacle to call it fun. The special effects are occasionally good, but many other scenes are too cartoonish and jerky to make it seem more than artificial.
Having said that, in a year of watching the superhero genre potentially implode, it is much more coherent than The Marvels, and the excitement factor is slightly above “Shazam! Fury of the Gods.”
Jason Momoa is back as Aquaman, a.k.a. Arthur Curry, now married to Amber Heard’s Mera, and together they have a baby boy named Arthur Jr. His son does what any other baby does in the movies: He laughs, cries when he’s in danger, and urinates for comic relief.
Arthur is now the King of Atlantis and divides his time between land and sea. Atlantis is facing deep trouble after climate change affects the world’s resources.
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II returns as the Black Manta who is seeking revenge for the death of his father and holds Aquaman responsible. He hopes to obtain the Black Trident, which can aid him in his quest.
Arthur has no choice but to recruit his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to join him in stopping the Black Manta. The two have decent chemistry, even if it’s mostly one-liners or silly, mystical monologues.
I didn’t think the first “Aquaman” was a great movie, but it allowed Jason Momoa and the other actors to do something with their characters that was interesting. In this sequel, Dolph Lundgren and Nicole Kidman are dramatically underutilized and shortchanged in favor of the effects.
This sequel just loves to blast the audience with ridiculous action at every corner when it can’t figure out something new or exciting to do with its flimsy plot.
If this is the DCEU’s swan song, it needs more imagination in its world-building and less on hurling special effects at the screen.
Grade: C+
(Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some language.)
