I agree on pretty much all fronts. It\'s a little too generic at times, but overall this movie rocked.
And I also hated the obligatory \"hero gets bullied as a kid\" scene. This crops up a lot in superhero flicks nowadays, to the point where it just feels like a cheap way of making the audience sympathetic to the main character.
Like, it\'s not like you even need to have it in there, because there isn\'t a generic \"hero mistreated by the stupid people who don\'t understand scene\" later on. I\'m thinking of That One Scene in particular, which I still don\'t want to spoil.
Its scenes like those that make me appreciate the film Super all the more. Particularly the bit where he doesn\'t get to be a hero because he can\'t find anyone to be a dick to him, literally has to go looking for trouble, and ends up smashing someone in the head with a wrench because he cuts in line.
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I mean, admittedly, you hate superheroes and their movies, so a pitch-black parody of them would probably appeal to you more than the average person. But it\'s not a bad point.
I don\'t know about hating them... but maybe they need taking down a peg or two? Or at least the writers do.
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There\'s more than a handful of anti-superhero comics you can find online if that\'s your interest. If this is just about certain people though, you need to let that go.
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...And, in yet another installment of reviews coming out loooong after everyone's already made up their minds...
I don't hate the DC movies. And, in that regard, as far as internet nerds go, I'm in a bit of a rare category, so I don't know how valuable my opinion may or may not be to you, but that's just me coming out with the truth.
And I guess I can summarize my opinions on Aquaman real quick by pointing to the music: I really liked all the music, with the sweet 80's synth tones and mood-vibes... and then that awful Pitbull song that sampled "Africa" (while the protagonists are heading to Africa) and it was the absolute worst, but then I sighed and got on with the rest of the music I was really digging.
That's the movie in a nutshell, for me. A lot of stuff I really liked, occasionally interrupted by something really bad that took me out of it. Wasn't enough to ruin it, but it stood out.
For one, I want to give props to the characters, who are uniformly very strong and well-written. Arthur's got that blue-collar hero charm, Mera does a good run as his love-interest (and fleshes herself out a bit more than an otherwise stock-sounding character arc would indicate), and most of the side characters, including Vulko and Thomas, all have strong performances and a bit of depth. And special props to the villains, who are, in a genre known for either giving villains zero depth or bungling attempts to add it, perfectly done, with the fact that these are bad people who don't deserve sympathy front-and-center... but allowed to also show their humanity. They are bad people, not monsters. I only wish Atlanna were a bit more developed than she is, especially whether or not Thomas was the origin of her sympathy for the Surface, and that Nereus had a few more redeeming qualities than his love for his daughter.
From there, the acting is... I guess I'd just say that, when the characters are allowed a bit of room to breathe, the performances are great, but when, say, Momoa is called upon to be a bit too flowery, or when Dolph Lundgren has to awkwardly exposit a great deal of backstory, it can come across as wooden in a way the rest of the performance largely isn't. Thankfully, natural charisma tends to rule the day from all quarters.
There are some who complain about the fairly stock "hunt the MacGuffin" plot, and I'll own that it's a fair criticism. Hell, there're some really-obvious plotholes there that grated on me, especially during the treasure hunt. But, I don't think enough credit is given for plot beats that are boldly subversive, like that one scene in the bar early on I don't want to spoil, but it looks like it's going to go one incredibly-tiresome way, and instead it goes a very-different way that puts a smile on everyone's face. I only wish some trailer-fodder scenes like that one awful, garbage one early on where a young Arthur is being bullied in an aquarium for no reason, had been cut, since this is a looooong picture, and that the lengthy, melodramatic narration at the beginning and end of the film hadn't been recorded, since the story the visuals tell is plenty strong without it.
And speaking of, holy cow these visuals! I normally hate lengthy sequences of plotless eyecandy that exist only to murder the pacing, but this movie actually paces them really well, interspersing them with actual relevant information that sets up later pay offs. The CG is particularly impressive, taking advantage of the way CGI can seem too weightless to sell the fact that everyone's underwater, but adding just enough weight and resistance that they don't look like they're in space instead. And even subtler effects like Orm's mask in the final battle look great. They also don't use CGI as an excuse to skimp on good practical effects, especially the battle armor. Finally, the adventurous direction forges all kinds of great angles and shots, meaning that the battles seem spectacular and adrenalizing. Special props to that scene that moves from a fishing boat in a storm-tossed sea into the depths of an oceanic trench.
I won't pretend this is a flawless movie, or that there aren't things about it that I find a bit cheesy, but it was a great time and I don't regret most of it.