After an incredibly rocky start to the DC Extended Universe, it looks as though things are finally looking up for this superhero franchise, with their most recent stand-alone movie being a surprise hit. Whereas the superheroAquamanwas just a joke a few years ago, this aquatic warrior has finally gotten his own feature length movie and has successfully proven to us all that he can not only work as a standalone hero, but he can also stand above nearly every other DC superhero on the big screen.
One of the most compelling aspects ofAquamanis the underwater superhero himself. While his initial casting was rather controversial,Jason Momoaabsolutely nailed the role of Arthur Curry. Right off the bat, Momoa sold his performance to audiences as both a badass and charismatic character that everyone could root for. He had the perfect balance of snark that made Iron Man such an entertaining character and fervor that has made Batman such a big-screen spectacle. Even with these qualities, the future King of Atlantis was still a flawed protagonist. He wasn’t a perfect character, which really only made him more compelling as the story went on.
While theactual plot of the movie may have seemed incredibly familiar, being another one of the brothers fighting for the throne stories likeThor,Black PantherandThe Lion King, it still did a decent job at making it stand out from the competition. While there were certainly familiar aspects that were similar to those other movies, like the duelling scenes inBlack Panther,Aquamanstill kept some originality in the matter to keep things unpredictable. Additionally, the movie did a great job of avoiding cop-out deaths in order to trigger emotional reactions from the audience, with all of the emotion in the movie developing from the story itself rather than from these cheap tricks that many superhero movies have ridden on recently.
The absolute best feature ofAquaman, however, had to be its visuals. Whether the scenes took placeunderwater in Atlantisor in a city in Italy, nearly every shot of James Wan’s was absolutely breathtaking. While previous DC movies likeBatman v. Superman: Dawn of Justicehad clever framing, the shots didn’t really stand out like the shots inAquaman. The main difference that made this DC adventure stand far aboveBatman v. Supermanwas the color pallete. Previous DC movies attempted to have darker visuals with a desaturated look, whereas Wan and his team pushed the limits of color throughout the movie’s entire duration. Its color and visual effects were even better thanGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which broke records with the amount of visual effects put into it.
All things considered,Aquamanis a huge win for DC andWarner Bros. Pictures. Its narrative is compelling, theprotagonist is well developed, and it’s just a whole lot of fun to watch from beginning to end. This is definitely a movie that you will not want to miss in theaters, as the big screen is truly the best way to experience the visually stunning look that this brings to the table. At the end of the day,Aquamanmay just be the best DC movie we have seen in years, possibly even better than last year’sWonder Woman. Hopefully this fantastic storytelling becomes a pattern for DC movies going forward.
