It's a messy beautiful world down in the seven seas

Rating: 6/10 (18 December 2018)

Aquaman is the first DC film that looks like it wants to embrace its fun side
Unfortunately, Aquaman is a film gasping for air. Hobbled by a messy and overstuffed screenplay, poorly developed characters, and a patchwork of unimaginative action sequences stretched across bloated running time. The film suffers through an identity crisis. It wants to embrace the campy Silver Age comics but it also wants to try to be serious and feels like a patchwork of many films. Yet "Aquaman" shows sparks of hope throughout, with visual finnese and one of the most fantastic openings in the genre. At times, "Aquaman" contains the hints of a blockbuster ready to engulf the world.
From giant sea creatures swimming around to Dafoe's Vulko riding a giant hammerhead shark, the film doesn't lack In its imaginative ways to transform the ocean .But its default mode is paint-by-the-numbers action, by the time you've reached the finale there has been over a dozen or so clashes. Instead of making one "Aquaman" movie, James Wan has made three or four films. Wasting away what could have been great storylines for future films. The film never takes the opportunity of get you invested in these characters. When the opportunity to do so arises, it's a damn action sequence or laborious exposition is put in its place.
Aquaman just strives for sensory overload without a care for the audience's emotional connection.