DCEU is dead. Long live DCEU!

Rating: 9/10 (19 December 2018)

Aquaman delivers the final blow to "DCEU is dead after Zack Snyder departure" buzz - DC Cinematic Universe is pretty much alive, at least, underwater. James Wan successfully competes with Snyder's visuals, but without offering questionable plot twists and "Oh, Martha!" scenes. Yep, main plot is pretty much the same as Black Panter and dozens of others about outlaw king must accept his role as a real KING with a help of a bunch of friends. Yes. even evil brother is here, a hidden, but powerful contry (or countries) and old tradition of hand-to-hand combat as a political argument.
So why "Auquaman" makes "Black Panther" look pale? Answer is pretty simple - director & screenwriters successfully adapted character's canon without disturbing "modern approaches". Classic suits, classic names, minor race changes Yes, Orm in the movie looks way much like blonde Aquaman in comics, but it was not Wan's descision to hire Momoa as a title hero.
We see a very classy old-school adventure, Wan even cited Inidiana Jones as a reference - and, yep, spitit of Indiana is indeed here in a good way.
Acting is solid, without spectactular perfomances, but Patrick Wilson can be names as the most remarkable actor from enseble. His villain delivers belivable emotions and motivation is not so dumb, as like Thanos, for e.g. under similar circumstances.
Jason Momoa plays a cool biker-outlaw-style guy, the only problem with him - he cannot act really good, there is a big potential, but he definitely needs to improve. Momoa made his comeback in smal roles (like Drogo). but he is not a leading man material (see his Conan, for e.g.). With Momoa, directors are facing the similar problem as with Gal Gadot: a beatutiful human being, looks incredible on posters, but impression fades once they try to act. Wonder Woman was saved by Chris Pine & his team - they delivered most of fun, but "Aquaman" was not able to offer something like that. Amber Heard is a bad actress, her red wig looked really cheap, zero chemistry between Mera and Arthur - nuff said. Love part of the story is a hit-and-miss, without a question.
Soundtrack is ok, but Aquaman really, really delivers the exceptional underwater wold. It looks incredibly amazing, with love & care, with many details for comic geeks. A spectacular journey, with a secondary villain for sequel - yep, Black Mantha should really shine, his motivation is pretty understandable and actor definitely needs more screen time.
WB, You should negotiate with James Wan immidiately. You know, right now You have Your own Lucas/Cameron - class director.