Interesting potential but wasted

Rating: 4/10 (26 March 2019)

As I watched the movie, I quickly realized it was going to be a very bad movie. But as the movie went on, I realized it had some interesting potential that could have made it a really good movie. You have a solid foundation with Jason Mamoa and some good supporting actors such as Willem Dafoe so you have some talent to work with but the storyline and scripting were way off. The underwater dichotomy was too simplistic for a super advanced society. They have all that high end tech and are biologically advanced but had the political mindset of a Feudal System? C'mon. Even the primary weapons were medieval-- a trident? Pretty silly plot devises that just made the movie more awkward. The Black Manta, Brine, and Fishermen Kingdoms were too Power Rangerish, especially Black Manta. The fight scene between Black Manta and Aquaman totally took me back to the 90's--the over the top costume and voice over was hilarious rather than threatening or intimidating. Despite all that weirdness, what I thought had potential was the pushback from the Atlanteans due to the over harvesting and damage of sea life and pollution of the oceans. That was a footnote to the stereotypical struggle for who gets to sit on the throne. If they had focused more on the struggle between Man vs Atlantean conflict, I think that would have been a more interesting story. Dont hang this on Jason Mamoa--this is poor writing and bad directing pure and simple.