Movie Review: Aquaman

Rating: 6/10 (6 April 2019)

Any rating I give this movie should come with a massive asterisk because this movie may have broken me a little.
I want to say right upfront that this is not a good movie, this is far from being a good movie but I implore you to see this right now! Aquaman has provided one of the most fun movie going experience I have had in a while.
If you read my 2018 retrospective you will know that this film reminded me of many other films, that is one of the things that fascinates me so much about this Aquaman. Really this should feel kind of fresh and new given the director's previous work and the less serious tone within the DC movie universe but so many scenes feel ripped from other movies.
The special effects are absolutely incredible throughout the movie, the attention to detail with the underwater world makes watching this on the big screen feel rewarding, every action sequence in the kingdom of Atlantis feels like the exact opposite to the one on Wakanda during Black Panther. In that movie often the special effects and action choreography felt like an after thought so that the movie could focus on other things while in Aquaman they are given the time they deserve to leave an impact. Having said that the other moments in the film are also polar opposite to Black Panther, where in that movie slow dialogue heavy moments felt like they had real weight here they are usually laughable (and not when they mean to be).
James Wan is a great director and their is no denying that. He has had an impact on the horror genre with greats such as Saw, The Conjuring and Insidious and his mark will felt on that genre for years. But in recently his foray into the action genre has had interesting results. There is no doubt that Furious 7 was more than a little goofy but with Aquaman Wan has outdone himself. None of the character arcs are memorable or interesting, the two leads have no chemistry, there is no real villain of the movie but there are two side villains and about an hour into the film I lost track of the plot and started laughing uncontrollably for way to long.
I am seriously finding it difficult to put into words how bizarre this movie is because on paper it sounds almost par for the course with comic book movies but really this is so much more than that.
I have to recommend checking this film out but as I said earlier I don't recommend it as a good movie, just a fun one. Like a lot of people I hope that Wan will return to his horror roots soon and stop dragging Patrick Wilson into strange action films, they both deserve better than Aquaman.
Also they play the Pitbull's version of Toto's Africa in this movie right when Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell makes a cameo. That might be my favourite moment of 2018 cinema.