Recycled tropes and stilted dialogue ruin a character that ruined the inspired casting of Momoa

Rating: 4/10 (25 December 2018)

Ever since he was cast as Aquaman, I was excited to see Jason Momoa make this character his own. I enjoyed his appearance in the otherwise problematic Justice League and this should have been an enjoyable thrill ride. It certainly could have been.
To be specific and somewhat spoiler-y, my primary issue with this film really didn't have anything to do with Momoa's performance, nor Aquaman as a hero. There were plenty of scenes which captured the titular character well. If course there was going to be lots of underwater battles and even talking to fish. All that was there. Trouble was, for me, there were very few scenes that weren't ripped off from better films.
A few of the many examples: young Arthur is bullied while admiring beautiful creatures behind glass, and then he communicates with said creatures and they assisted in not only thwarting the bully but helping to reveal his own powers. If that doesn't ring a bell, just rewatch the early scene from the first Harry Potter film and you'll see essentially the same scene play out. How to Train Your Dragon offers similar material, both in the long lost mother in the lost world, but also in befriending the big baddie (which even looks like the king sized dragon) to fight his battle. The display of the wonders of Atlantis, er...Pandora...is so very reminicent of Cameron's idyllic world they should have paid royalties. And the usurper to the throne, battle, disgrace, and redemption so closely resembled the central storyline of Black Panther, I wished that film was playing instead. Nearly every sequence immediately called forth another, better film, and for me, Aquaman played more as a supercut homage than an original film. Of course, common themes and tropes abound in big budget films such as this, but generally they reframe them into something new altogether. There was nearly nothing original in this film.
That is not to say it was completely devoid of entertainment. The third act was by far the strongest, despite following standard superhero format. The sea battle was exciting, though quite similar to the land battle of Avatar. The final mano a mano includes the requisite good guy fighting bad guy throwdown, just as you might expect.
In all, I felt that what promised to be a new take on a weak DC character, falls not on its vision, but in a lazy script that neither expands this character's interest, creates excitement to ever see this character again. That is a pity, because even after seeing this film, I still love Jason Momoa's Aquaman. I just wish the makers of this film did as well.