A Reel Review: AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM

Right up to release, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, the 15^th and final film in the current run of DC Comics movies, has been earning attention for its off-screen issues. Numerous delays, reshoots, re-editing, and the near removal of one its lead actors just about scratch the surface of the tumultuous sea that DC has been known for. All that can finally be put aside, and we can judge LOST KINGDOM for what it does on the screen. 

 

Aquaman (Jason Momoa), must enlist the help of his banished brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), to combat the efforts of the vengeful Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), who wants to not only murder Aquaman and his family, but to accelerate Earth’s climate change.

 

Directed by James Wan, LOST KINGDOM starts and ends as a bewildering journey under the sea, over the sea, through deserts, jungles, caves, ice castles and probably a lot more inbetween. The race is on to grab some ancient Atlantean artifacts which have the power to grant Black Manta what he needs to kill Aquaman and to help the Earth on its way to doom (rising seas, melting ice caps). There is a ton of mythology at work as they hop from one location to another looking for the lost something of the someone. It’s confusing, messy, and hard to care about despite the take on a real-world problem. 

 

One of the main problems that the first AQUAMAN film had was that Black Manta was playing second fiddle to bigger happenings, and every time he showed up it felt like an intrusion. This time he is the driving force, but as a villain he is dead-fish boring; I want revenge and that is as far as it goes. The character might as well be a piece of the set. 

 

But there seems to be very little sets that were actually built, as LOST KINGDOM is overloaded with CGI. While the fantastical environments definitely could not be done without the tool, it just goes on and on: CGI faces on CGI bodes, CGI whales, CGI seahorses, CGI babies, CGI hair, CGI costumes, CGI flowers, CGI bugs, and CGI cockroaches barely begin to cover it. On top of that, it’s not even very good CGI. 

 

Action scenes are a blurry mess, the dialogue is dull, and most of the actors just yell and grunt at the camera. Moments of drama and humor fall flat. The music by Rupert Gregson-Williams is non-existent. 

 

Acting is all over the place. Jason Momoa is fun but he’s basically playing a version of himself. Patrick Wilson seems lost while acting against CGI blobs. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II just yells and grunts. Seasoned actors Nicole Kidman, Temuera Morrison, and Dolph Lundgren deserve better but do okay. Martin Short comes in to provide the voice of a fat sea-slug, and John Rhys-Davies provides the voice of a big lobster. Amber Heard amounts to an extended cameo. 

 

Films based on DC Comics usually have a tough sell. After all, their primary heroes are guys in super blue tights who fly, guys who dress as bats, and dudes who talk to fishes. The super and bat guys work because there is an element of reality to them, but in LOST KINGDOM, that’s not here and the entire thing plays out like a cartoon. And the final shot of the film, which is also the final shot of this DC universe before the big reboot, is Patrick Wilson eating cockroaches. Maybe that’s how this line deserves to end. 

 

BOTTOM LINE: Fuck it