Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom Review
Sapped of all the fun, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a barely coherent hodgepodge of tired film tropes and plot points, jumbled together lazily with some of the worst CGI of the year.
In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, Aquaman (Jason Momoa) faces the threat of Black Manta ( Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), as the villain seeks to destroy the superhero, his family, and Atlantis by freeing the terrifying Lost Kingdom. Aquaman teams up with his disgraced brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), freeing him from prison and journeying across the seas with him, as the duo race to catch up with Black Manta and stop his evil plan.
The first Aquaman film was an absolute blast - a mix of gorgeously bright CGI, Momoa on full sex symbol display, plenty of fun and action and banter. But this movie misses in almost every way that the original succeeded.
Let’s first look at Aquaman himself. Momoa gives a performance that hews too closely to fun jovialism, without any of the threat. Those enthralled in the last film by the brutality Aquaman had when he burst into that submarine to fight Black Manta and his father will be sorely disappointed by this toothless version of the character. Of course, Aquaman in these films has always been a bit of a joking character, subverting the overly serious DC superheroes of the last decade, but here it is pushed too far, without any of the action hero quality needed to make it work.
On the CGI front, the film is abhorrent. Visually, this is a complete dogs breakfast. The CGI looks not only worse than other films this year, but also worse than the last Aquaman. Indeed, worse than early 2000’s films. Watching Amber Heard or Nicole Kidman’s characters fight, or looking at the CGI helmet on Nicole Kidman in a council scene, pulls you straight out of the film because the animated elements are so poor.
Finally, on a plot level, this movie feels stripped from a bunch of better movies made decades prior. There is more than a hint of Lord of the Rings associated with the big bads, along with a number of other precursor films. The dialogue also is remarkably poor, with some of the least thought out lines in recent memory.
The only ray of sunshine here is the brotherly road trip vibe between Orm and Aquaman. They have a bit of banter between them and a little fun, and Patrick Wilson gives a fantastic performance that is both light and fun, but also still a threatening presence. Ultimately, it isn’t remotely enough to save this movie.
