If ever existed a superhero movie that felt produced out of obligation, ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ is it.
It’s not a totally terrible film. It’s not an entirely awful sequel. And, while it nowhere near reaches the heights (or, given the marine vibe, should I say ‘surface’) of the first film featuring this particular character, it’s certainly not a lousy superhero movie…..shoot, it’s not even the worst superhero offering that the DC Universe served up during the 2023 calendar year.
But it IS a bit of a mess. And, if this is indeed game over for the current DC universe on the big screen, it’s a sad way to end things. But at least Momoa gets to ride a digitally created seahorse, so yeah….there’s that.
The story has Aquaman (Jason Momoa) struggling with balancing his duties on land as a new daddy with his gig under the sea as King of Atlantis. It doesn’t get any better when Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) resurfaces with a renewed quest for vengeance. Having uncovered a mystical black trident which not only gives him dark powers but also threatens the future of Atlantis (and, in a roundabout way, earth in general), Black Manta looks to squash our hero and run the show. The only option for Aquaman is to hit up his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), who has been imprisoned since the events of the first movie.
While the underwater scrap between our brave sibling heroes and Black Manta is a fiery one, it isn’t near as passionate as the producers pounding away at the script with an environmental message every opportunity they get. Good intentions, sure. But of all things you expect an Aquaman sequel to be, a motion picture with an overbearing agenda ain’t one of them.
It’s as if the multitude of off-camera hoops they had to jump (sorry, SWIM) through to get this thing in theatres overwhelmed everything about it and it arrived exhausted. Come to think of it, with all that preceded post-production…..from co-star Amber Heard’s legal circus to the collapse of DC’s roster….the making OF ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’ would probably be a lot more entertaining THAN ‘Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom’. Now THERE’S something I’d be exicted to see.