'Aquaman': James Wan Unleashes An Overblown But Entertaining Visual Spectacle From The Depths Of A Goofy Imagination [Review]

Crashing down like a relentless tsunami that has vomited out every colorful sea creature from the ocean depths, the stranger and weirder the better, Warner Bros.’ “Aquaman” is a sight to behold. The DC superhero film following “Justice League” and “Wonder Woman” is a soap opera supernova of overblown melodrama that’s incredibly goofy and garishly designed. It’s go for broke, it’s insane and subtlety is not anywhere within its vocabulary. It’s not a good movie per se, featuring risible dialogue, acting, plot, story, intention, with some of the most egregiously ugly design choices in recent memory in terms of costumes, hair, color and more, but it can be at times, undeniably entertaining, and at the very least, never ever dull. “Aquaman” is empty-headed and as dumb as the lead character it constantly mocks as an imbecile (an amusing touch), but it possesses the capacity to thrill, and awe nonetheless. And honestly, audiences will love this above all.

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Directed by James Wan, known for his horror films like “The Conjuring” and “Insidious,” the Malaysian-born Australian filmmaker seems to borrow more from his experience mounting the ridiculously overblown “Fast And Furious” franchise film “Furious 7,” as much of the film is ludicrous, silly and extravagantly excessive in style, scope, and scale.

“Aquaman” centers on the titular character also known as Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa, serviceable at best), a half-breed human/Atlantean and reluctant king and hero. Two threads lead the story that eventually tie together: a high-seas mercenary named Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, semi-functional) seeking revenge on the hero and the epic battle against his bitter, power-hungry half-brother, Orm (a histrionic Patrick Wilson), who seeks to unite the seven underwater kingdoms and wage war on the surface world human of Earth.

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Before the movie can begin in earnest, it features a fairy-tale-like prologue—utilizing poorly written, tin-eared voiceover— to explain how Queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman, well paid to appear) and Aquaman’s lighthouse keeping dad (Temuera Morrison) fell in love, conceived of the young boy Arthur, but were ultimately torn apart as a family; Atlanna forced to abandon her family and return to Atlantis in order to ensure Arthur’s safety from the unforgiving Atlanteans. Arthur grows up without a mother and grows into the bro-y, beer-swilling, not-too-bright dude hero first fleshed out in “Justice League.” And while Arthur’s heroic actions on land are turning him into a social media phenomenon, trouble is brewing below the surface as Orm schemes to manipulate the other undersea tribes in order to become the Ocean Master that will rule them all.

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Throughout the picture and while employing dubious amounts of terrible exposition—including conversations where characters spell out all of Aquaman’s swimming and breathing powers— “Aquaman” flashes back to Arthur’s youth and how Atlanna’s loyal advisor Nuidis Vulko (Willem Dafoe) was entrusted with the mission of secretly training Arthur to become an Atlantean warrior (her fate something of a legend that the movie will explain to you itself).

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Arthur eventually crosses paths with the Atlantean princess Mera (Amber Heard, wearing 2018’s worst wig). Understanding his empathy for humans and fearful of the brewing war and the casualties it will cost, she entreats Aquaman to step forward to be a hero, lead his people, and stop Orm’s despotic plan. This would be more than enough to fill th story, but “Aquaman” is so much movie and the picture also transforms into an adventure quest movie where Arthur must find the ancient super trident that could unite all of the underwater people.

To that end, “Aquaman,” which runs two and a half hours, feels like an endless sprawl and one that combines seemingly dozens of genres, styles, and pictures. Much of the underwater scenes in Atlantis are a cross between a gaudy and dated techno rave from the ’90s, what George Lucas made with the Gungan sequences of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” and the bio-luminescence of James Cameron‘s “Avatar” (and the inane gaucherie of “Final Fantasy“). Scenes in the Sahara—where Aquaman and Mera jump out of a plane for seemingly no reason—meant to be like “Indiana Jones” ends up feeling like something much cornier akin to Brendan Fraser’sThe Mummy.” The globe-trotting odyssey, high on cool locales, also takes the duo to Sicily, Italy where audiences are delivered with a two-fer of hilariously cheesy romance and action sequences that look like “The Power Rangers” just burst into the movie, silly kung-fu kicks and dayglow lasers and all. Other moments of the movie have a kind of overwrought “Lord Of The Rings” like fantasy movie magniloquence, but of course, this being Wan, with no sense of nuance, always dialed up to 11 (much like everything else throughout the entire movie).

The crucial trait of “Aquaman,” at least for the discerning viewer, is how confounding “Aquaman” can be. Its loud and kitschy fluorescence style is a big eye-sore that defines the entire picture narratively and visually, and yet Wan still makes the movie look awe-inspiring. Wan has absolutely no sense of taste, but he has a grand sense of scale and he leverages that throughout to great effect. The VFX are strangely cheap and lurid, but the sequences he orchestrates, often absurd, but imaginative are irrefutably epic.

So much of “Aquaman” is bombastic and overwrought, especially its hilariously overstuffed third act battle which just rains down massively-sized spectacle on top of massive-sized spectacle with absolutely no restraint or end in sight. That said, it’s often still entertaining and audiences look for a pure thrill ride should love this movie the same way they loved “Avatar” (I will not be surprised if this movie makes mega-money). James Cameron and Peter Jackson and their sense of grand visions seem to be Wan’s driving influence coupled with his ‘Fast & Furious’-esque tendency to overdo absolutely every moment. “Titanic” seems to be a big cue too including Celine Dion‘s overbearing, tacky, but soaring music (which the score borrows from while crashing musically into a madcap EDM ecstasy and Burning Man gathering; nothing about it is ever tasteful).

None of the actors do much, nor is Momoa much of a leading man, but acting, words and such are sort of beside the point in this movie, though it’s amusing to see actors puffing up with Shakespearean grandeur only to find Aquaman defusing their pretentiousness with a retort about how much of a “dick” they’re being (these scenes work on multiple levels, pompously ornate on their own, but funny and doofusly enjoyable, even when you’re laughing at it).

“Aquaman” generally doesn’t make a lick of sense (the heroes constantly take boats and undersea vehicles even though we’re told they can essentially rocket around everyone by swimming at insane speeds), but one supposes it’s not meant to. This is a comic book superhero movie that embraces everything inane about comic books, and then decides to stuff them in regardless of whether they fit together aesthetically or not without apology. “Aquaman” even has a sense of pride about its goofiness and poor style choices however misguided, and that’s kind of admirable. Manta and his unintentionally hilarious (or maybe intentional?) over-sized helmet looks so comedically ludicrous, but one can just imagine Wan laughing with glee, exclaiming, “It’s just as f*cking dumb as the comics! Look how comics-accurate it is!”

This confidence in tacky wackiness is perhaps what makes “Aquaman” ultimately a success. It’s like the toddler that wants to dress like a princess clown hobo and it’s having such a fun time playing dress up, who are you to shit on its enjoyable parade? This visually clumsy and gauche, but spectacular movie knows what it wants to be when it grows up for better or worse. [C]