Aquaman et le Royaume perdu

Going to this film, I expected little to nothing after hearing how awful people thought it was. To my surprise, it wasn't that bad and I actually enjoyed this film. It wasn't without its problems, but I was pretty satisfied with it being what it was.

The cons of this film are mainly dialogue and CGI. There are all of these cheesy lines that you would expect to hear and one line jokes at the end of a scene, almost like you are watching a sitcom series. Jason Mamoa as an actor has charisma and knows how to steal the show. But unlike the first Aquaman, here it feels as if he's just playing himself. There is no real depth to Arthur's (Jason Mamoa) arc, by the end he is still this punk cool guy which is fine but really nothing else.

Here you have two villains. Black manta who was alright but ultimately fell short and then this monstrosity named Kordax who honestly looks like a power ranger villain, it's rough. The problem here for me is that this could've been an exciting hunt movie where Black Manta is just wreaking havoc on Arthurs life, without all of the supposed fleshing out of this universe.

CGI here was just bad. Didn't look real or feel real. What's funny is that if you go back ten years or so, where the technology wasn't near what it is today, you have all these high- budget blockbuster films that are just beautiful. What happened?

Now for what I did like. The biggest pro in my opinion is the Arthur and Orm dynamic. They have this wonderful chemistry and it turned out to have a heartwarming send off to Orm's character. I think Patrick Wilson is great as Orm. His character had a redemption arc which I just loved.

The action here was also fun. There is a scene between Arthur and Black Manta where they are fighting with their tridents which was intense. Another sequence I had a really great time with was when Arthur breaks Orm out of prison. Quite a few jokes landed for me too.

This film is a mess and yet has its moments. I finished the film thinking to myself "Wow, don't judge a book by its cover". Give this a shot, you might also enjoy this enough. It sums up to a brotherly fun adventure movie, without taking it too seriously.

If this movie came out a long time ago it would have been great. But the superhero age is over and we are tired of the same old stuff. Aquaman requires Avatar level Graphics. You can't do aquaman on a budget because it looks cheesy and fake. Acting by Momoa is great as usual. The brother thing worked well. But like i said it's all been done a hundred times now. The worst part is that these studios aren't getting the point. You need a script that's original. CGI has to look real and good. There's no real audience for this stuff anymore. But the companies don't seem to get it, I guess they'll keep doing them until there bankrupt. Oh well.

Aquaman 2 is a disappointment movie. The plot is so banal and predictable that you can understand practically the entire story from the first minutes of the film.

The story is full of clichés and repetitive situations.

The characters are even more banal than the plot. Aquaman is a generic hero and Orm is a two-dimensional villain.

The special effects are spectacular, but they're the only decent thing.

It's not a film I recommend. If you liked the first Aquaman, go and see this second film, but if you didn't like the first Aquaman film or didn't like it very much, then forget about Aquaman 2 too, because you won't even like this second film, this second film is inferior to the first film.

Rating: 5/10 Format: Regular Theatre

A script that doesn't have any story to hold it tight together. It's a very interesting story that discusses many aspects like family, brotherhood, fatherhood, and leadership. But, perhaps this was its core problem, that it was trying to be so many things at the same time. At times i didn't know where the story was heading which made the story jump from discussing topics like fatherhood to an adventure with two brothers who had beef in their past. The film is unfortunately a typical superhero film in terms of expecting what's coming next from events, and sequences.

On top of that and with all the chaos, the film re-discusses the villain's story which revolves around his revenge but it was so weak comparing to how it was in the first film. I didn't feel his presence nor i felt his evilness. He was suppose to be much stronger here but i barely felt him. The film also brings back old characters that just all of a sudden showed up in some sequences to save the day and be the superhero of the act which felt so weird because they came out of nowhere.

The film's CGI is okay at most times. It's defiantly not as good as the first one but it is for sure better than most of the MCU's latest projects this year like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023). The cinematography unfortunately got downgraded which is something that I was anticipated for especially after seeing the first part. But I felt like there was no room for that because of how messy the sequences and story was especially that we were jumping between the past and present a lot and from one place to another.

Not to mention, the whole last sequence of the film was so good in terms of the action sequences and grabbing the audience's attention. Really got me hooked and interested and wished if the rest was like that.

So many aspects of this movie are a complete mixed bag:

1) Half of the comedy is really funny, the other half made me roll my eyes.

2) Some of the one-liners are good, some made me cringe.

3) A lot of the action is so cool, a lot is a screen full of gibberish.

4) There are so many beautiful shots and visuals, and also horribly cartoonish CGI like in The Flash.

5) I enjoyed the musical score, but it doesn't reach the level of Black Adam's. And I wasn't a fan of using classic rock tracks for a lighter tone, something we're more likely to see in a Marvel movie.

6) Half the time I was invested, the other half I was unengaged and didn't care.

I had an okay time wit this movie. It benefits from IMAX with the expanded aspect ratio for the entire movie. But in the biggest IMAX around, there were a total of 8 people in my theater. DC seems to have alienated its die-hard fans.

(1 viewing, opening Thursday IMAX 12/21/2023)