Christmas morning my sweetie-wife and I ventured to local AMC multiplex and caught the first showing of Aquaman  the next release in the DC cinematic universe. Over all I, like many but not all, have been disappointed by the feature Warner Brothers have released in their effectors to catch up with Marvel’s Cinematic Universe. Essentially most of the prior films have two principal failing, firstly they do not take the time to tell a good story first and set up the deep mythology second and secondly they often deeply violate the nature of the characters, particularly in the case of Superman. The decision to rush into Justice League  without establishing films in advance such as Marvel did with Avengers  hampered the audiences anticipation, if you are asking ‘who is that?’ then you are very interested in seeing that character as part of a team up film, and it saddled Justice League  with character introductions that ate up valuable screen time.

So with all that said how did Aquaman  do?

It was okay.

Not as terrible as Man of Steel  or the even worse Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice  but not as tight and fun as WB’s breakout hit of the DCEU Wonder Woman. Aquamanserves as the origin story of the title character, Arthur Curry, who father was a human and mother was from an ancient race the Atlantians and their Queen. Now after the events of Justice League  Arthur finds himself drawn into the political machinations of Atlantis as his half-brother, King Orm, seeks to unites the fractured undersea nations in order to launch a war with the human race. Assisted by Princess Mera and a royal adviser Vulko, Arthur embarks on quest for an ancient device that will allow him to claim the throne, mastery of the seas, and prevent that coming war. During his quest Curry is forced to grapple with the consequence of his decisions and his own emotional scars.

Over all the core concepts of the story hold together and had real promise but in execution they felt a bit flat and invoked a bit of a plot coupon adventure. (That’s a story where the characters have to get items A, B, & C, and once that is done they can turn them in for a resolution.) The film has all the hallmarks of being the combination of various scripts with the elements not always melding together well. Where Wonder Woman  told a story if Diana’s lose of innocence and that is the thematic core of the film, Aquaman has thematic core and as such feels bloated and overstuffed. The direct is fine, the action fast paced and interesting, the actors all do anywhere from competent to good jobs and things progress in a logical fashion so the film is not bad or even flawed but for me it lacks emotional weight. It has a strong plot, characters need to achieve this to avoid a disastrous outcome and in that respect it can be compared to most movies of the Bond franchise but it is light on story. Arthur make no difficult choices, he as a person is not tested by the situation nor does he discover a truth about himself or life that prompts character growth, aside from titles and powers, he departs the story the same person that entered it.

This movie is certainly a ‘your mileage may vary’ piece, as we reached the climatic ending of the movie there were cheers in the audience but not a lot of them. I do not regret going out to see the film but nor can I heartily recommend it to anyone.