Quote:
Originally Posted by MKS
Just watched last night and I was underwhelmed. I liked Momoa in the role and there were some good bits, but it seemed like the story was put together from bits of a bunch of other movies. I really wanted to be impressed and enjoy this a lot, but my wife and I agreed with 2 out 5 stars.
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I quite agree with this assessment. I really wanted to like this movie a lot, but it came up short for me.
I really noticed the stolen tropes, and there were many. Wet Rainbow Bridge, Wet Wakandan Wonder City, Attlan's Trident (at least it was a trident this time) story = Odin and Mjolnir, Manta repurposing his white suit = Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins. Kidman's "death" and rediscovery is a direct take on both Ant Man and the Wasp and HTTYD II. it's quite an extensive list of lifted plot points. It felt at times like an odd mishmash of Thor/Black Panther/Tomb Raider/Batman Begins/Halo/Cloverfield. Also, the costume designer played waaaaay to much Skyrim in their day.
What really put me off the bandwagon for this movie, though, was the underwater sequences, which really are the main point of an Aquaman movie to begin with. I think this is where they truly and appallingly messed up. Yes, there was a boatload of underwater action and yes, the floaty people and the hair were reasonably well done. However, the two glaring inconsistencies that pervaded the underwater scenes were, IMO, unforgivable. First was the utter and ridiculous proliferation of explosions that were present. Above or below the surface, every fukkin thing in this movies blew up spectacularly. I hadn't realized it was a Michael Bay film til half way through. The incessant fiery underwater explosions and unrealistic portrayal of lava and water interacting were just too much for me to maintain my suspension of disbelief.
Second, and more offputting to me, was the colour pallette chosen for the underwater sets. WAAAAY too saturated!!! By magnitudes! Colours get muted very quickly over distance underwater, and yet every underwater shot in the movie was like watching fireworks and Christmas lights. I can live with interior shots, the Atlanteans obviously would have lighting of some sort, but the ocean floor sequences were hard to watch between the bright colours and the overall crowding that also diminished from the visual enjoyment of the water scenes.
Overall, I did enjoy the movie. I'm glad DC finally got a hit. However, I can only give it a 6 or 6.5 on 10 due to the several and prominent bad decisions that drew me out of the movie.
