Aquaman – Movie Review

Following the events of Justice League, Aquaman, aka Arthur Curry, (Jason Momoa) is reunited with his father (Temuera Morrison) before being persuaded by Mera (Amber Heard) to help stop a brewing war between the water and surface worlds.

Arthur spends a fair amount of the film finding his powers and his confidence as a king and a hero, albeit being a very confident and pugnacious character right from the start, he’s not really confident as a king and a hero until later on.

Jason Momoa owns every scene he’s in, assisted by Amber Heard in a role that’s entirely warrior princess and zero damsel in distress. She’s a big part of the action, the adventure, and in helping to bring peace and stopping Orm from destroying everything.

Additionally, Mera has the unique ability to form “hard water” objects, as well as super strength and powers related to her adaptation to living underwater. In some scenes, she is shown to be powerful enough to control, albeit briefly, huge amounts of water, to attack and defend.

Arthur’s half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), is fuelled by an extreme hatred for the older brother he never met and an obsession to control the underwater world and secure his place as King of the seven realms of the ocean, hence becoming the Ocean Master.

Orm is however not the only villain in the movie. David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), a mercenary turned villain after Aquaman causes the death of this father, allies with Orm and uses Atlantean technology to battle the hero. Atlantean weapons combined with special equipment to create a battle suit designed to combat his mortal enemy turns him into Black Manta.

The movie is not restricted to the kingdom of Atlantis, it takes Aquaman from the sands of the Sahara to the rooftops of a Sicilian fishing village, and from the glowing pinnacles of Atlantis to a deep-sea world in the quest for the lost legendary trident of Atlantis.

The director, James Wan creates a visually stunning and vibrant world unseen before, but it still included familiar nods to other superhero films that precede it. The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously and, in this case, that strategy worked. By the end of the movie, you are rooting for Arthur to lean into the destiny that he was always meant to live.