Superhero Media: Aquaman

Whilst the general cultural consensus among nerds is that Aquaman is one of the "good" DCU films, I find myself more in the "pretty good" camp on this one. Yes, the film looks good, for the most part, even if I find the heavy CGI a bit of an eye-strain after a while, with the design of the Atlantean technology and cultural artifacts being unique and engaging. The villains work, though I'm hardly a big fan of Ocean Master, at least they kept his name and Black Manta was pretty awesome, certainly one of my favorite villains in the DCU so far. In fact, the cast is, for the most part, excellent, with the exception being, of course, Jason Momoma as Aquaman. I don't know if it's the knowledge that he can be a very unpleasant person to his co-stars, or just simply that he has very little on-screen charisma to speak of, but Momoma is the least interesting part of the film in which he is the nominal star. Yes, I would have preferred a more regal Aquaman, but even given what the filmmakers had to work with, I'm not all that impressed with the Aquaman we got. 

Why does no one talk about Julie Andrews playing the Kraken in Aquaman? Aside from being a great scene, it's an incredible casting get and a, probably accidental, statement about the historical erasure of feminine religious rites in favour of a more militaristic and masculine culture. I've never really been one to believe that a film can be so visually interesting as to rise above poor writing, The Secret World of Arrietty being my only exception, but I have to say that Aquaman does come close in parts, there is clearly a lot of thought behind the design; Merra's jellyfish dress in the arena fight sequence is great if you just want to Google one example. Not being too familiar with "New 52" Aquaman, in my mind, I was hoping for something a little closer to Justice League Unlimited with a smattering of Batman Brave and the Bold, but the lack of deep cuts to the broader lore of the character was probably the most shocking omission. Seriously, not even a single "Outrageous!"? Not good enough. 

At the time of writing this (October 2019, blah blah backlog), Aquaman 2 has just had a provisional date confirmed, but part of me just wishes that Aquaman would remain a stand-alone film that I can go back and enjoy every now and then, like Mystery Men or Daredevil. Despite all of the shade I've been throwing here, I actually quite enjoyed Aquaman both times I've watched it so far. The dumb bits are mostly inoffensive and the good parts are quite good, I can ignore slip ups on the CGI and I would probably grab the Art/Design book if I came across it at a good price. I'm really not sure how this franchise could be improved without the removal of Momoma, he really is the weak link in what is a solid effort in the genre. I've seen a few internet commentators compare Aquaman to Black Panther, but I feel it's really more like Thor, in that it's reasonable, more than a little fantastic, and filled with brilliant design work that only film nerds seem to talk about.