After his appearance in the Justice League was marred by the overall acceptance of the movie, Jason Momoa was set to reprise his role as Aquaman again to tell the titular character’s origin story as well as journey to become the king of the seven seas.
Even though Justice League already showed that Jason Momoa was the perfect character for the role, Aquaman definitely proved it. You could feel every raw emotion of the character seeping through the screen to affect you. When he was cocky, scared, sad, angry or doing the haka chant and celebration, you had no choice but to feel it too.
Characters like Mera, Atlanna, Nereus, Orm, and the others all delivered on their roles perfectly and it’s safe to say that the level of acting they put up would make you wish you could be an Atlantean yourself.
Much of the movie’s epicness has to do with the awesome vision of director James Wan. Bringing the seas to life and giving us really beautiful underwater scenes, battles, and fights in a way that not many would have thought possible. The scenery, shots, action and the overall pace of the movie was something that’s definitely worthy of a good origin story. He found a way to keep you entertained at the right frequency. Even though most of the movie was CGI, James found a way of making you totally forget that fact to give you a very high-quality superhero movie and the overall progression of the story and the character development is arguably one of DC’s best to date.
If there I one thing that DC knows how to do right, it is to make good origin stories. Aquaman had a way of saturating you with the rich heritage of Atlantis, their way of living and the level of technology making you wish the city was real (if it isn’t,) so that you could go on a tour, explore, and probably live out your days in such a magnificent place (as long as you avoid the Trench territory).
Having two major villains in one story was what I initially thought would be a mistake, but it was perfectly done as it set up a sequel in the best way possible for Black Manta’s character.
Aquaman definitely stood out and on its own in terms of DC movies, without a cameo from any other hero (which would have been misplaced, should it have happened), and for all the good in this movie, I can’t think of any reason why you shouldn’t go see the movie as it is no doubt the best origin story and probably the best movie in the DCEU so far.
SCORE – 8/10
Aquaman is showing in cinemas nationwide