Is ‘Aquaman’ a fun, campy superhero film — or ‘a parody’ that doesn’t quite work?
CAN ‘ AQUAMAN’ break the woeful streak? The DC Extended Universe movies that star a male superhero have all been critically underwhelming. And into those perilous waters now wades James Wan’s take on the man from Atlantis.
Is Jason Momoa, in his first solo turn as the title character – following last year’s grim teamup ‘Justice League’ – cunning and charismatic enough to carry ‘Aquaman,’ which opens Dec 21?
Based on the first wave of reviews, not even the mostly critically lauded Momoa can quite save ‘Aquaman’– though he does lends the nearly 2 1/2-hour movie a great deal of sly buoyancy.
Many of these reviews note that Aquaman was played as a joke of a project a decade ago on HBO’s ‘ Entourage,’ when ‘ Titanic’s’ James Cameron played the tankhappy filmmaker willing to risk that his superhero’s tale could become a pricey, waterlogged bomb.
Fortunately, according to early reviews, Wan’s water world avoids a dismal creative fate.
Instead, many critics applaud that the visually striking ‘Aquaman’ embraces its natural sense of grinning campiness.
The Wrap hails the attempt, writing: “It’s a weird and wonderful superhero adventure that strives – and almost succeeds – to be the most epic superhero movie ever made.”
“It features gigantic battles between innocent crab people and bad guys riding armoured sharks,” the Wrap continues.
“At one point, a DayGlo rave octopus plays the drums while Aquaman fights for the throne of Atlantis in an underwater gladiator arena called ‘The Ring of Fire.’ “Vulture, too, acknowledges the degree of difficulty inherent to the attempt, writing: “’Aquaman’ is a work of camp – which it is – but I think it’s sneakily hard to pull off this kind of camp when working in such a bloated, global- concern milieu as a tentpole superhero movie. Little things threaten that crystal bubble of camp particularly Momoa’s ‘ regular dude’ one-liners, clearly meant to appease the 8-year- old boys and 8-year- old boys- at-heart in the audience, and the film’s numerous, excessively bone- crunching fight scenes.”
Many of the reviews state the script ranges anywhere from inelegant at best to ‘klutzy’ at worst – yet that doesn’t necessarily keep a merrily cheesy film down.
“If you want a real movie with real characters using something beyond a third-grade vocabulary and doing things other than getting preposterously physical in, on or near water, ‘Aquaman’ will be a very trying two and a half hours,” writes the Hollywood Reporter.
On the other hand, THR says: “’Aquaman’ is so elemental in its tall-tale telling and its concentration on royalty and the overriding significance of battle that it feels closer in nature to myth than do most comics-derived epics. This is arguably what works in its favour in comparison to most Warner Bros./DC features other than those by Christopher Nolan; even as it indulges its technical wizardry, the film is most rooted in its scenes of greeting, farewell and the clashes of titans in the ancient sense.”
Entertainment Weekly underscores that’s there’s “always been an inherent absurdity about Aquaman – telepathically communicating with fish isn’t exactly the most intimidating skill set, especially compared to his DC stablemates Batman and Superman.”
Yet, EW notes, “Momoa delivers (one) cornball quip with a Dwayne Johnson-like smirk, then whips his long hair like he’s shooting an Axe Body Spray commercial as a thick heavy metal guitar riff is struck. I laughed, but I’m still not sure if I was meant to. That pretty much sums up every minute in ... (this) DC action- comedy folly. It can’t decide if it wants to be silly or serious - a superhero movie or a parody of one.”
All this ultimately wins over the Los Angeles Times, which declares: “Notwithstanding the inevitable formulaic dialogue and a superabundance of boilerplate superhero action sequences, ‘Aquaman’ turns out to be, almost despite itself, an engaging undersea extravaganza.
“That’s because two key elements of this multipronged production work as advertised: the casting of Jason Momoa as Aquaman and Amber Heard as his fierce ally Mera, and the visual splendoUrs of Atlantis and the submerged universe it is part of.”
Still, even the visual wizardry and casting leaves some critics mostly cold.
Writes the Chicago Tribune is its pan-fried takedown of this fish tale: “Watching this movie is like spending two hours and 27 minutes staring at a gigantic aquarium full of digital sea creatures and actors on wires, pretending to swim.” — WP-Bloomberg