Aquaman. (12A.)
Directed by James Wan.
Starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Defoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman. 143 mins. ***
Italian food may be among the best in the world, but it's range is limited: it's pasta or pizza, pizza or pasta. Similarly, with DC comics it's Batman or Superman; Superman or Batman, with Wonder Woman fulfilling the lasagne position. While the Wonderful World of Marvel has more Avengers than it knows what to do with, the Justice League movie demonstrated that outside of their big name characters, there's a real big drop off. But Marvel has a cinematic universe so DC and the Brothers Warner must have one too. Which means that they are obliged to bring the story of Arthur Curry/ aka Aquaman, their musclebound fish whisperer, to the big screen.
On the land he may be Arthur Curry, but in the sea he's all Aquaman. (Now, there's a tagline for the poster.) The mix race child of a lighthouse keeper (Morrison) and the absconded Queen of Atlantis (Kidman), the grown up Arthur is happy to bob along doing the odd bit of maritime superheroing even though he is the rightful heir to the Atlantis throne. But when his halfbrother decides to declare war on the land, flame haired mer-temptress Mera (Heard) pops up in a low cut top to lure him down to the kingdom.
Right at the start there is a little nod to Gerry Anderson's Stingray, the 60s submarine adventure that simulated underwater adventure by filming puppets dangled in front of fishtanks. Unsophisticated, but effective and preferable to the Aquaman approach which is to throw lots of CGI at it, accompanied by a little more CGI, before being top off a sprinkle of CGI. Of course, a story where large portions take place deep under the sea with water breathing characters is a real challenge. In the TV series Entourage, the Aquaman film was made by James Cameron and you'd imagine he'd need a budget equivalent to all the money made by Avatar to produce a film that would live up to his exacting standards. Still, like most of the other DC films, this doesn't give you much visually to get hold of. All this Seegeeye mush just brushes across your eyes without leaving a mark. There is a punch up/ chase sequence in Sicily that looks like it was shot on location, and it stands out because something actually seems to be happening.
Ultimately, not being a top table comicbook character is Aquaman's big plus. If you make a duff, or even just merely adequate, Batman or Superman film people are likely to get tres uppity about it, proper indignant. Aside from a few overly concerned individuals, audiences don't have much riding on Aquaman other than the price of the ticket and snacks, and two hours twenty three minutes of their time. Adequate is likely to be satisfactory. It's no great shakes, it isn't Wonder Woman, but it is fun and jolly, and unlike most of the other DC comic book adaptions (Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman, Suicide Squad, Justice League) it seems happy in its own skin, aware and content with its limitations.
We should give some credit to Mr Momoa in the title role. He may not be the kind of actor who struggles with the theories of Stanislavski, but he is a real trooper. Many years ago I was at a screening in central London of his film Conan The Barbarian, which he attended wearing a top hat that made him look the spitting image of Slash, the guitarist from Guns'n'Roses, and he sat and watched with the audience. Accustomed to noisier, more demonstrative American audiences, he tried to chivvy along us silent, attentive Brits with a few spoken interjections while the film was playing, such as “I rock.” when his Conan butchered someone. It was, of course, excruciatingly embarrassing, but also quite endearing, because you can see he really loved it. Most actors soon find stardom a strain and you can see the bigger, more credible names in the cast, holding their nose as they try to get through it. Momoa though couldn't be happier and is pathetically grateful for whatever level of stardom he can get. You wouldn't begrudge him it because he has a great skill for communicating his happiness with audiences.
Directed by James Wan.
Starring Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Willem Defoe, Patrick Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Temuera Morrison and Nicole Kidman. 143 mins. ***
Italian food may be among the best in the world, but it's range is limited: it's pasta or pizza, pizza or pasta. Similarly, with DC comics it's Batman or Superman; Superman or Batman, with Wonder Woman fulfilling the lasagne position. While the Wonderful World of Marvel has more Avengers than it knows what to do with, the Justice League movie demonstrated that outside of their big name characters, there's a real big drop off. But Marvel has a cinematic universe so DC and the Brothers Warner must have one too. Which means that they are obliged to bring the story of Arthur Curry/ aka Aquaman, their musclebound fish whisperer, to the big screen.
On the land he may be Arthur Curry, but in the sea he's all Aquaman. (Now, there's a tagline for the poster.) The mix race child of a lighthouse keeper (Morrison) and the absconded Queen of Atlantis (Kidman), the grown up Arthur is happy to bob along doing the odd bit of maritime superheroing even though he is the rightful heir to the Atlantis throne. But when his halfbrother decides to declare war on the land, flame haired mer-temptress Mera (Heard) pops up in a low cut top to lure him down to the kingdom.
Right at the start there is a little nod to Gerry Anderson's Stingray, the 60s submarine adventure that simulated underwater adventure by filming puppets dangled in front of fishtanks. Unsophisticated, but effective and preferable to the Aquaman approach which is to throw lots of CGI at it, accompanied by a little more CGI, before being top off a sprinkle of CGI. Of course, a story where large portions take place deep under the sea with water breathing characters is a real challenge. In the TV series Entourage, the Aquaman film was made by James Cameron and you'd imagine he'd need a budget equivalent to all the money made by Avatar to produce a film that would live up to his exacting standards. Still, like most of the other DC films, this doesn't give you much visually to get hold of. All this Seegeeye mush just brushes across your eyes without leaving a mark. There is a punch up/ chase sequence in Sicily that looks like it was shot on location, and it stands out because something actually seems to be happening.
Ultimately, not being a top table comicbook character is Aquaman's big plus. If you make a duff, or even just merely adequate, Batman or Superman film people are likely to get tres uppity about it, proper indignant. Aside from a few overly concerned individuals, audiences don't have much riding on Aquaman other than the price of the ticket and snacks, and two hours twenty three minutes of their time. Adequate is likely to be satisfactory. It's no great shakes, it isn't Wonder Woman, but it is fun and jolly, and unlike most of the other DC comic book adaptions (Man of Steel, Batman Vs Superman, Suicide Squad, Justice League) it seems happy in its own skin, aware and content with its limitations.
We should give some credit to Mr Momoa in the title role. He may not be the kind of actor who struggles with the theories of Stanislavski, but he is a real trooper. Many years ago I was at a screening in central London of his film Conan The Barbarian, which he attended wearing a top hat that made him look the spitting image of Slash, the guitarist from Guns'n'Roses, and he sat and watched with the audience. Accustomed to noisier, more demonstrative American audiences, he tried to chivvy along us silent, attentive Brits with a few spoken interjections while the film was playing, such as “I rock.” when his Conan butchered someone. It was, of course, excruciatingly embarrassing, but also quite endearing, because you can see he really loved it. Most actors soon find stardom a strain and you can see the bigger, more credible names in the cast, holding their nose as they try to get through it. Momoa though couldn't be happier and is pathetically grateful for whatever level of stardom he can get. You wouldn't begrudge him it because he has a great skill for communicating his happiness with audiences.
