Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Starring: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard, Dolph Lundgren, Nicole Kidman, Randall Park, Martin Short, and John Rhys-Davies
Grade: C+

You would think David Kane making a deal with the devil would make Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom scarier, but for some reason, they go in the complete opposite direction to unsatisfactory results.

Summary

Riding his seahorse Storm, Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Momoa) appears just in time to save a boat disrupted by pirates. As he narrates over the fight sequence where he beats the hell out of all of the bad guys on board, we cut back-and-forth between this and Curry detailing the story to his little baby Arthur Jr. back at home. As he acts things out with action figures, Arthur gets a little too excited and kicks the chair his father Tom (Temuera Morrison) is in. It’s been four years since the events of the first Aquaman. Since then, he’s married Queen Mera (Heard), and they had Arthur Jr. together. Through a montage we see Mera giving birth in the ocean with Arthur’s mother Atlanna (Kidman) helping with the delivery of the child, Arthur himself fighting crime as the King of Atlantis, and getting to see him kick his half-brother Orm’s (Wilson) ass one more time. Despite how important his victory was over Orm when he stopped him from attacking the Surface World and claiming the throne, Arthur is bored with the politics that comes with being king. Most of the job consists of meetings and such, and it’s just not his style. On top of this, the Council of Houses shoots down anything Arthur wants to do as king, and it has become frustrating. The only thing that is getting him through it all is Arthur Jr. and getting to go out on missions to beat the hell out of sea monsters and the like.

The Curry family still resides in Maine at the lighthouse, and Arthur’s father Tom stays with him. As he opens the fridge to grab a couple of cans of Guiness, in a fridge that only consists of Guiness and milk for the baby, Tom suggests Arthur have another kid, so Arthur Jr. isn’t lonely. Arthur isn’t too keen on the idea, bringing up his relationship with Orm as to why. The two are interrupted by Arthur Jr. showcasing his ability to talk to fish as well, using his mind to communicate with the goldfish in the water tank across from his highchair. Of course, Arthur is ecstatic to see that his son carries this gene. In Antarctica, David Kane/Black Manta (Abdul-Mateen II) and Dr. Stephen Shin (Park) are working together with a team of scientists behind them. As you may remember, Shin rescued Kane in the mid-credits scene at the end of Aquaman. A scarred Kane comes back inside the camp where they tell him that Shin’s most recent coordinates have been cross-referenced, but they still show no signs of Atlantean remnants under the ice. Still wanting revenge for the death of his father, Kane demands they check again because he can feel they’re close. Somewhere in Antarctica, Shin is by himself recording a mission log, acknowledging that Kane is losing patience with him. If he doesn’t find Atlantean technology soon, something bad will happen. Even so, Shin is trying to stay positive. Once he exits his vehicle at a new testing site, a colleague of his tells him that the seismic array of the area they are standing on is going crazy. As Shin looks at the details, the landscape’s ground starts to crack into massive holes. The two try running away, but they fall into a split in the ground, landing in a cave of sorts. When they try to gather themselves, the truck that Shin arrived in falls through the cracks and almost lands on them.

Next, a massive serpent-like creature breaks the ice in the cave they are in. Right after Shin transmits a signal for help, his colleague is taken by the creature and killed.

Sometime after, Kane leads a team to grab Shin, and he leads them further into the cave area under the ice. He tells the others that his readings are big enough to potentially be an Atlantean ship. If it is, they might be able to scavenge the tech used to fix the Black Manta suit. Once they get to a river inside, Kane tells Shin to suit up because the tracks of the monster lead there. The whole team goes underwater and see more and more of lost Atlantean artifacts of an unknown kind, with Shin even coming face to face with a skeleton in the ice. Finally, the sea creature from earlier bursts through an ice wall and starts attacking all of them. During this attack, Kane falls to the sea floor and stumbles upon the Black Trident, a trident with a green color surging through it. It contains the soul of Kordax (Pilou Asbæk), and he promises to help Kane with his goal of revenge if Kane frees him from his “prison”. Eventually, Shin saves Kane from this vision he gets of the whole thing and brings him back outside of the water. However, Kane soon grabs the Black Trident, and the green is seen coursing through his eyes. Five months later, an extraordinary rise in temperature is happening globally. Arthur is holding Arthur Jr, and they’re both sleeping. Mera wakes him up to say that the Council has called for an emergency gathering because there has been another plague outbreak. At the Council of Atlantis, Arthur is told the newest plague hit at the Ninth Tride of Atlantis, and there are reports of outbreaks hitting the Fishermen Kingdom as well. Since there haven’t been outbreaks like this in centuries, Mera asks why it’s happening now.

Well, it’s science really. Increased oxygen acidity, decreased oxygen levels, toxic algal blooms and other stuff have all contributed. Led by Karshon (Indya Moore), the Council makes it known that the surface has been poising the atmosphere for over a century.

Arthur makes a very good point, arguing that they can’t expect the surface dwellers to care if they don’t know they exist. If they want to be a part of the conversation, Atlantis has to reveal themselves to the surface. Of course, the Council of Atlantis are not too happy at this suggestion, but Arthur argues they could reverse the situation if they combine their technology with the work of surface scientists. Karshon counters with how Arthur’s own mentor was killed by the surface, and she doubles down by saying they made Orm the Ocean Master for a reason. If they were to reveal themselves to the surface, it would be to eradicate them, not co-exist. At the same time Arthur has another inspiring conversation with Tom, and he tries to encourage Arthur to continue to truck along and work towards uniting Atlantis, Kane and Shin are still somewhere in the Atlantic and they’re driving the ancient Atlantean ship they found. It’s old and rickety, but it’s still more powerful than anything the surface could ever make. All Shin did was retrofit the ship to their needs. The only issue is they require a specialized fuel to keep them running, Orichalcum. They didn’t know this beforehand, but Kane found this out the day he acquired the Black Trident, according to Shin’s mission log. It gave Kane the answers to secrets he couldn’t possibly know beforehand including how to obtain Orichalcum, stealing it from highly protected storage vaults. Once they get to a certain point, Kane takes a three-man octobot infiltration team out in search of it, and he’s wearing his new, fully reconstructed Black Manta gear. The team go in separate pods, and they drop into the water. They only have 15 minutes to get in and out. The goal is to avoid any confrontation because they are outnumbered, but Shin has to remind Kane of this, who doesn’t respond.

Once the three are able to break into the Orichalcum Storage Vault, an octopus guard spots them and swims back to warn Atlantis.

As they load up on Orichalcum, the alarms are set off and Kane asks for an immediate extraction. As their main ship goes to their battle stations, Shin is vindicated for a moment as he finally sees the border of the Kingdom of Atlantis. Right after, Atlantean border guards are ordered to shoot at them by Mera, but they are blocked by the shield of Shin’s ship. He frantically fires back at the Atlantean cannons and forces the cannons downwards and it shoots into oncoming traffic, taking out a few random ships. Kane orders the two guys with him to split up once they see the Atlanteans charging at them. The Atlanteans are led by Mera and Atlanna. During a chase, Kane takes out Atlanna momentarily. When he looks to be stopped by Mera, who breaks open his pod when she gets close, he fires at her from his Black Manta helmet and sends her about a thousand yards across the city. Shin calls in and tells David they’re at the extraction point and the Orichalcum is safe and onboard. Even so, Kane goes to kill Mera first, prompting Arthur to swoop in just in time. Finally, Black Manta gets Aquaman! However, they only get to fight for a moment, as Shin is adamant they leave now because the entire Atlantean army is coming their way. To stall for time, Kane knocks down a ship containing a bunch of sea creatures, and it forces Arthur to save them instead. Once he does, Kane swims towards his ship. Arthur is hot on his tail and almost gets to his ship until Kane has them fire the sonic cannon at him, knocking Arthur completely out.

Later, Karshon calls an emergency meeting for the High Council to discuss a motion to strip the throne of its executive power. Arguing that Arthur spends half of his time on land and how his surface enemies have followed him to Atlantis, she’s got a pretty good argument. As she digs deep with comments about how if he can’t protect his own family how will he protect Atlantis, Arthur visits Mera in the hospital. Meeting with Atlanna and King of Xebel in Nereus (Lundgren), Arthur talks about the new threat in Black Manta. He acknowledges how much stronger he is now and how Kane can fight him without the suit, though I’m not sure how he would know this since he hasn’t proven it to Arthur, but I digress. Atlanna says the technology Kane has is ancient, but it’s never been seen before, and Nereus says Kane’s weapon fired an ultrasonic energy that disrupts the nervous system. Next, they discuss the Orichalcum stolen, with Atlanna explaining how it was a power source used in ancient times, it emits a tremendous amount of greenhouse gases that are highly destructive to the planet which is why they stopped using it, and it can’t be disposed of safely, so the remaining stockpile has been buried in 12 storage vaults underground. All of it is now gone, so Nereus thinks they’ve been launching secret raids for at least five months. Arthur makes the connection of the rising of global temperatures bothering the surface dwellers and how it too started around five months ago. Arthur thinks Kane is using the stolen Orichalcum to “heat the planet”, but he’s not sure why. If this is true, they don’t have much time. Atlanna thinks a global climate meltdown maybe imminent. They have to find Kane, but he’s vanished from their radar.

Arthur suggests that Orm may be the one to help him since he’s contacted Kane before. Though Nereus doesn’t think the Fisherman will ever let Arthur talk to Orm because he killed their king. Atlanna agrees, saying that Atlantis cannot extract Orm from an allied nation because it would be an act of war. Arthur doesn’t care. He isn’t asking for permission, nor will he involve Atlantis. He plans on breaking Orm out of prison himself. Atlanna brings up how this only helps Karshon’s argument to seize war powers and he will be nothing more than a figurehead if he goes through with it, but Arthur sees these types of missions as his purpose and cannot be talked out of it. Seeing this, Nereus stresses that if anything is found out or he is caught, it will tear the kingdoms apart. Arthur agrees, so he asks for Nereus’s help in not getting caught. With this, Nereus goes through the details with him. Xebelian intelligence has learned that Orm is being held in a secret, one-of-a-kind underground facility. They’re assuming no sea-dweller would ever dare cross the desert. Of course, Arthur can’t be scared away from a challenge like this. He’s a given a suit in which the chromatophores change color and camouflage him for up to a minute, making him undetectable for most sensors. Since open comms are too risky, Atlanna sends a cephalopod with him as a messenger. It’s an octopus named TOPO (Tactical Operations and Pursuit Operative). TOPO has genetically engineered intelligence for infiltration and espionage, and he can play a variety of musical instruments. Evidently, TOPO is a cheeky one and squirts ink in Arthur’s face once the two get inside the Desert Prison within the Fisherman Territory.

Soon after, they are faced with Deserter remnants who guard the prison. They are death-worshipping ascetics who survived when the Sahara went dry by turning to blood for sustenance. If they catch Arthur, they’ll bleed him dry. Orm is held inside his own cell and is very weak, as the Deserter remnants are limiting his water supply just enough to keep him alive. When the guards go into his cell just to beat the fuck out of him for no reason, TOPO finds the turnstile and opens it, allowing for Arthur to bust in and clean house. He explains the situation to Orm on why he’s breaking him out. Though Orm knows they can’t break the treaty with the Fishermen Kingdom and is reluctant, he decides to go with Arthur once the alarms go off. Regardless, he makes it clear this doesn’t change anything between them. The two escape on some wild Deserter animals and bust all the way through back to the surface. Then, they get separated by two groups of Deserter remnants as they chase both men. With every last bit of energy, Orm makes it to the shore and the water of the ocean washes over him as the Deserter remnants get to him. With this wave of water flashing over him, Orm is now super-powered back to his old self and wipes them all out. Plus, he saves Arthur in the midst of his battle too. Seeing the rest of the Deserters coming their way, Arthur, Orm, and Topo run and jump right back into the ocean and head straight for Atlantis.

Though the brothers are still at odds, the greater threat of Black Manta and the potential destruction of the world has brought them together. It’s time to save the planet!

My Thoughts:

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was not the sorry ass sequel that fans and media alike have painted it as being. Unfortunately, DC Studios has a black cloud hanging over their heads and it engulfs every project they put out. No matter how good the productions are, most of the sequels coming out of it never stand a chance. Once they announced James Gunn’s reboot of the DC Universe, anything left over from Zack Snyder or whomever else was essentially burned off. If the fans know this is the last we’ll be seeing of this version of the character, why flock to the theaters? Why should they get their hopes up? They didn’t even give James Wan and his team a chance to change people’s minds. Don’t they see why this audience response was unfair? Once again, DC shoots themselves in the foot, but we shouldn’t be surprised by this. Nevertheless, the vitriol surrounding Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is mostly unwarranted. There is still a lot of fun to be had with the second and presumably last film of the Jason Momoa-led Aquaman franchise. No, it was nowhere near its predecessor, but it was definitely not bad enough to end a potential trilogy. For the record, neither was Wonder Woman 1984, and I’ll die on that hill. The release of these features was all just a victim of bad timing and a lack of faith in what was created under the SnyderVerse. With the machine behind this sequel and some changes to the story here and there, this could’ve been a strong follow-up. Unfortunately, they’ll have to settle for the “franchise killer” label, which isn’t fair because it wasn’t given a chance from the get-go.

From a storytelling standpoint, the main issue with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is its lack of growth. No one was expecting an Empire Strikes Back here, but a darker and more emotional focus was needed to evolve these characters and their development in terms of the way they think and carry themselves considering their new responsibilities such as parenthood, dealing directly with the bureaucracy of Atlantis, mending near-broken familial fences, and building trust and strengthening uneasy partnerships when facing a new world-ending threat. You can still retain Jason Momoa’s fun-loving, wisecracking take on Aquaman, as it was imperative to the first movie’s success, but he still needed to be able to flip that switch of intensity to that of a warrior, king, and protective father and husband when the situation calls for it. This sequel involves yet another cataclysmic situation that could not only affect everyone on Earth, but it could also affect them for generations. On top of that, Arthur is the King of Atlantis who will be looked at as the fall guy if things go south. Since everything is on the line, a more serious and focused performance from Momoa where he fully grasps the gravity of their situation was crucial to the further development of our hero into a more natural leader and to hook the audience into believing this could be it if the good guys fail. Instead, this sequel seemed to go in the opposite direction by making Momoa’s Arthur Curry even goofier than in the first one. It’s as if they told Momoa before production started that this was his last chance to play the character because they’re rebooting everything no matter how successful the movie is, so he responded by doing whatever the hell he wanted like not taking things seriously into an hour or so into the movie.

Because of Momoa’s conscious decision to push forth his careless version of the character and refusing to progress it or commit to the weightiness of the situation they are in, the audience never commits either, which cuts the suspense of the film in half and never allows the viewer to suspend their disbelief for the running time like they were able to in the first movie. Simply put, if the main character doesn’t care, why should we?

To show you how much he doesn’t care, Arthur for some reason spends a majority of the movie dressed like Captain Jack Sparrow instead of as, you know, AQUAMAN. Why doesn’t he don his famous suit that was such a big part of the first film until very late into this sequel? Hell, why would he even stop wearing the camouflage blue suit that was given to him since it could have aided him in every single moment of this mission? For a majority of the action, he dons a loose-fitting shirt and all of these bracelets and rings that seem more fitting for a movie entitled “Jason Momoa on a Jungle Adventure” rather than what it should be, which is Aquaman 2. Too much freedom is given to our star and it lessons the impact of the superhero’s supposed desire to save the world, considering how he thinks he can do this all with a t-shirt and lame jokes. If Bruce Wayne decided to fight in his suit without his mask or Superman decided to fight crime in his Clark Kent gimmick, would you think people are really in danger? Not likely, which is why this costuming decision for half the movie effects the story much more than Jason Momoa may have realized. The only person who can get away with this normalized approach is Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. As much as we love Momoa as Arthur Curry, he doesn’t have that type of clout yet. Because of the faith we have in this particular take on the character that was carried on from the electrifying first movie and how much we were invested by the time Arthur secured the trident and his new suit from the Karathen, this sequel should be a continuation of this. Here, this sequel should be focused on the “complete” Aquaman in all his glory and the real beginning of Arthur Curry’s legacy. It should not be about Jason Momoa playing superhero in the jungle and water, which is what this movie turns into for half of it.

If Momoa wants to be in a sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth (which a lot of the scenes involving the rescue of Orm seemed to look like), that’s fine. Just don’t turn Aquaman into that.

When writing and figuring out the story kinks for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, a certain amount of respect for the years of folklore surrounding the character that allowed these guys to make the movie in the first place should have been taken into account. Now, I don’t doubt director James Wan’s passion for the famous DC character as evidenced by what he did with the first Aquaman. Reading up on him, it’s no secret that he has a real love for the world encompassing the superhero, and I couldn’t agree more with his comparisons of Atlantis and its potential to the engrossing and extremely detailed worlds of the Star Wars galaxy, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, or Middle-earth from Lord of the Rings. He’s completely right, and the first Aquaman really opened our eyes to the possibilities. There is so much to explore here and a million different comics to gather ideas from to make this sequel bigger and better than the first. Sadly, this is what makes this sequel as disappointing as it is. It’s still worth watching if you found yourself such a big fan of the first one like myself, but it’s not the follow-up we were expecting, considering Wan’s noted passion for the foundation DC laid out. This is more of my issue with the movie than anything else.

Going back to our star, some of Arthur’s jokes were great tension breakers in Aquaman, and it displayed a lot of endearing personality to the character. In Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, it’s as if they took this positive note and upped the humor tenfold without even realizing how it would fit into the tone of the movie, giving off a forced feel and middling results. For instance, who honestly thinks it’s funny when a baby pisses in their dad’s mouth when he’s changing a diaper? Do people really laugh at stupid shit like that? How about Arthur’s cringeworthy comments to Orm about how awesome Earth is by talking about eating cheeseburgers and drinking a pint of Guinness and literally saying, “Glug, glug, glug” while miming himself drinking? It was like Momoa walked in with the intention of trying to make himself seem less cool, which should never be a goal. Instead of being the badass with great quips, he’s fishing for jokes much like a dad would at the dinner table. It could work if the lines were funny, but they were nothing more than childish. Making Arthur a father and husband who is trying to balance his personal life with the stresses of ruling an entire kingdom should be a storytelling strength to show the vulnerability and growth of our beloved superhero. On the other hand, his maturity regressing while being a leader is a major step backwards in a sequel focused on themes like progression, a new phase in one’s life, facing adversity at the highest of levels, and the importance of evolving to succeed. Dealing with a child in your prime is a very intriguing element for our protagonist to deal with amidst the chaos and drama, but the screenwriters decide to go with the low-hanging fruit of joke telling that involves a baby, which ruins the potential of what it could be doing for Arthur, his marriage to Mera, how it affects his decision-making as king, and what could be very telling and introspective conversations with his father Tom.

Unfortunately, this follow-up fails on every interesting avenue the script could possibly go into.

Early on, they really hammer home the conversations between Arthur and Tom, as Arthur looks to him for father and life advice, but the dialogue between the two are some of the most cliché, movie “father/son” conversations you will ever hear in your life. It gets to the point where you’re not sure if they are parodying the trope because it’s that much of a retread. Anytime they share another beer together, you can’t help but laugh because it’s like the writers took extensive notes on a class entitled “How to Write a Father/Son Duo 101”. They had to, right? Maybe they also googled “How to Write a “Manly” Main Character” as well. That’s my only explanation for the aforementioned, god-awful dialogue between Arthur and Orm about his love for cheeseburgers and beer. Adding on to this, do they have a sponsorship from Guinness or is this strictly a Momoa choice? It’s featured so prominently that it was too hard to ignore. Who the hell buys Guinness in a can and stocks their fridge with it? On tap I can understand, but from the can? It’s not that good. Regardless, nothing said between Arthur and Tom is substantial whatsoever. The scenes are basically just put there to remind us that Tom exists and is still kicking. Other than that, they say a whole lot of nothing to each other and don’t have the closeness they seemed to have effortlessly in the first film, which leads me to my biggest gripe of the direction of this sequel. Keeping in mind my big point of Arthur needing to face some sort of emotional change to evolve, and the fact that they refused to do despite the softball thrown at him of now being a family man, Aquaman needed to suffer a loss.

For starters, it’s an action needed to make Black Manta a threat. The entirety of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is spent telling us that we should be scared of him, but there’s not enough of him actually doing anything despicable. The closest he comes to proving his villainy is setting Arthur’s house on fire, but everyone is saved so it doesn’t really mean anything. Somebody needed to die. There are too many characters coming back in this sequel that don’t affect the story, but there are enough that made that much of a difference in the first film that their death would still be a big moment. They already went through with the horrid decision of writing off Willem Dafoe’s Vulko by killing him offscreen and having the audacity to not mention him by name nor do they let Arthur grieve about his mentor dying, which could have been a much better opening to the film as tone-setter rather than Arthur stepping on baby toys and yelling “Fuck!” before being cut off. Mera is out of the question because killing a wife this early into the development of the family is too much for a second film, as would be killing their baby because it’s just a tad too dark. Plus, the repercussions of such an action would turn Arthur into more of a jaded, Wolverine-type of superhero rather than the superhero they clearly want him to be. Additionally, if they did kill Mera, it would only strengthen the rumors and accusations of Amber Heard herself that they changed Mera’s involvement in the story by cutting her other scenes after Heard’s legal troubles with Johnny Depp. The story is centered around bringing Orm back into the fold, so that doesn’t really work either. Nereus dying wouldn’t really mean much and could be saved for a third film in a big battle scene or something.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Tom or Atlanna had to perish. There was no need to keep every single character alive. For a Kordax-influenced Black Manta to stake his claim as a legitimate threat that the entire world needs to be afraid of, he needed to take a life from Aquaman’s inner circle or “Bloodline” as they referred to it. Stealing Arthur’s baby and threatening to use his blood to release Kordax was pretty diabolical, but there’s not a single soul that was seriously buying that an Aquaman sequel was going to be as dark as stabbing a baby. This isn’t the 1970s. Still, David Kane should’ve killed Tom in the house fire sequence, with Tom’s last stand being trying to protect Arthur Jr. and paying the price because of it. It would have given him something to do, since his presence changed the story in no way whatsoever other than taking Atlanna out of the hunt to keep the focus on Arthur and Orm, and it would have given Tom an honorable way out when he was close to being forgotten in the grand scheme of things. With this, Arthur’s exasperated cry to the heavens after the house fire would’ve spoken volumes and gave the audience a true sense of “Oh, David Kane is for real”. Instead, Momoa’s screams came off as TV movie-like in its presentation, complete with an awful slow-motion element added to it, fumbling what could have been a massive moment for the film, the direction of the story, and the character of Arthur Curry. Had they opened the movie with a funeral for Vulko’s in the vein of what they did for T’Challa in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, they could have established a more serious tone for the outset. Plus, the grieving period could have affected Arthur’s decision-making and focus as king, turning the comedic “immaturity” approach to the beginning of the movie into a more realsitic and emotional one, with Arthur Jr. being the only one who has been able to keep him sane through the process. This way we can avoid the Son of of the Mask type of jokes included in the opening minutes.

Plus, it would also be a great way to explain the lack of chemistry between Momoa and Amber Heard, with Arthur also being unavailable to his wife in the wake of Vulko’s death, adding yet another wrinkle to his growth as a character and as a man. Then, when Tom is killed by Black Manta, it can set Arthur over the edge and into a rage of fury, unleashing the fire this sequel needs while making Black Manta the all-time bad guy he has the potential in being. When it comes to climax, it would add even more fuel to the possibility of Arthur being influenced by the Black Trident when he grasps it, since he feels that the whole world wronged him. It would take Orm, Mera, and the presence of Arthur Jr. and to convince him to relent and understand why he’s in the position he’s in and why his purpose is much greater than what he thinks it is. With this, it would add more meaning to what they were trying to do, turn Arthur Curry into more of a three-dimensional hero with admitted troubles and vulnerabilities, and actually accomplish the goal of making this sequel a darker one, which they claimed was the intention.

Going along with this, Black Manta needed a pivotal moment to take the reins of the movie by force, and killing off Tom was their chance to do this without losing the audience. David Kane has already let Kordax into his brain because he’s that obsessed with revenge and is willing to release him if he’s able to use his power to take out Aquaman. Plus, he’s wielding the extremely powerful Black Trident. If he gets as far as killing Arthur’s father and stealing his child, you’d be hard pressed to criticize how this antagonist is written. With that being said, the element of Kordax’s influence was cool and all, but the backstory behind him and his power struggle with his brother Atlan was eerily similar to Hela’s relationship with Odin in Thor: Ragnarok, complete with the green color scheme and the monster designs. In addition, they didn’t do a strong enough job in convincing us that the real David Kane is this hellbent on killing Aquaman compared to the much better job they did in the first movie with a lot less time overall. Here, it seemed more like Kordax just intensified his initial feelings to where it’s overloaded, so we never really got the full David Kane experience. He was more or less an avatar for Kordax rather than two villains in one body, which hurt the potential of the Black Manta arc heavily. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a talented enough actor to differentiate between the two in his performance, but the script was not allowing him to showcase it. Once again, it just felt like Kordax took over his motivations and thought process rather than working together with Kane in a devil’s advocate sort of way. It was written like the latter, but it never quite reached that level onscreen. Because of this, the steam is let out of the room when David Kane loses Kordax’s power in the climax. It should’ve been a dual threat situation, but it turned into a joke in an instant with Arthur quickly taking out Black Manta the moment he loses the superpowers instead of finding a creative way to include him in the final battle. It’s like Abdul-Mateen II did all the heavy lifting only to lose out on the fun in favor of a CGI villain, though his final action onscreen was “Hater of the Year” material (“Never”), and I loved that decision.

Along with being a more serious sequel, the intention was also to be a buddy comedy between Arthur and Orm like how Thor and Loki were in Thor: The Dark World. They sort of accomplished this as it turned Orm into a much understanding and caring brother like how Loki turned out to be in future Thor sequels and beyond, but it doesn’t hold a candle to what Thor and Loki did. It wasn’t nearly as funny (though Orm doing the Naruto run was amusing), and it was below-average from an emotional standpoint as well, which is a shame because they had their chances to strengthen this aspect of the film but they chose not to. When they are being chased by Orichalcum mutated insects in the Devil’s Deep, Arthur tells Orm while they are running that their mom loves him and she thinks of Orm all the time. When Orm asks why he’s brining it up now, Arthur adds in a comedic manner that he was tired of waiting for the right moment. Again, this is the problem with the tone of the movie. In an emotional pause from the action, this could have been a vital conversation the two have in private to strengthen their relationship in the face of evil, but it’s used as a throwaway joke in a chase sequence. Moments like this are the reason why we never get fully invested into the heat of the story. It didn’t have to be long. It just had to be handled with care like the elevator scene in Thor: Ragnarok between Thor and Loki. A small conversation between Arthur and Orm where he implies that the family isn’t whole without him could have changed everything, but they decided to make it all a joke and rely on gags like Orm’s attempt at being endearing is eating a bug or being noble enough to honor his prison sentence when this is all done. You need to know when things need to get serious for the sake of the story.

This conversation and the first time both brothers fight Black Manta were sequences that should have been no laughing matter, but they’re both turned into comedic moments. Why? It only hurts the perceived momentousness of the story arc. Once again, Aquaman did it better. In the moment before the Combat of Kings commences, Arthur tells him privately that there was a time where he wanted to meet Orm to let him know he wasn’t alone, and the viewer can see how this effects Orm before they fight or when he sees Arthur and Mera’s ship in the lava. It’s the little stuff that goes a long way, but they go about things in the goofiest way possible in this sequel and it ruins the potential of what could have been DC’s version of Thor and Loki.

Another missed opportunity was Randall Park’s Dr. Stephen Shin. His crackpot performance in the limited screentime he had in this film’s predecessor was infinitely more compelling than what he turned into in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It’s like they knew exactly what gave him the spark that made him standout in the first place, deemphasized it on purpose, and asked him to change his entire approach into that of a run-of-the-mill, scared, toned-down supporting character to not take away from the stars. It reminds me a lot of Woody Harrelson as Carnage. In the mid-credits scene of Venom, Harrelson’s crazed smile and quiet stare offered a world of possibilities. However, in Venom: Let There be Carnage, the performance changed from an unpredictable addition to a somewhat bland and disappointing fleshed-out continuation to what we liked previously. If anything, this Aquaman sequel needed a little crazy infused into the “B” story. Giving Randall Park a chance to play some sort of gonzo “Mad scientist” character would’ve been an absolute joy to watch unfold and would surely take the story into a bizarre and creative direction on the villain side. He could still have eventual redemption once Arthur’s child is kidnapped and he has a change of heart, but making him this pussified, weakling scientist from the outset was just a boring direction to go in after all the hype surrounding him coming out of the first movie. From the opening minutes of the film, the audience can already see the seeds being planted for Shin to attempt to get out of this contentious partnership with David Kane, which should never have been the case, at least that early into the movie. They needed to dive in further to his obsession with Atlantis to the point where it drives him to the brink of madness. Park could still play it in a humorous manner, but he needed this edge to insert more importance to the threat imposed on the heroes. Plus, it would’ve just been more fun in general instead of making another predictable character arc of a supporting player that had potential.

Mera was absolutely fucking useless. Amber Heard was already on thin ice following her lifeless performance in Aquaman, but she managed to take an even further step back into nothingness. Even if the reported intention for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was to always be a buddy feature between Aquaman and Orm, there was no reason for such an important character like Mera to take this much of a backseat when her presence was so vital to the first movie, especially in Arthur’s life now that they started a family. There’s no reason why she couldn’t have been used in some way to help strengthen the other aspects of the plot, the emotional developments of the characters around her, and the scenes within the kingdom of Atlantis considering all the time in-between Arthur’s exit to save Orm and his return during such a tumultuous period where they are fielding so many crucial arguments from the other kingdoms. It doesn’t make sense for Mera to be a bigger influence on Arthur’s life than ever before and be Queen of Atlantis and still barely be used. In the most momentous scene of the movie where their home is directly attacked, Mera is barely noticeable, despite her being the MOTHER OF THIS CHILD. Wouldn’t she be the one screaming and crying at the burning house to the point where a visibly shaken Arthur has to hug her and do his best to calm her down? No, she’s completely forgotten. Why even make her a mother if they had no scenes given to her to show how important she is to the Curry family? Wouldn’t she want to be a bigger part of this mission if her husband and child are threatened? Her powers and abilities are right up there with Arhtur and Orm and her child has been kidnapped by the villain!

Don’t you think she’d be furious and want a major role in taking down Black Manta? She’s not a helpless wife! She’s literally a fucking superhero! Even when they had a chance between husband and wife where she can have a line to inspire him, they give the line to Atlanna, with her saying, “Get our little one”. Sure, she’s the grandmother to the child, but wouldn’t a crucial line like this be reserved to the person who helped create the damn child? The handling of her character was just plain awful. She gave no emotional support to the film at all. Even more so compared to the first movie, literally everything she said in this sequel was expositional dialogue, something obvious to explain the scene, or certain lines to allow for a transition to the next scene. That’s it. Maybe Amber Heard’s lawyer does have a bit of an argument because it seems strange otherwise for such an important character to lose this much screentime compared to this movie’s predecessor and lose out on surefire moments in the film that would be a no-brainer for her to be included to make her role mean something. In a roundabout way, can this really all be blamed on Johnny Depp? It’s arguable.

Can anyone tell me why Stingray or literally anyone else on David Kane’s crew is just as hellbent in destroying Aquaman as he is, despite not having a dog in the fight? Are they just paid really well? They aren’t influenced by Kordax, and there is no reason given as to why they are so invested in killing the entire world with Orichalcum as well. Am I nitpicking or is there a strange amount of luck in finding so many like-minded individuals for a cause like this without a story explanation? Also, despite so much greatness in the leadup to the climax and the final battle and everything, the epilogue will have you rolling your eyes as it’s a total rehash of the endings of both Black Panther and Iron Man but done in much less impactful way. It completely let the wind out of the sails going into the credits.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom doesn’t suffer as much as The Flash did from rushed CGI, but there are a lot of moments that did look noticeably subpar and cartoonish from some rougher looking sequences like a lot of the medium shots in the water. Thankfully, moments like the chase sequence in Atlantis, the prison escape in the Sahara, all the stuff in Antarctica and Necrus (the titular seventh “Lost Kingdom”), including the final escape, and the Tatooine/Jabba’s Palace-inspired Sunken Citadel, along with full-on Jabba the Hut copy Kingfish (Short), were really well-done in terms of the way they were filmed. You could tell that a lot of the imagination used to mold the first movie was still here, and director James Wan still did a great job putting together these fast-paced, action-packed sequences. Regarding the Sunken Citadel, the visual of hammerhead sharks with machine guns is something we will never see in any other movie ever, so this alone should be celebrated. The battles, the fights and all of the action sequences were fantastic with the awesome lightsaber-like duel between Aquaman and Black Manta in the climax being a prime example. Though the third act wasn’t on the level of its predecessor, it was still very exciting. By the time Arthur and Orm fight over the Black Trident for a moment and Kordax stops the Black Trident throw from Arthur, you’d be hard pressed to not be worried about the potential ripple-effect if Kordax gets to full strength with his army of monsters behind him.

No matter the criticism I’ve given this sequel, I still found myself agreeing with Orm during the closing moments of the film.

“If you lead, Atlantis will follow.”

It’s true. Despite the noted problems I had with this adventure, I still really enjoyed what DC has done with the Aquaman franchise behind the mind of James Wan and Jason Momoa’s portrayal of the new and improved superhero. If Momoa continues to lead, I will follow and will look forward to what is next. Sure, there would need to be some serious changes going into a third film, but I would still be first in line to watch it without hesitation because of strong foundation already in place that this team has done so well in creating for us. It’s just like Arthur said in his United Nations meeting, “Together, we can write the next chapter in our story rather than its ending”. Together, they should be writing the next chapter. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom should not be the end of the Momoa-led Aquaman movies. It’s without a doubt a misstep, but it should not be the end. It should be the bump in the road that leads to glory, to cement this superhero’s cinematic legacy. They’re so close! They’ve barely scratched the surface of what this world could evolve into and who our hero could become! Why can’t James Gunn just help rewrite a potential third movie instead of canning it and starting from scratch? A true king builds bridges! Be a king Mr. Gunn! They have the right cast, they have the right director, and this sequel was still a lot of fun in SPITE of story and dialogue issues. Is it too much to ask for one more chance to rectify this?

As a fan and a critic, I know they can pull it off. All they need is a little faith.

Fun Fact: Willem Dafoe was originally set to return as Vulko, but he had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts.