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Aquaman |OT| Romance of the Sea Kingdoms
- Thread starter Rvaan
- Start date
Just watched this. Wow.
I enjoyed it more than I had the right to.
The fight sequences underwater were great.
The whole Sea Kingdom look was amazing and colorful. And the soundtracks for the Atlantis part was full Subnautica / Ecco
The bad parts of the film were the rushed exposition. Felt like an RPG with NPCs giving you an expose before sending you on a quest.
I enjoyed it more than I had the right to.
The fight sequences underwater were great.
The whole Sea Kingdom look was amazing and colorful. And the soundtracks for the Atlantis part was full Subnautica / Ecco
The bad parts of the film were the rushed exposition. Felt like an RPG with NPCs giving you an expose before sending you on a quest.
The movie was ......alright
The pluses to me are the visuals and action are really enjoyable and shined thanks to Wan direction and I appreciate them going full comic booky
It's probably the best power rangers movie lol
The story is such a mess though and tries to do way too much that could have been saved for the movie, the acting could be better and I don't really care much about most of the characters honestly or take them seriously
The exposition can be bad
It's still the second best DC movie after WW though it doesn't shit the bed like WW in its climax
The pluses to me are the visuals and action are really enjoyable and shined thanks to Wan direction and I appreciate them going full comic booky
It's probably the best power rangers movie lol
The story is such a mess though and tries to do way too much that could have been saved for the movie, the acting could be better and I don't really care much about most of the characters honestly or take them seriously
The exposition can be bad
It's still the second best DC movie after WW though it doesn't shit the bed like WW in its climax
I never thought about it, but how perfect is Batman for him? Seriously, his horror and crowd pleasing aesthetics is perfect for Batman.
Batman is a different breed of comic book character. His movie needs to be 1 part cerebral/detective and one part action/combat scenes.Man I hope WB deliver on that when the time comes..
MAN, I can't believe they let James Wan just make a wild wuxia movie. What a trip. I love it so much
Which trident move
No one's hair looks right but there's so much you can do with water
If you're talking about the styling of Orm's hair, Patrick Wilson said that he had to wear a cap with markers on it anyway and when Wan saw how it looked on him, he told the vfx crew to just keep his hair short and make it have that "fin" look in the back. He was supposed to have more "normal" hair until that decision.
The spinning trick green goblin taught Aquaman, where like the water surrounded the trident like a shield.
Orms hair being CG makes sense, it was just weirdly distracting to me(and I guess only me). It just looked like his hair should be way longer then it actually is, and I was surprised to see how short it was when it was all disheveled.
I honestly can't explain that I guess some Atlanteans have water powers or can learn
They don't even explain mera's powrrs
No, i felt the same. For the longest time i was convinced he had long hair tied into a knot like Dafoe's Vulko, until it was unistakenly shown to be short. It still didn't look right though when he returned to his slicked back look. Not that Dafoe's hair didn't look odd in its own right.
Yes poor villian. Also it was a joke they tried to make us feel bad for him and his father. WTF. They just killed the submarine crew and tried to kill aquaman with a granadelauncher.... black Manta looked cool. That was the only thing positive with that character.
People behind me said oh he looks like a fly multiple times. That was annoying. XD
The drumming octopus and "stat sheet" graphics for Arthur and Orm that they showed before the arena duel made me so happy. Two silly and great things to be in the movie. And Mera's jellyfish dress was very cool. The actual duel was quite fun as well. I'm a sucker for things that cut away to crowd reactions.
Just came back from seeing it. Loved it.
Wilson was pretty generic but loved everybody else.
Manta was awesome
Wilson was pretty generic but loved everybody else.
Manta was awesome
The interesting thing isn't that we should feel sorry for him (we shouldn't, he's been shown to be straight up murderous) but that Aquaman feels bad that he let his dad die, when he didn't have to. It's an interesting twist on the "I won't kill you but I don't have to save you" loophole that shows up in superhero moves all the time.
Surprised you thought that was interesting at all. Seemed like such a hackneyed attempt to give Aquaman *some* kind of growth as a character in this movie. Incredibly weak characterization compared to the moral dilemmas other superheroes grapple with in this genre.
I don't think it's a moral dilemma for him
I think it was more him realizing his action have more consequences beyond himself.
And I didn't feel bad for Manta and his father. Like they were in that situation all on their own design. And only when things go south do they consider mercy.
I think it was more him realizing his action have more consequences beyond himself.
And I didn't feel bad for Manta and his father. Like they were in that situation all on their own design. And only when things go south do they consider mercy.
Most superheroes learn something or face some kind of internal conflict in their movies. Bruce Wayne the difference between vengeance and justice. Peter Parker the difference between selfishness and self sacrifice. Thor putting the needs of his people above his own ego etc. Hell, even Clark in Man of Steel struggles with the decision to reveal his true nature to the world vs. self-preservation. Aquaman faces no such challenges to his character. I get that for most people this movie was "fun" but I expect my superhero stories to at least have some defining aspect to their character. This movie didn't even try.
I disagree
I don't know if it's the best arc, but I feel between this and Justice League
He's learning, he doesn't need to be a loner, he can get help from people and he has accepted his fate/destiny as the King of Atlantis.
Arthur's journey (or lesson) was to learn compassion and take responsibility for his people. He needed to "grow up" essentially and become a leader.
He spared Orm's life even after he begged to be killed.
It would have been a bad look if he killed his mother's secondborn, just after finding out she was still alive (and nearby).
Myea, kind of expected a little more. He gets built up, given a proper motivation, shows up, he and Momoaman fight a bit, aaaaaand ...
gets literally dumped off a cliff into the sea.
Just watched it. Few short takeaways from me
- Visual was fantastic, especially Trench scene
- Aquaman was too OP (didn't know that)
- Mira was sexy as hell
- The scores and music was horrible it almost ruined the movie for me
- Black Manta is the worst villain in any CBM. Most audiences in my cinema were laughing at his costume design.
- aaand several questionable plot decision
Yeah, this. Realizing that he should have saved Manta Sr. is growth for him. Also shows him to be more self aware than his bravado perosna suggests.
"Son, I know we just boarded a submarine and murdered a dozen people, but I'm going to give you one of your grandfather's most treasured mementos because your story is important."
You know they bungled the exposition when in the first 20 minutes I'm thinking "Wait, whose origin story is this?"
You know they bungled the exposition when in the first 20 minutes I'm thinking "Wait, whose origin story is this?"
Manta was worse.
Steppenwolf was bland and generic, and being shoehorned into be the main villain instead of Dark Seid made him seem even worse, but Manta was like if Captain Phasma got the narrative build up of Kylo Ren with Dark Helmet's costume from Spaceballs topping it all off with prequel era writing and acting.
He was practically a character from a completely different movie. And I almost would have assumed the character was meant to be a joke if
he didn't get an "emotional" origin meant to humanize him with a tease of a return in a sequel.
Lol and then the movie wants us to have sympathy for him and his father when Arthur leaves their asses on the sub.
Aquaman feeling "responsible" for that death was a bizarre moment. They were murderous, unrepentant pirates that were legit trying to kill him.
How bout his father uses a grenade launcher inside a submarine next to multiple torpedoes
Honestly he probably only cared because it bite him in the ass when Black Manta had a super suit and almost killed him lol
It's supposed to tie him about being more responsible since his action has consequences and doubt about being a leader and take shit seriously
But the cynical interpretation is probably he should have finished the job like he did those thousands of atlanteans lol
The day after thinking about it I gotta hand it to James Wan. The action scenes were very well handled. Choreography was clear, space and direction of action was always coherent and consistent, and pacing was very satisfying.
The Sicily set piece was a great example of this, with multiple chases flowing together and never losing the sense of where everything is.
There's even some influence from kung fu cinema (eg. the repeat take of Manta kicking Aquaman through a mast in the underwater hideout).
The Sicily set piece was a great example of this, with multiple chases flowing together and never losing the sense of where everything is.
There's even some influence from kung fu cinema (eg. the repeat take of Manta kicking Aquaman through a mast in the underwater hideout).
That too! The film goes way out of the way to absolve Aquaman of any responsibility of that guys death but that's supposed to be the teachable moment of being a responsible leader and the importance of showing mercy?
Going to wait until I can watch it on Netflix, or on TV or something. Looks too cheesy/dumb to pay for, and Momoa isn't a good actor. Nor is Aquaman a good character. He was one of the worst and most laughable parts of Justice League and that's saying something.
OP
OP
I would have cut the Manta subplot and the Ring of Fire sequence entirely. Arthur and Mera should have traveled to find the Trident immediately after their meeting with Volko. They could have been pursued by Orm's men throughout their journey. Movie is too long and has one, probably two action set pieces too many.