Aquaman movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Aquaman

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 2 hours 23 minutes

Movie Review Mom GRADE: B-

IN A NUTSHELL: If you love CGI, you’ll love this movie. About 90% of this movie is CGI. Maybe even more. Director James Wan appears to have made an intentionally cheesy movie that some people will love and others will be annoyed by.

Jason Mamoa isn’t the blonde Aquaman (Arthur Curry) from Comic books, but his exotic look and sexy charisma add a fun element to this superhero. It’s an extremely loud, busy, big, over-the-top, but entertaining movie.

THEMES:

Judging people and places
Live up to your potential
Family

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Lots of destruction, explosions, fighting. There are a lot of battles between different creatures and humans.
Some of the creatures might scare very young children, especially the water-lizard monsters in the Kingdom of the Trench.
Cleavage and tight-fitting clothing on some women.
Aquaman’s language is a bit rough, considering our kids are going to want to imitate him. He uses profanity, as do several other people.
When Aquaman kisses Mera, she lifts up her leg and wraps it around him. Not cool DC. Not necessary. Kids are watching. Come on.

THINGS I LIKED:

Some of the creatures are really cool looking. Others are kind of lame (Kingdom of the brine. Ha ha)
Octopus drum solo. Yes! Topo is the name of the octopus and was Aquaman’s sidekick in the 1950’s comic books.
That water plasma gun was pretty cool.
I loved how it really did feel like they were moving in water with their hair flowing around.
I loved the scenes in Sicily, Italy, mostly because I want to go there! I adore Italy and have been several times, but never to Sicily.
Some humor. It didn’t always work, but I’m glad they tried.
Patrick Wilson looked more like the classic Aquaman.
Keep watching after the credits for another scene. Unlike Marvel movies, there is only one after-credit scene though.
Very creative and colorful.
Willem Dafoe is always fun to watch.
It definitely has an Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark feel to it.
I love seahorses.
Fun music soundtrack.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

I readily admit I was exhausted when I saw this movie and that may have affected my score. I’m still exhausted while I’m writing this review. I seriously need a nap. zzzzzz…..
Sooooo much CGI. Too much and it looks super fake. It didn’t bother me at all in Guardians of the Galaxy, but for some reason, it bugged me a lot in this movie. OK, I admit it…I’m partial towards Marvel. DC Comics just doesn’t compare to Marvel when it comes to movie-making.
I wanted Aquaman’s younger days to last longer. Those scenes seemed really hurried.
Some of the CGI used to make Aquaman’s parents look younger at the beginning of the movie was distracting.
The battle sequences at the end were so frenzied and waaaay too crowded.
The wigs were super fake looking. They looked like costumes. Everything looked like a costume.
The space water rocket guys felt like they came out of the Power Rangers universe.
It’s good on the big screen but will suffer when watched on a TV or computer screen once it’s released on streaming and DVD. During a lot of scenes, there is way too much going on that you can hardly see what’s going on.
Was that some kind of sea cucumber guarding the trident? We never really got a good look at that creature.
Some terrible scene transitions and cuts.

FUNNY LINES:
* “Something, something, trident.” – Aquaman ha ha

INTERESTING LINES:

“It would be wrong to judge a place I’ve never seen before.” – Mera (Amber Heard)
“You are the bridge between land and sea.” – Mera
“A king fights only for his nation, but you fight for everyone.” – Atlanna (Nicole Kidman)
“Take him, but make sure he has a view.” – King Orm (Patrick Wilson)
“The land and the sea are one.” – Atlanna

WATCH THE Movie Review Mom YOUTUBE REVIEW! My special guest was Chandler Rice, President & CEO of Desert Wind Enterprises and Celestial Comics. See what an expert on all things comic books had to say about Aquaman!