Day 356 of the challenge! Hot take: Aquaman is boring. I was bored watching all 2 and a half hours of it.
I’ve been seeing a bunch of articles and reviews describe Aquaman as an underwater Star Wars and a course correction for the DCEU. Yea…I’m not seeing it. In a year that gave us meaningful and fun superhero flicks like Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther, Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Batman Ninja, and especially Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (there are a few more), Aquaman flops in at the end, gasping for air like a fresh catch. Too dark? It’s accurate.
The incredible effects and cinematography aside (credit where credit is due, I did enjoy the technical aspects of the film), Aquaman feels like a hodgepodge of all the best parts of other (and superior) superhero movies. There’s nothing fresh or surprising about Aquaman (expect maybe that one octopus, you know which one I’m talking about if you’ve seen the movie), and to make matters worse, the film is over stuffed and bursting with needless plot points and characters. It’s like 3 or 4 different movies stitched into one long slog. There’s no reason for this film to be as long as it is...other than to set up future installments I suppose. Sigh. Too bad too, because it started of great! I’m suddenly a little more worried about Shazam! than I was before.