Rate and review A Q U A M A N

[psylockolussus]

I saw this yesterday and I thought its such a popcorn flick, but a good one. Its not as good as Wonder Woman but its nowhere as terrible as the other 4 Dceu movies released so far. At times, it kinda looked cartoonish and cheesey at times especially the Cgi and there were some scenes that looked green screen. But Atlantis looks really good and I liked when they explained stuff about its origin. The action was pretty good as well. There's some off moments, just the way some things were executed, I didn't really like Black Manta, but I think its a solid Dc film if not average. Mera was really fierce as well!

7/10

 

[frankgutz]

Im not that good at reviews, even less at english since it aint my mother leguage but here i go
It does have spoilers, a lot so...:

Spoiler

Maybe im to impressionable or maybe its my nature of appreciate the beauty in visuals that i loved the CGI and all the world that was introduced by Wan in Aquaman, there were some cute small scenes that had me with my mouth wide open: Vulko and Aquakid sit in the cliff while the mantarrayas were flying above them, or the birds running away from the tsunami, the whales swimming when we are introduced to the city, when he was teached to see in the darkness and everything started to glow, when Mera used the wine bottles as weapon, etc..etc.. all of this and other lil details were gorgeous af and i appreciated so much because i was expecting rich visuals, specially from sea life and it delivered.

The whole family/love story arc at the beggining and end of the film introducing Arthur family, and also the mom & dad love story felt so warm, i loved how they showed Nicole experiencing all the things we as human race have that they dont, her sacrifice and her return, the lil scenes of Arthur growing up and learning about her mothers world/culture were also good

The villains and the action scenes were great, the chemistry between Mera, Aquaman and the villains were good to me, there were some moments were i hated that lil ***** Orm, so i guess Patrick did well his job, sometimes in the fight of the last arc there's too much going on but i enjoyed it, the kiss between Mera and Aquaman while everything is on fire and everyone is beating the **** out of them with lasers was cool tbh


So... to end this lemme say that im not a "comic purist" so idk how this may be taken from other ppl, but i do grew up as a hardcore DC fan, i grew up watching mainly cartoons and movies from DC until this year i have bought some graphyc novels and a few comics, so its honestly refreshing to see how an iconic heroe of the DC brand is getting the attention in deserved long time ago.

Like i said im not a comic purist so i guess one of the reasons that ive been able to enjoy the DCEU movies so far is that i dont have something to compare or i dont have this ideal of how the character should be or how it is and how the movie screw it... but at the end it made me respect more AQUAMAN, searched more of him, search comics, etc... i guess its a WIN because it took him into my least of Superheroes and its expanding the universe i love so, i had to give it a 10, it deserved, i trully enjoyed the whole movie, i even forgot to search for the ****ing cameo of Annabelle

So yeah, is a 10/10 [/quote]

 

[Karelia]

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of details, I'll just keep it simple. The action/fight choreography is absolutely amazing, probably my favorite out of all the CBM's. The actors were great. Jason Momoa, Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson, etc. Did their roles well. I loved the visuals throughout, great CGI. I was not bored for a second through this film!

I saw someone post in another thread, they said this film felt stuffed with everything you would want for an Aquaman movie, but still doesn't feel like they did too much. They didn't do the whole "You gotta wait for the sequel to get the good stuff" They just give it to you up front and I love it about it. Put all cards on the table, it paid off.

As a fan of Geoff John's run with Aquaman and some of the 90's long haired Aquaman (hook hand and all) I gotta say I loved this film. Probably my favorite DC film to come out in recent years. Please get Wan for the sequel.

9/10

 

[Nemeres]

I really enjoyed it. Popcorn flick all the way. Visuals so pretty I knew I'd want to watch the film again ever WHILE I was watching it. When it gets goofy it's in a "Hey, we're being goofy now" kind of way, but I went along. The emotional moments worked, especially *that* one. I loved it, and Momoa in it. A few gripes for sure and it's a bit flat in spots, but I'm high on the many little details that really added to the thing. The Italy fight was easily the highlight for me. Don't know if I want to bother with a score at the moment. It's just a movie that I could easily watch again while eating a Snickers bar. Makes me want to hit the beach sometime soon, too.

 

[Spider-Fan]

I don't think I put anything overtly spoilery in my review, but I tagged it just in case!!!

Spoiler

I entered this film with very low expectations. Last year's Justice League I felt was an all around disaster of a film, and Aquaman was one of the more irritating elements of the movie to me. He was barely a character in that movie and acted more like a meme or walking catchphrase. Prior to Justice League, this was one of my more anticipated DC films. I like James Wan and always felt like Aquaman was a very underrated character. But, Justice League hampered my enthusiasm for this quite a bit. But I went to the special screening on Saturday, and I am glad I did. I walked out of this movie very impressed.

The best part of the movie is the atmosphere. I had read some bad comments on the CGI and such, but this was a movie where that was always going to be how they had to do it. You cannot do complicated scenes like this in a water tank. People cannot breath that long, nor talk underwater. I actually thought everything under the water looked great. The underwater action was awesome. Justice League had me worried on the front of Atlantis because we only saw 1 area of Atlantis, and that 1 sequence in Justice League I thought looked ugly and cheap. Here, Atlantis looked grand and epic. Almost like looking at Cameron's Pandora, only under the water. The costumes were also top notch. I never thought we would get such literal adaptations of Black Manta's, Arthur's, or Orm's costumes. But not only did we get them, they looked outstanding.

The biggest question mark for me entering the movie was in regards to Arthur himself. He irritated me beyond belief in Justice League, so I had little faith they could correct him. While he does carry some of the obnoxious elements he had in Justice League, overall I felt a major improvement with Arthur. They sort of embraced him being a doofus, but they found other ways to highlight the character. The chemistry between Arthur and Mera was strong and one of the movie's best elements. Often times romantic subplots feel forced and unnatural, but here the romance felt like a natural progression of the story. I also liked how they took Mera's air bubble she used to talk to Arthur in Justice League, which gave me concern about how the Atlanteans would communicate in this movie, and they made it another super power. Vulco was nothing special in this movie, he was just a basic mentor. But the plot line that I felt worked the best was the story behind Arthur's mother and father. I found myself very invested in both those characters. I also liked how Black Manta was given a proper villain origin, and it helped me understand him as the movie went on. Orm was a fairly standard villain, but they did find ways to make him feel more 3 dimensional and less cliche'.

There has been many comments about how this is a bonkers movie, and it is. There is literally an octopus or squid playing drums at one point. It is super silly, but I didn't hate those elements in the movie. Heck, they even have really cheesy dialogue like that line about Atlantis needed more than a king, but a hero! So silly and cliche'. But these sillier elements help give this movie charm and character. It takes all the best elements you would have seen out of a fantasy movie in the 80s, but takes advantage of the modern technology and longer run time allotment allowed in more contemporary films. So this movie is pure insanity, but in a good way. The only thing I would say is super hero films lately test my limits of what people can do in small amounts of time.

In this movie, Black Manta is able to take Atlantean armor he is given, break it down and learn the tech, design and build a whole new suit, paint it, etc. All in like a few hours. I know they want him for the next big action sequence and such, so he cannot take a few years to make this suit. But it is really stretching what I can take as believable. It should take more than 5 minutes to do something like that! But that is a small nitpick. I do feel not all of the story elements add up all the time and there are small plot holes, but nothing I felt breaks the movie.

The DCEU has had a rough go of it. Outside of Wonder Woman, there hasn't been a movie that fired on all cylinders or gotten the acclaim the MCU has gotten. While I think Wonder Woman is a better movie objectively, Aquaman may be my favorite DCEU movie. I like insanity in my movies. The 80s gave me some of my favorite films like Flash Gordon, and this movie feels like one of those only bigger. This movie is just good, old fashioned fun. Fishmen riding sharks shooting lasers is always going to make me smile, but when you add story and characters I find myself caring about, that kicks it up a notch. Never have I been more glad to say I was wrong on this one.

Overal Score - 4/5

To quote Arthur from Justice League: I dig it

 

[nightwing06]

Can Arthur Curry / Aquaman reclaim his birthright and can DC create a film that is epic and entertaining?


PRAISE : Applause to the entire cast which includes :Jason Momoa,Amber Heard,Willem Dafoe
Patrick Wilson,Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Nicole Kidman.
I can tell when actors are having a good time with their roles and are dedicated to providing audiences with something highly entertaining.
This is a origin story that is tied in with a present day story that seamlessly shifts through both.
I felt immersed in this film and was completely pulled into it,the CGI and SFX worked 85% of the time.
Director James Wan knew exactly what he was doing when putting this film together.Immersing the audience in this world of wonders and coupling it with what was in the minds eye of Jules Verne.
The action sequences are hard hitting and enthralling.I loved that Wan was able to take everything that was SuperFriends cheesy about Aquaman and make it epic !!
Oh and cool cameo voice work !!

PROBLEMS:The facial CGI was definitely off at times making some of the characters look like talking paintings.There are some predictable turns in the script.Some cheesy dialogue.I had hoped there would have been more solid bonding between a couple of the characters


To DC/WB this is a step in the right direction.I hope they hold on to Wan and the entire cast for the inevitable sequels

Scale of 1-10 an 8½

 

[nightwing06]

AQUAMAN



Can Arthur Curry / Aquaman reclaim his birthright and can DC create a film that is epic and entertaining?


PRAISE : Applause to the entire cast which includes :Jason Momoa,Amber Heard,Willem Dafoe
Patrick Wilson,Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Nicole Kidman.
I can tell when actors are having a good time with their roles and are dedicated to providing audiences with something highly entertaining.
This is a origin story that is tied in with a present day story that seamlessly shifts through both.
I felt immersed in this film and was completely pulled into it,the CGI and SFX worked 85% of the time.
Director James Wan knew exactly what he was doing when putting this film together.Immersing the audience in this world of wonders and coupling it with what was in the minds eye of Jules Verne.
The action sequences are hard hitting and enthralling.I loved that Wan was able to take everything that was SuperFriends cheesy about Aquaman and make it epic !!
Oh and cool cameo voice work !!

PROBLEMS:The facial CGI was definitely off at times making some of the characters look like talking paintings.There are some predictable turns in the script.Some cheesy dialogue.I had hoped there would have been more solid bonding between a couple of the characters


To DC/WB this is a step in the right direction.I hope they hold on to Wan and the entire cast for the inevitable sequels

Scale of 1-10 an 8½








THE MULE



At the twighlight of his life Earl Stone enters the world of drug trafficking.




PRAISE: I read the true story of Leo Sharp about a week ago and Director Clint Eastwood and
writer Nick Schenk have crafted a story for the big screen that is pretty much beat for beat for how things played out for Sharp in real life.
He was a successful botanist who lost his business due to unforseen occurences and was offered an "easy" money job to perform the simple task of driving to different states with cargo he mainly had no knowledge of what it exactly was.

Eastwood can still charm and present a flawed character that i cant help but route for and hold my interest.There is something magnetic about a person who has lived their life and for the most part can get away with talking salty to just about everyone
I was with Stone all the way as things went from seemingly easy to betrayal and treachery.

PROBLEMS: I thought the inclusion of Bradley Cooper as Colin Bates, a DEA Agent and Michael Peña as Trevino, a DEA agent and Bates’ partner were nice touches but after awhile i felt they didnt add much to the story until some interactions further along in the film.
Theres some border line cringey scenes,but kind of amusing too.
The film really meanders here and there so much so it felt like the movie was 2 and a half hours instead of 2.


I think at this point Eastwood is indulging himself in fact i think he has been doing so for a few years now.I think he saw a reflection of himself in the character and thats what drew him to make this film,that is definitely flawed but still manages to entertain and feel something.


Scale of 1-10 a 7½

 

[Aurakles]

I found the film visually spectacular. The work that went into creating the world of Atlantis was very impressive, a lot of creativity went into this. The action scenes were all very well done and I have no complaints about any of the acting though it there was nothing outstanding.

However, the dialogue was absolutely atrocious. Just awful, some of the worst exposition I've ever heard. The plot was pretty generic and very predictable, the soundtrack was poor, apart from the Roy Orbison song.

The best way I can describe it is like a comic with a terrible writer, but a brilliant artist.

4/10

 

[tanita_mors]

A really solid 8/10 for me. It has flaws, but the experience was incredible, it's a standalone movie that doesn't need connections to the DCEU and it's better for it.

 

[dhandler01]

Glad you liked it Spider-Fan!

 

[kguillou]

I've never been an Aquaman fan but this movie made me one.

This movie was just pure fun. Fun is a word that has had a negative connotation with it over the last few years. Venom, for example, is a movie many people see as "fun" but not necessarily "good" on a technical or filmmaking level, but it provides base thrills and excitement. One could argue JUSTICE LEAGUE was "fun" for what it was. A harmless entertaining superhero adventure. AQUAMAN though, is FUN with a capital F. ITs not just fun, its thrilling, exhilarating, touching and has heart to it. These are things that my prior examples lacked, IMO.

Jason Mamoa IS Aquaman. He is a charismatic presence and you can tell he enjoyed the Heck out of playing this role and you can tell James Wan built the movie around Jason's personality and catered to his strengths not unlike Patty's catered to Gal's in Wonder Woman. Amber Heard is a total BADASS. She had moments in this movie that had me pumping my fist and I think the audience is gonna love her. Her and Jason play well off of each other, even if some of their moments together are a little corny. The villains, aka Black Manta and Orm are both awesome and menacing. DC's best villains since Zod.

The story. This is a big criticism I'm seeing but I really had no issue with it. Its a quest, a journey, an adventure. Is it completely original? No. But its all in the execution and Wan executed it well and made the adventure fun and exciting and the climax feels EARNED and has you pumping your fist.

The action. Hooo MAMA. Wan brought the noise in this department. The action is EPIC and balls to the wall and hard hitting. This is the kind of action that makes you go "OOOHH" "AAAAHHH" "DAAAMNNN!" It's expertly directed and choreographed and there's SO much of it. The movie rarely has a dull moment.

Overall, Aquaman is a triumph. I'm a huge fan of both Man of Steel AND Batman V Superman, but this movie is a TRUE DC crowd-pleasing blockbuster. I can understand one having some issues with some of the dialogue and story but I feel that James Wan did such an amazing job crafting this movie that I'm finding it difficult to understand how you cannot have your adrenaline spiked at least a little bit during this movie. I can think of several recent cbms that were so blah-zay in their execution and forgettable and yet still get 90% of RT and yet you have a film like this that really goes for broke and is a technical marvel and yet the critics are not at all impressed. I'm kind of baffled by that and looking forward to debating it.

9/10. Can't wait to see it again.

 

[m2k]

Great visuals, very imaginative action sequences and camera work by Wan. Where it suffers tho as a film, is that it's just way too overstuffed. Too many plot lines are introduced resulting in too swift a pace and underdeveloped arcs. Black Manta for example, I felt could've been good if we revisited his arc much sooner after his first encounter. Humor was largely a miss for me either due to basic dialogue passing as witty or comedy not being the 2 leads strong suit. Their performances were fine, the comedy just didn't work.
Overall I think the script was too all over the place. Some elements/subplots could've been reduced and layed out across 2 movies I thought. Pacing is zippy cuz it needed to be.. lol, but this was not a short movie by any means, if I'm not mistaken. That's a sign of having to squeeze too much into an already generous runtime. It's zany fluffy fun, very comic bookey fully embraced, but I wouldn't count on it leaving a lasting impact.
5/10

 

[ironman_rick]

Wow....... I thought Aquaman was gonna be a harder sell than galaxy of the guardians and like the later its a well-made movie. I think its DCEU's 2nd best movie after wonderwoman and i am pretty sure it will be the highest grossing one WW. James Wan is really proving to be an all rounder. He can do horror, He can do action (fast and furious)...and he can do a good superhero orgin movie. Your wife and kids will love this movie (though there is one scene which was quite scary ...

Spoiler

ie in a boat and meeting those fish creatures).

.

This movie has more heart than batman vs superman & justice league. DCEU still has a future under the right director

BTW I think WB should let james wan direct a horror DCEU movie (is there any they could make). He would make a kiss-ass one and will help them differentiate themselves even more from marvel.

 

[Spider-Fan]

Glad you liked it Spider-Fan!

So am I, believe me LOL!

 

[Hunter Rider]

James Wan does a wonderful job of bringing Atlantis to life, and while Mamoa and Amber Heard aren't the greatest actors in the world, they have good chemistry and their partnership does a good job of anchroing the movie, while Mamoa brings charisma and presence to the physical side of the role.

The way the film introduces Aquaman and Black Manta into this movie is awesome, the Submarine action sequence is a great set piece and puts the Aquaman\Black Manta rivalry straight on the menu, Arthur's choice to not save Poppa Manta was an interesting moral one that will fuel some debate I imagine.

Wan fuses elements of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, the Uncharted videogames and even the King Arthur mythology into something that still feels like it's own thing, it's part globe trotting treasure hunt adventure, and part high tech, underwater sci fi mixed with old gods mythology. All of this is wrapped up in a very entertaining package with humour and fantastic action sequences, there's even a touch of horror in there with the Trench,.

The supporting cast are all solid to good, I particularly liked Nicole Kidman as Queen Atlanna, the scene where she is revealed to still be alive is one of the best in the movie. Patrick Wilson was suitably narcissistic and snide as Orm, while Yahya Abdul-Mateen brought the intensity as Black Manta, he was this movies Boba/Jango Fett and they have set him up nicely for the sequel.

The sets and locations in the movie are stunning and really immerse you in the adventure Arthur and Mera are on, and the action set pieces are pretty spectacular and unsurprisingly well shot by Wan. The standout sequence for me was the big fight/chase in the fishing village in Sicily.

The film is undoubtedly Wan's, nothing feels like the studio rushed him or intefered, and he crammed a lot of Aquaman's mythos into the hefty run time. Overall the film is a triumph, visually beautiful, with a classic action adventure narrative that is both entertaining and interesting as it builds to Aquaman's crowning.

8.5/10

 

[Gu3ree]

Saw Aquaman again the day before yesterday in HK, pre-premiere (Wednesday) night. The film is so epic. A fun adventure and a total blast. I love how the film embraces the comic book, and makes light of the cheesiness of the character, only making it cooler.

 

[OroroGambitFan]

I found the film visually spectacular. The work that went into creating the world of Atlantis was very impressive, a lot of creativity went into this. The action scenes were all very well done and I have no complaints about any of the acting though it there was nothing outstanding.

However, the dialogue was absolutely atrocious. Just awful, some of the worst exposition I've ever heard. The plot was pretty generic and very predictable, the soundtrack was poor, apart from the Roy Orbison song.

The best way I can describe it is like a comic with a terrible writer, but a brilliant artist.

4/10

I somewhat agree with you-- i actually 100% agree with all the points you made, pretty much spot on to my thinking-- the writing was pretty drab too, but despite all those things I still found myself enjoying the movie. On pure fun I give it a 7- but I would be very particular w/whom i would recommend this to.

7/10

 

[DoomRulz]

Aquaman isn't a bad movie, but it's not great either. It's just kind of...there. It's the best DCCU film after Wonder Woman but that's not saying much considering the other films in the franchise. The last act of the film is a CGI disasterpiece and I'm still not sold on Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry. Anytime he was walking through water, I thought I was watching a one million dollar cologne commercial. The mid-credits scene was pointless too. Visually the film is as breathtaking as one would expect from the trailers. This is definitely DCCU's Black Panther in that sense but it doesn't have the substance of BP; not even close. I also feel like James Wan wasn't sure which film he wanted to make. It's part Indiana Jones, part Fast and Furious, part formulaic superhero film. I was entertained for the most part and I love the soundtrack for what it's worth.

In hindsight my first choice for Arthur Curry was Armie Hammer but hell, I could even see Patrick Wilson in the role, ironically enough.

 

[Frankeh]

7. The movie has the right amount of action, and feels well paced for the most part, until it gets overlong, and I wasn't a big fan of the CGI mess of a climax. Overall Wan creates a solid entertaining superhero movie, with the appropiate tone and world building to go with it, that makes it interesting. Kidman is the heart and soul of the movie. I liked the rapport between Mera and Arthur, and Heard's character is a total memorable badass charmer. Wilson was a bit hammy as a villain.

 

[Frodo]

I'm not quite sure how I feel about Aquaman as a film. I recommend it to be sure, but I think I'd give it a 7/10.

Its worth seeing on the big screen for the scope and the majesty of it .

 

[Erzengel]

Solid 7.

Very entertaining movie, even though a lot of plot points were telegraphed that you could almost predict them.

But a nice first positive step in the right direction for DC.

 

[DoomRulz]

The chemistry between Heard and Momoa was decent at best. They worked well together but I didn't feel any romance between them. It really seemed as though they became a couple just because the source material dictated it be so. The scene in which they made out was so cheesy and stupid.

 

[Web-Head]

Wow. After Justice League, my excitement and expectations for this were pretty low, but I can say I was wrong to have such low expectations.

Aquaman was a fun ride from start to finish. The action was pretty awesome, there was plenty of humor that worked and I had no problems with CGI or editing.

Momoa was fantastic in the role and visually, this was pretty awesome.

I have a few things I didn't totally care for or like but I'd say Aquaman is the 2nd best live action comic book movie of the year and (probably) my favorite DCEU movie so far but it's close between this and Wonder Woman.

Also - I'm pretty sure I hit puberty again seeing Amber as Mera

8/10

 

[Tony Stark]

While it's not as strong of a film as Wonder Woman, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than Wonder Woman. The DCEU has finally shed it's brooding dark and depressing mood once and for all, and for the better. There are problems for sure, someone mentioned some of the CGI, especially the de-aging CGI and some of the hair in water effects are a bit distracting, but this film just has a sense of fun that is so refreshing. My only big complaint is that I thought Black Manta was more compelling than Ocean Master. I really want to see more of Black Manta, and I think he very well could be the best DCEU villain with a bit more screen time. Orm was OK but I would have liked to have seen the relationship beteween Orm and Arthur be better established.

But enough of the negatives, this film is a mish mash of Indiana Jones with bits of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and it works. Jason Momoa is finally given a chance to shine in a script that fits his strengths. He's far more interesting than the comic book Aquaman IMHO, he's just more relatable. The script for Justice league was so splintered it was really hard for Momoa to really establish his character in that film. It's to bad WB didn't have more patience with JL and had this film come out first then you have at least Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman established, and I think Batman is well established enough on film that people would roll with it.

The biggest thing to me is this movie is just fun. This is completely the opposite of a Zach Snyder film and for the good of everyone. The visuals are great, the cast is great, the two leads have strong on screen chemistry. And while this movie isn't perfect it's overall tone and pacing lets you forgive any shortcomings it may have.

 

[Consona]

This is completely the opposite of a Zach Snyder film and for the good of everyone.

Speak for yourself, ok?