In a moment Aquaman and the Lost KingdomCharacters run through a mutated jungle chased by lion-sized cockroaches while avoiding violent, man-eating plants. In another moment, multiple characters
This mix of positive and negative is a great representation of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. It’s a film that tries to be everything, at the expense of being. Sometimes it’s silly and exciting. At other times it is serious and stoic. But unlike the 2018 original who found a strong balance between these things, this sequel struggles to combine an overly complicated narrative and lofty themes with the big, entertaining action set pieces. It’s not entirely terrible, but mostly it feels like a slog.
When we last left Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), he had defeated his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) and become king of Atlantis, a vast underwater kingdom hidden from the surface world. Now, probably about a year later, Arthur and Hera (Amber Heard) has one child, Arthur Jr., and it has become a struggle to find a way to be both father and king. These early scenes are some of the film’s best, allowing Momoa to be his big kid self while also opening up new possibilities for the character, namely that of a hero torn between two worlds. Unfortunately, this is forgotten pretty quickly.
That’s partly because one of Arthur’s old nemesis, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), is searching the world for technology to help him fight and defeat Arthur. He soon comes across a mysterious, powerful black trident that grants him ancient powers he can’t quite explain. Manta and his crew immediately become more fearsome than ever, and in order to find and defeat him, Arthur must enlist the help of his imprisoned brother.
From then on and as the film progresses, the main plot emerges Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom everything seems a bit too complex and lengthy. Manta’s discovery of the trident follows a somewhat overloaded exploration sequence. Arthur needs Orm, which means he has to go against a council he’s on and betray one of his allies, all while defeating some random bug monsters. There’s a lot too, and that’s what we mean a lot, of conversations about this ancient, deadly energy source that plays a large role in the story. Once Arthur and Orm then form an unlikely alliance, their journey takes them to several different locations, such as an entire pirate hideout, which is very cool to see and features Martin Short voicing an underwater character of Jabba the Hutt called Kingfish, but adds almost nothing special .
Then there’s the promise of the title, this mythical Lost Kingdom, which one would imagine plays an important role in the film (in the title, after all), but is withheld until near the end, making it seem incredibly superfluous. The elements are of course anchored throughout, but once we get the big narrative dump that explains the Lost Kingdom and everything surrounding it, you’ve basically got it figured out and just want to work through it to get to the big finale.
The grand finale is when the otherwise incredible director James Wan can finally flex his muscles. There are wonderful 360 degree camera movements. Terrifying and bold angles as we discover important new places. And the more interesting the film becomes to watch, the more you realize: You’ve watched a James Wan film for about 90 minutes and nothing visually stood out until now. Are there any cool creatures? Ships? Fun action? Secure. But all of that is overshadowed by the film’s desire to take a relatively simple basic story and overstuff it for the sake of overstuffing. Whether it’s true or not, the crucial fight scenes simply have more cohesion and authorship, as if they were locked in while everything around them was changing.
And yet, for all its flaws, there are many moments when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom can be very pleasant. As always, Jason Momoa is really fun to watch. He and Patrick Wilson have great chemistry and a lot of great scenes together. Amber Heard’s Mera, which is rumored to be cut or at least cut from the film, has some really big, heroic moments. Characters ride giant beetles. Giant seahorses. Nicole Kidman controls a shark. There are also several attempts to make the movie about something other than Aquaman vs. Black Manta, all of which give the impression that the movie will be better than it is, but then they fail. An example is the political tensions between underwater worlds. Another reason is the impact of history on the global environment. But ultimately even the best moments are forgotten because, like the rest of the film, they are scattered all over the place.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is certainly not the worst film in the current DC Universe – but as a follow-up to one of the better ones, we expected more. It feels like the film was influenced far more by what was going on behind the scenes at DC than anyone involved wanted to admit. Because if that wasn’t the case, everyone involved came up with too many ideas and decided to accommodate them all. The result is a film that doesn’t sink, but doesn’t swim either. It just kicks and kicks in the hope of getting past it. But that is not the case.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is now in the cinema.
This review originally published on Gizmodo’s io9. Want more io9 news? Find out when you can expect the latest Wonder, war of starsAnd Star Trek Releases, what’s next for the DC Universe in film and televisionand everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.