Aquaman

Our Review

James Wan looked at the notes for this movie, tossed them in the ocean, and made the most gloriously unhinged blockbuster of its year. Aquaman is a lava lamp of a film: octopus drummers, seahorse cavalry, Willem Dafoe explaining Atlantean politics with a straight face, and a villain called Black Manta played with wonderful malice by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. The story follows a standard chosen one template, complete with a ring of fire duel for the throne, and Wan stages all of it with such unembarrassed operatic energy that resistance feels pointless.

Jason Momoa’s swaggering charm is the engine, and the film wisely builds itself around him rather than a coherent script. Weak spots: Amber Heard is flat as Mera, the Sicily rooftop chase is a mess of coverage editing, and the whole thing runs a good twenty minutes too long.

But where most of the DC line felt embarrassed by its own comics, this one throws a parade for them, and the box office, over a billion worldwide, rewarded the sincerity. Our score: 6/10. Big, gorgeous fun that knows exactly what it is.