Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Our Review

The long run of linked DC films ended not with a climax but with a shrug in a wet cloak. Shot years earlier, rewritten endlessly, and finally dropped into theaters with minimal fuss, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom picks up with Arthur as a bored new dad on the throne, hides him in a snow mission with his imprisoned brother, and turns the plot into a buddy picture: spring Patrick Wilson’s Orm from prison, chase a magic trident, and stop Black Manta from boiling the world with an ancient furnace.

The brothers are the whole show. Jason Momoa and Wilson bicker through a jungle with genuine comic timing, and the film’s best stretch is Orm discovering junk food and lying about it. Everything else is grimy. The visuals took an obvious budget hit, with underwater cities that look like screensavers, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s excellent Manta is sidelined behind a mask with almost nothing to do, and Amber Heard’s Mera is reduced to a few meaningful glances. The climate allegory is explained in on the nose dialogue at least four times.

It still made money overseas because Momoa is a star and the first film banked a lot of goodwill, but as the closing note of a decade of shared world storytelling, it barely bothers to wave goodbye. Our score: 4/10. Watch it for the brothers, skip the kingdom.