REVIEW: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

Movie Reviews

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom brings a year of lousy superhero movies (with one bright spot) to a close with an appropriate whimper. This is yet another film that, despite delayed releases and reshoots, feels like it was slapped together over a weekend. The character arcs either don’t exist or are so truncated that they’re devoid of any emotional heft. The villain is bland and toothless, the story is convoluted, the acting is mostly phoned in (and who could blame them?), the special effects run the gamut from good to awful, and the environmental message is so heavy-handed it could cause an earthquake that it would surely blame on global warming. But worst of all, there are some good ideas that, with a better script, could have made for a compelling and human story.

After the events of the first film (which Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom reminds us of with some flashbacks, and I’m grateful because I forgot most of it), Aquaman  (Jason Momoa) is now married to Mera (Amber Heard) and the father of a baby, Arthur Jr. As he tries to balance his home life with his duties as the King of Atlantis, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) seeks revenge against him for the death of his father. When Manta discovers a trident that houses an ancient evil, Aquaman must join forces with an unlikely ally to save Atlantis and the surface world – his imprisoned half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson).

Before any of the finer points, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom suffers from an unwieldy plot that’s determined to throw in everything but the kitchen sink. A simple revenge story with Black Manta going after Aquaman through his family would have made for a nice, grounded movie that emphasized the characters. But this film throws in a centuries-old evil king, a natural element that will destroy the world with global warming, political upheaval in Atlantis, a brewing war with the surface world, a prison break, a conflicted scientist, and a giant magical seahorse that comes and goes as the plot needs it. None of these plots and subplots is given enough time to become anything more than an excuse for the characters to do things the film hopes are entertaining, and because nothing means anything, it never is.

The sheer number of them means that everything in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is rushed through to get to the next set piece, which revolves around a different plot point. When Black Manta first attacks Atlantis, the sequence ends in a fade to black because the film needs to move on quickly. While planning his next move, Aquaman decides the only way to find Black Manta is to break Orm out of prison; he doesn’t even consider anything else, like looking into the global warming mineral Manta is gathering or hunting down Manta’s old allies. Orm’s breakout is a cinch because he and Aquaman need to get to the next action scene, which accomplishes nothing except filling time. In the midst of this, they shove in another of these awful plot points where the villain is possessed by some mystical doohickey, one of Black Manta’s henchmen having a crisis of conscience, and enough global warming lectures to make Al Gore look at his watch. The film goes on like this till the end, with scenes not so much leading into each other as smashing into each other at light speed because there’s too much to do.

It’s a shame, because Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could have had some great character work if the plot had been streamlined and certain characters and ideas had been given a chance to breathe. For example, there’s a subplot about the various ruling families of Atlantis vetoing everything Aquaman tries to do as king and threatening to depose him. Why not have them actually do it? Then, Aquaman would be stripped of his royal resources, which makes his decision to free Orm an act of desperation rather than a lazy contrivance. Once he’s free, Orm argues that he was a better king than Aquaman, and he uses some examples that make his point; this is a great idea that’s dropped immediately, only to resurface for a corny speech later. The film should have played into this and had Aquaman truly doubt himself, particularly if he was just deposed. Get rid of the rest of the chuffa and have an intimate story about two brothers at odds with their paths in life and the villain who wants revenge. The waste in a lot of these superhero films isn’t just in the budgets.

That being said, the visual effects are as bad as some of the worst we’ve seen this year, at least in parts. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom doesn’t look as good as its predecessor, which, despite its many faults, was a visual splendor. This time, lots of sequences have that half-done look, with cartoony sea creatures taking you out of the movie. The worst of it comes in the action scenes, where not only do a lot of the monsters look fake, but it’s strikingly clear the actors are not actually there, replaced with those early-2000s rubber CGI stuntmen that never look real. The nadir of this is seeing what we’re supposed to believe is Nicole Kidman jumping from giant fish to giant fish in the superhero landing pose. As a result, the action scenes look like clips from a video game, and it’s hard to invest in anything.

The actors must have thought the same, because almost all of them look checked out of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Jason Momoa does his usual schtick, and if it works on you, maybe you’ll like it here. For me, it feels out of place and keeps Aquaman from feeling like a real character. (I will admit that a couple of his lines made me laugh, though; he has one as he’s freeing Orm from prison that I thought was really funny.) Aquaman also never feels like he’s being challenged in the movie; every fight he has is so one-sided that he’s effectively sleepwalking through what we’re supposed to believe is the battle of his life. For example, an introductory sequence sets up the guards holding Orm in prison, and not only are they intimidating enemies with cool looks, but they’re established as being prone to violence. But then, Aquaman takes them out in seconds, throwing them around like rag dolls, and Orm’s escape is a cakewalk. It undercuts the hero of the movie to make every obstacle in his path a pushover.

Insofar as the supporting cast, Patrick Wilson gives what is easily the best performance in the film, managing to make Orm feel human in a handful of scenes. Amber Heard is fine; she doesn’t have much to do, and it really could have been anyone playing Mera. Nicole Kidman looks like her soul is slowly dying, and watching one of the best actresses of all time reduced to delivering exposition and the occasional hug behind a water filter is a shame. (I’m not being snobby and saying she’s too good for a superhero movie; I’m saying if you’ve got her, use her!) Dolph Lundgren actually has a bigger part in this one than he did last time, not that he has a whole lot to do. Randall Park plays the same character he always plays, and it’s wearing thin. And poor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is adrift, with Black Manta being completely wasted, his entire revenge arc sidelined in favor of the dumb magical trident that possesses people. It’s hard not to feel for the performers in this one.

Then again, it also feels like nobody involved in this movie (Patrick Wilson aside – and, to be fair, Jason Momoa) cared about it. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the last film in the DCEU, and you get the impression that everyone involved knew that, although they couldn’t have at the time. It’s the definition of “product,” there just to be there, with no care, passion, or thought put into it. As such, it’s the perfect capper for a mostly depressing year at the movies.