James Wan brings the wrath of all failures of DCEU films into one spellbinding adventure!
Right from Atlana washing ashore to Arthur Curry finding his true identity, there’s heart at the core and wit at the superlatively well written and executed screenplay of Aquaman. This is exactly how this film serves as a perfect set piece for the origin story to introduce Aquaman in his first standalone film in to the already existing, vague and cranky universe of DC.
Just like every other superhero film, Aquaman is chained to clichés. Arthur Curry is alone. He’s bullied as a kid. He can talk to fishes like how Harry Potter talks to Snakes. He struggles to find his own place in this world as a teenager. But, the way these elements have been treated and brought together is what that has made this film a standout. “Match cuts” as called in screenplay writing has legibly helped this factor. This technique is heavily used in Netflix’s successful teen drama ‘13 Reasons why’.
In film, a match cut is a cut from one shot to another where the two shots are matched by an action or subject or even the subject matter. In the film, scenes like how the matured Arthur with Mira diving in to the sea traverses into the scene where the young Arthur who’s taking his first deep dive training with Vulko or be it the scene where matured Arthur catches the Trident that connects to the scene where adult Arthur who trains with Vulko to fight, lets the flow distinct and at the same time, highly relatable to the audience.
Technically, this film is a Marvel-come-DC product. There are many slow motion shots. Yet, they’re all properly lit; capturing the essence of every scene. Some of the outlandish tracking shots even range up to few minutes that makes the entire scene as lively as possible.
Apart from technical magnificence, Rupert Gregson Williams who previously composed Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, has again come up a score that showcases Atlantis in its own sheer scale of beauty and versatility. Yet, it’s not as heroic as Wonder Woman’s No Man’s Island or harmonious as Amazon’s of Themyscira. Still, does the play well.
Amber Heard as Mera, is the third beautiful mistress to be added in to DCEU after Gal Gadot and Margot Robbie. Due to her abilities with water, she can be addressed as the elder version of Katara from Avatar: The Last Air Bender. Jason Mamoa, the king himself, with his herculean physiques, shows no weakness in bringing Aquaman to the limelight. He’s tough just as he looks like.
There are few continuity flaws here and there that go unnoticed as the subplots skip places to take a tour around the world. Like how or why the Atlanteans left Arthur or his human dad alive when he was a kid or why ORM waited so long to arrest his trusted advisor for lying him. They could have easily avoided these blunders. But, the makers just didn’t.
There are few moments and jokes misplaced or would feel out of place. Yet, they do no harm to any scene or particularly, the emotions. Also, bringing some funkiness like where Arthur and Mera swaying their hands and showing some attitude as they trudge against the receding waves and an electronic score back-filling the whole sequence, is definitely quite admirable and maybe, irritable for some.
After all, Superman may have saved the whooping-assess of Justice League from Steppenwolf. But, it’s Aquaman who had redeemed the descending DC universe to the light of hope.