Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom Review

The DCEU has come to an end with the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman, the billion-dollar film in the series.

Four years after the events of Aquaman, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is king of Atlantis, married to Mera (Amber Heard), and has a son with her. However, David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is desperate for revenge against Aquaman and searches for the ruins of a lost civilisation in Antarctica. When David finds the Black Trident he can communicate with its creator who promises to give the villain the power to kill Aquamna and his family.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom had the cards stacked against it. Warner Brothers have announced they are going to reboot their DC movie properties with Superman: Legacy and this reboot had handicapped all their releases in 2023 (Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and Blue Beetle). The release of the film had been delayed for a year, because of reshoots and due to the highly publicised Depp. v. Heard case there were rumours that the production was looking to cut Amber Heard’s role as much as possible. Before the film’s release, Heard released a statement that she was persecuted on set which Warner Brothers have refuted and even the people who worked on it seemed dejected. Momoa announced there won’t be any more Aquaman movies.

This air of negativity has led to Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom pre-release tracking being worse than The Marvels, the box office has been terrible, and the reviews have ranged from meh to awful. The Guardian, Telegraph, and Independent all gave Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom one-star reviews. Many critics seem to be out to give Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom a kicking and write a load of water-based puns. Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom wasn’t even the worst film in the DCEU, that dishonour goes to the first Suicide Squad film.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom big issue was its divertive nature. It was a mix of ideas and plot points from other franchises. James Wan was trying to make Aquaman into an underwater Star Wars due to all the underwater laser battles and Aquaman and Orm (Patrick Wilson) meeting Jabba the Hub’s underwater cousin. There was a bit of Lord of the Rings and H.P. Lovecraft cosmic horror due to the lost civilisation and the Black Trident having a corrupting influence, like the One Ring from Lord of the Rings and the Horcrux from Harry Potter. Aquaman even refers to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and Thor because Orm was locked in a prison guarded by monsters and two brothers with a fractious relationship were forced to go on a quest together. The scene on the island filled with monstrous plants and insects was similar to Peter Jackson’s version of King Kong.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom didn’t bring anything new to its own series. The film reused the same characters with Black Manta having the same motivation as he did in the first film and the origins of the Black Trident was similar to Atlan’s Trident in Aquaman (2018). Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom expanded on the environmental thread that was only briefly touched on in the first Aquaman film. The villain’s plot in the sequel was to accelerate global warming by burning an ancient fuel so an ancient being could be released. It made Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom into the Captain Planet movie that was never made.

The final part of Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom felt overly familiar with its plot points. They were predictable like a character having a change of heart, and the malicious spirit offering to give power to Black Manta shouldn’t be trusted. It was lazy screenwriting.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom did have some virtues. James Wan brought in more horror since there were a lot of monsters and one of the villains practiced necromancy. There was a Lovecraftian element to the film due to the ruins of the ancient civilisation and the climax featuring a battle between the Atlanteans and an army of the living dead. It gave Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom a bit of character amongst the more formulaic elements. Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom was shorter than its predecessor by twenty minutes, so it was a pacey adventure.

Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom was more of the same from the Aquaman series. It was an adequate offering from the DCEU but it won’t change the tide regarding the superhero genre’s stagnate state.