Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom did not set out for its sequel voyage knowing it would be a film to end an era. It’s been five years since Aquaman became a holiday hit for Warner Bros., and in those 60 months, the studio has again changed course with its DC Comics films, moving away from the DC Extended Universe that launched with Man Of Steel and concludes by either permanently retiring this version of Aquaman or shuffling him into a new paradigm.
Through it all, Lost Kingdom kept coming, driven by the enthusiasm of its star and co-creator Jason Momoa (he has a story credit on the film, which was reportedly based on his own pitch) and the filmmaking prowess of James Wan, who’s long since proven he can do blockbusters just as well as he can do horror tentpoles. We were originally supposed to see the film a year ago, but multiple delays pushed it back, and back again to a release date almost five years to the day from its predecessor. As a result this film felt like one of those franchise projects that was always distant, just out of reach, more idea than movie. Now it’s finally here, and it has the bittersweet distinction of being the curtain call of the fictional universe where its title character thrived.
Thankfully for all of us, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom does not ever stop to dwell on the strange set of circumstances surrounding its journey to the screen. It’s not interested in the drama, the behind-the-scenes reporting, the potential of a future without Momoa on the throne of Atlantis. Instead, it’s the kind of film that wants to leave everything it has out on the field, and that produces a kinetic, often scattered, but nonetheless entertaining popcorn movie that truly gives us everything it has, and then some.
It’s been a while since Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Momoa) defeated and exiled his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) and became King of Atlantis in the process, and a lot’s changed since he took the crown. He’s a father now, raising a baby son with his wife Mera (Amber Heard) and his father Tom (Temuera Morrison), and he’s finding it hard to juggle the joys and challenges of parenthood with the administrative duties that come with running an entire kingdom.
Things get harder, of course, when the supervillain known as Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) resurfaces with a frightening, magical new weapon and a plan to defeat Aquaman once and for all, avenging the death of the Big Bad’s father in the first movie. But it’s far from a simple revenge plot. Driven by dark forces he doesn’t fully understand, Black Manta is reshaping the entire planet in his quest for ultimate, Aquaman-destroying power, and if Arthur hopes to stop him, he has no choice but to break Orm out of jail and team up with his former enemy to save Atlantis, and by extension the world.
That little nugget of plot tease at the end there, Arthur busting Orm out of a strange desert prison and then taking him on an adventure, is the rocket fuel that keeps Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom shooting forward with swagger, humor, and heart. It’s not clear who on the story team deserves credit for turning a huge chunk of this film into a buddy road movie about two guys who slowly come to love each other, but it works like gangbusters, thanks in large part to the sheer amount of charm that comes from Momoa and Wilson sharing the screen together. With Arthur as the comedian and Orm as the straight man, they banter like crazy, get into trouble, and even find ways to slowly and organically form new bonds of respect. When the movie’s working with that formula, it’s absolute gold, both on a set piece and a character level.
Unfortunately, that part of the story comes a little too late, which brings us to the central issue that weighs down Lost Kingdom: Its scattershot, often frustrating plotting. This movie needs absolutely no help from the rest of the DCEU to become a complex web of characters, subplots, and various narrative ingredients that often carry little emotional or thematic weight for much of the runtime. The movie is, thankfully, not so long that it overstays its welcome, but it crams so much into two hours that you’re often left wondering how much of it we really needed, or whether or not some of it will come back in the end to make a big difference that, ultimately, never quite comes. Screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, returning for his second Aquaman feature, deserves some kind of medal for making it all hold together in any graspable way, but even with his valiant efforts, the film can’t help but veer into overstuffed blockbuster territory.
The saving grace, of course, and the film’s biggest standout apart from Momoa and Wilson, is James Wan’s energetic, kid-in-a-candy-shop direction. This Aquaman has lost none of the sense of bombastic fun that made the first film so memorable. You can feel it radiating out not just from Momoa’s Hype Man enjoyment, but from the way Wan frames shots, layers in color, and plays up the sheer scope of the story he’s telling. This is a director who firmly believes that if you’re making a comic book movie about a guy who hangs out with aquatic creatures, you should absolutely team him up with a sassy octopus and a talking crab, and put him toe-to-toe with an underwater Jabba the Hutt voiced by Martin Short (no, I did not make that up). You should, in other words, have fun.
And above all else, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is fun. It does not dwell on its status as a finale for a certain comic book movie era, nor does it worry over the possibility that we’ll never see Momoa’s Arthur Curry again. Instead, this is a film that takes big swing after big swing, and leaves us filled up with spectacle, warmth, and a sense that the wait was probably worth it.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom opens in theaters December 22