Ok here’s my official non-spoilery review of Aquaman.
This review is best read while listening to Skylar Grey’s Everything I Need which encapsulates perfectly the essence of the entire movie. For your convenience. The link is provided below.
Are you listening to the song now? Not yet? Ok I’ll give you a minute.
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Ok, now that you have the song playing in the background, the review can begin.
Aquaman is the child of a lighthouse keeper and the Queen of Atlantis. A product of forbidden love between star crossed lovers who with the help of an Atlantean, Mera must find a mystical trident to a stop a war with the surface world.
The movie starts off with a quote from Jules Verne and at the end pays tribute to one of Jules Verne’s classics by way of an Easter egg
For an action flick that that portrays itself as mindless fun, it carries much more intellectual depth than you would expect from a feel good action movie, drawing inspirations from great literary works like Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and the greatest classic of all, Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio.
Despite its intellectual depth, the movie is at its core one that tugs at the heartstring of viewers, combining parallel depictions of romance between Aquaman and Mera with that of his long suffering father Thomas and Queen Atlanna (played by Nicole Kidman). The chemistry between Jason Momoa and Amber Heard is undeniable and will leave many viewers “shipping.”
The action set pieces are absolutely amazing. The epitome of which is a rooftop fight scene, seemingly shot in one take that traverses seamlessly between the foreground and the background while keeping audiences at the edge of their seats.
Some of the dialogue is cheesy but the movie is engaging enough that you will be more preoccupied with the action sequences set among some of the best visuals in its genre. Basically, if you randomly freeze framed at any point in the movie, it would have made a perfect screensaver.
Unlike some other comic book movie that requires you to watch 10 other movies or read the years of history in the pages of its comics to understand the subplots. You don’t need any pre-knowledge to enjoy Aquaman. Just leave your brain and pre-conceived notions at home and enjoy your time.
At the end of the day, Aquaman takes the thrill from Indian Jones, the romance from Romeo and Juliet, the action from Fast and Furious and the visuals from Avatar and combines it into a 2 hour 22 minute movie that keeps you wishing you were still in Atlantis days after you have left the cinema.
In my opinion it is the best comic hero movie of the year and definitely not one to be missed.
5 out of 5 stars.
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