My Review of 'Aquaman'

The DC universe hasn't really built up a great reputation for itself in the past few years with the exception of the movie Wonder Woman. I have to admit I didn't think that the other DC movies deserved as much flack that they did. I thought Man of Steel wasn't that bad of a movie. Suicide Squad I did fall asleep watching through. I wasn't sure if that was a sleep deprivation thing or if the movie was really that boring. It could have been a combination of both. I didn't have much expectations when I went to go see Aquaman. I thought Jason Mamoa's portray of Aquaman was fine in Justice League. Again I didn't think Justice League was that bad of a movie.

This movie tries to do a lot in a short span of time and they accomplished a lot. They explain the origin of Aquaman, they explain the origin of Atlantis and the seven seas, the origins of Aquaman's enemies and all this while explaining how he's got to save the world. I felt like this could have been split up into different movies but I guess Aquaman isn't that popular of a superhero— so they have this one shot to make it so why not throw all your eggs into one basket? I know where they were going with this.

First off this is a James Wan film. I'm not totally familiar with James Wan but he makes it very apparent that it's his movie and he directed this movie. For the most part I like his direction. The action sequences are really on point. I don't think this was a rated R movie but some of these action sequences despite not having gory scenes were seriously brutal. I tensed up watching some of the scenes. They were probably some of the best action scenes in a superhero movie by far!

The next thing that I found that was really great was the visuals. They hit it out of the ball park with the visual effects. This movie is beautiful and you can tell they put a lot of money and effort to get everything in there. I thought that the art direction was really nice. Since Aquaman isn't a well known character a lot of the characters looked fresh and new. There was the odd been there done that feel, otherwise there was a lot of variety in looks to this movie. They played a lot with the colors and the textures to make the underwater world seem different in each of the seven seas.

This movie was pretty epic with the large amount of content packed into it. There were some bummer moments though. First and foremost this is a kids movie. It's written with dialogue and plot points that seem childish and cliched. The predictability of the movie is probably because Aquaman is a main character of the DC universe so we know he has to triumph in his first movie. At least let us be concerned for someone that is important in his life. Everyone seemed safe in this movie with no apparent risk at all.

So overall what did I think of this movie? Well I had a great time watching it so that's what's most important. It's a thrill for most of the movie. There's a bit of expedition in the middle of the movie when it suddenly changes from an origin story to an Indiana Jones movie. I thought that part kind of dragged a little but it's not too long. I will have to give this movie two separate scores. If you have to see this movie, I would say you have to see it in the theaters. I watched it in 3D and they pulled off some really good 3D visuals. For the full theater experience I would say it's a 7.5 out of 10. The big sound and visuals make it worth it to go to the theaters to watch. If you're going to be watching it at home, I would give this movie a 6.5 out of 10. If you're into the DC movie universe you should watch this in the theaters.