Action
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom (12A)
Review: Success comes easily to some blockbusters while others work visibly harder to achieve mediocrity. The first Aquaman film, released in 2018, strained every sinew to engineer an origin story for the king of Atlantis but ultimately capsized in a tsunami of headache-inducing special effects, despite the buoyancy aid of Jason Momoa’s natural charm. Returning director James Wan has not learnt from the myriad mistakes of that initial foray into DC Comics world-building. He opens the floodgates on digital trickery in a wearisome sequel festooned with prolonged action sequences and slow-motion hand-to-hand combat that proudly showcase Momoa’s power and athleticism with the eponymous superhero’s gold trident.
Scriptwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick shoehorns global warming into a bloated battle against a Sauron-like sorcerer, who corrupts innocent minds through an ancient artefact and is reborn by spilling noble Atlantean blood. There are many potential sacrifices in Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom, including the hirsute king’s cherubic newborn, who has inherited marine telepathy and can communicate with creatures of the deep. The rosy-cheeked moppet can use this miraculous power to see subtlety is sleeping with the fishes in Wan’s picture.
The fate of the underwater kingdom of Atlantis hangs in the balance when ruthless mercenary David Kane aka Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) accelerates his plan to avenge his father’s death at the hands of Aquaman by wielding a mythical black trident. This devastating weapon, forged with dark magic by the power-crazed king of Necrus (Pilou Asbaek) during the reign of King Atlan (Vincent Regan), is discovered by marine biologist Dr Stephen Shin (Randall Park) in a tomb beneath rapidly melting polar ice. Kane answers the trident’s call and enacts a diabolical plan to steal caches of ancient fuel orichalcum, which releases greenhouse gases when burnt to turn up the thermostat on Earth and accelerate environmental catastrophe.
“I will avenge my father even if I have to make a deal with the devil,” Kane snarls at a horrified Dr Shin. To defeat Black Manta and second-in-command Stingray (Jani Zhao), Aquaman forges a fragile alliance with his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) and bolsters the ranks with his mother Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) and sweetheart Mera (Amber Heard). Topside, Arthur’s father Tom (Temuera Morrison) babysits Arthur Jr and hopes a decent dramatic subplot will wash ashore before the end credits roll to merit his on-screen inclusion.
Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom opens with a humorous ode to parenthood replete with running gag about Arthur Jr’s expertly targeted urine stream before a creaky secondhand plot sets sail for preposterousness. Fractious exchanges between Momoa and Wilson’s feuding siblings is reminiscent of the Thor and Loki dynamic from rivals Marvel, and a throwaway line of dialogue makes the similarity explicit. Imitation does not flatter Wan’s film, which reduces female characters to plot devices as the script loudly bangs a drum for global, cross-political collaboration to address the climate crisis before it is too late. Time runs out for Aquaman’s return in the opening hour.
Find Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom in the cinemas
