You gotta love how many comic book movies we’re getting each year. Thanks to the phenomenon that is Marvel Cinematic Universe everyone wants a piece of that pie. By “that pie” I mean, of course, a series of interconnected superhero movies. You’ve probably heard of the DCEU (DC Cinematic Universe) and its latest hit Aquaman – another fail in the series of letdowns. Seriously, why can’t DC make a good movie? Okay, okay, Wonder Woman was pretty epic but Batman vs Superman, Man of Steel, Suicide Squad, and Justice League were all hilariously bad or mediocre at best.
It comes as no surprise that the Fish-boy is in the same bracket, albeit somewhat less crappy than the rest. So, why does it suck? Here are my top 5 reasons!
1. Extremely one-dimensional characters
Look at Arthur Curry – he’s a surfer bro through and through! Mera? What even is she doing in this movie? She could have been completely replaced by a talking fish and you wouldn’t see any difference. Not even going to bother with Aquaman’s brother Orm, or Dolph Lundgren’s character. It’s like a bad 80’s cartoon where the good boys are good and the evil is always punished.
2. Meh villains with meh motivation
Okay, speaking of Orm aka the Ocean Master, was his plan actually to destroy all the “land-dwellers” because they are polluting the oceans? And yet we never actually saw any plastic bags in Atlantis. Now THAT would be a serious issue! As to Black Manta, revenge for a father is as cliché as clichés can go. And it was his own fault too! Like, what did you expect when you signed up to be a pirate?
3. Too long!
Pretty self-explanatory this one – the movie is 30 minutes too long. Upon second viewing I almost dozed off a few times. Next time either trim your movie, or add some exciting or character-building moments.
4. It’s 90% CGI and insane action, no character growth
Speaking of character-building, where the heck is it? We ended up in the same exact place as we started, only now Arthur is the king. Remember how Iron Man did it? That’s how you do character growth.
5. Too much underwater BS and almost no human interaction
The whole point of the movie was to show that being a half-human, half-Atlantean, Arthur would be able to become the bridge that unites the two races. But aside from that scene with the selfies and a couple of other short moments, we saw nothing that would tell us more about his human side. And it’s the best part!
Now, you may think I hate this movie with all my essence, but you’re wrong. I actually enjoyed it the first time around and it definitely has more positives than negatives. But it’s far from being perfect and you gotta admit it!
