Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom (2023) follows Aquaman (Jason Mamoa); as he tries to defeat Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II); once again. Black Manta is back and much more powerful than before as he now has the Black Trident and wants to destroy everything that Aquaman loves by destroying the world.
The plot makes no sense, the humor is not funny, the fight scenes are basic and boring, and most of the movie is straight-up copied from other superhero movies.
The plot lacks logic because the villain is trying to destroy everything that the hero loves, but he does it by trying to destroy the entire world. This would also mean that he and everyone that he loves would die along with them. It seemed like the writers were just trying to demonize Black Manta as much as possible.
The humor is unfunny and at some points just gross. The movie uses a lot of toilet humor, which at some points is funny but for the most part unfunny and just goes a bit too far. For example, sometimes the jokes feel poorly timed and out of place. Some people might find the jokes funny, but if you don’t like toilet humor then you definitely won’t like them.
The fight scenes are basic, boring, and just don’t have the thrill that DC fights usually have. For example in Batman v. Superman, despite the movie not being the best, one has to admit that the fight scenes were amazing. They were fast, action-packed, and were able to keep the viewers eyes on the screen. In Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom, the fights just feel slow and just don’t have as much action as the battles in previous movies.
Most of the movie is straight-up copied from other superhero movies, more specifically Marvel movies. Part of the plot involves a hidden kingdom with certain resources that the king wants to share with the world. However, the other political leaders want to stay hidden. This seems to be just copied from Black Panther.
A lot of the scenes were cut from the movie, especially the ones including Amber Heard, who plays Mera in the movie, leaving her with barely any screen time. According to Warner Brothers Studios, the movie was also delayed because of the Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp trial and some conflict between Jason Mamoa and Amber Heard behind the scenes.
Overall, this movie just isn’t worth watching and it isn’t able to keep the viewer interested. Even though I didn’t expect this movie to be good, I still found myself disappointed and I had no problem leaving to get snacks. Everything about this movie was either confusing or bland and I would definitely recommend not watching this movie.
While Aquaman: The Lost Kingdom isn’t the worst DC movie to date, it definitely isn’t even close to being one of the best. This movie was also the last in the DC Cinematic Universe, although it is getting rebooted by James Gunn. If you like superhero movies, you might like this movie, but don’t expect much.
