The 1980s, the coast of Maine, a small lighthouse. Lighthouse keeper Tom (Temuera Morrison) finds the body of a woman in strange clothes and with a trident (Nicole Kidman), takes her home, pumps her out and puts her to sleep. The next morning the characters get to know each other: he is a simple American hard worker, she is the queen of Atlantis who escaped from under the crown. As a result, the boy Arthur is born - a half-man-semi-Atlant.

Already today, Aquaman (Jason Momoa) takes a breath after the battle with Steppenwulf (see “Justice League”) and saves the crew of the submarine from the attack of the family of pirates (Yahya Abdul-Matin II and Michael Beach). In parallel with this, his mother’s underwater brother, Orm Marius (Patrick Wilson), wants to crush all the kingdoms of the sea and go to war against the inhabitants of the land - simply because he is angry, and Atlantis alone is not enough for him. His bride Mera (Amber Heard) does not agree with this state of affairs. She is looking for Curry and convincing him to try to take the throne of Atlantis instead of his brother in order to prevent losses on both sides.

Immediately it should be noted that the second “Wonder Woman” from “Aquaman” did not come out: it cannot be called neither bad, nor good, nor boring, nor breathtaking. Another thing that before Warner Bros. and DC, it seems, did not have the task to build something similar.

The solo album about Arthur Curry was entrusted to Australian director of Malaysian origin James Van - he is primarily known as the author of the three most important horror lines of the XXI century: “Saw”, “Astral” and “Curse”.

We, however, are more interested in Curry’s Fast and Furious 7, which finally translated the rather harsh film series into comedic franchise status. Actually, it is in it that there is a famous scene with a car flying between the skyscrapers in Abu Dhabi - so keep in mind the fact that Van is able to have a big-budget party on the big screen.

“Aquaman” is a very foolish film, but, most likely, the picture is not due to the abundance of nonsense due to Van and his team. Unfortunately, the legacy of Zack Snyder and Christopher Nolan, who laid the foundation for the entire new DC cinema universe, is too significant, so the viewer will most likely hear the echoes of this mediocrity for quite some time.

Doubtful (if not absent at all) chemistry between the heroes of Momoa and Heard can also be attributed to the guilt of the predecessors of the Australian: he did not answer for the casting. However, judging about the actor's game in the case of “Aquaman” is not necessary, because it is not there in general: a pleiad of eminent artists in various degrees (all mentioned above plus Willem Dafoe and Dolph Lundgren) replay with such ecstasy that you inevitably start to get incredible pleasure from it.

Not being able to make a good movie with such introductory, Wang went on the best path of all possible: turned the whole gushing pretentious pathos into an absolute farce.

As a result, the intonation at the output turned out to be something similar to the Marvel films about “The Torah” - to be more precise, to the first and third. However, it is more appropriate to compare Aquaman with Joel Schumacher’s paintings Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, which were idiotic to the bone, but stunningly beautiful from a visual point of view. The world of Atlantis and other oceanic kingdoms bursting with acidic colors in the new blockbuster is very much like the gothic-neon Gotham Schumacher - there are even almost identical statues of gigantic proportions.

  • © A still from the film Aquaman (2018)

Van reaches a special degree of absurdism with the help of the soundtrack: some absolutely fierce "pop" repeatedly breaks into "Aquamen". The only exceptions are Sigur Rós, playing at the very beginning, and retro-futuristic passages that appear under the water and resemble the material of the great electric duo Drexciya.

All this is taking shape at the very moment of a bright DC film: at first it was supposed to be buried by the studio "Suicide Squad", then hopes were pinned on Joss Whedon, who was finishing up the "League of Justice" behind Snyder. As a result, the palm went to Aquaman. It seems, precisely because Wang was given more creative freedom and was not forced to retake anything.

There is every reason to believe that in a couple of years we may find ourselves in a rather strange situation, when the truly joyful Marvels go deep into dark and depressive tones (this can be seen from the same recent trailer for the fourth Avengers). sullenness and will begin to stamp similar merry trinkets. In the end, it is difficult to imagine the harsh cinema of James Gunn, who after dismissal from Disney settled in the camp of competitors. In the meantime, long live the king!