This was the last superhero movie of the year which I surely would not want to miss on the big screen. Having seen the last few movies from ...
Brief Story Line
Few years after the events of the first movie, Arthur (Jason Momoa - Fast X, Dune etc) had become the king of Atlantis, got married with Mera (Amber Heard - The Danish Girl, Drive Hard etc) and had a baby boy named Arthur Jr. Arthur had to juggle between life at sea and the surface where he stayed with his father Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison - The Book of Boba Fett TV series etc). However their peaceful life were soon interrupted with the reappearance of David Kane/Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II - Ambulance, Candyman etc) who was now working with scientist Stephen Shin (Randall Park - Totally Killer, Paw Patrol: The Movie etc) to search for artifacts that would help Kane to revenge on Aquaman.
So when Kane and Stephen somehow found something powerful that could enhance Black Manta's strength, they began their search to acquire more of them. To stop Kane's plan, Arthur decided to seek the help from his half brother Orm (Patrick Wilson - Midway, The Commuter etc) who knew him better but still imprisoned due to his actions before.
And so how would the story conclude? You would find them all in this movie.
End of Brief Story Line
My wife and I really enjoyed the original film that was released back in 2018 and obviously we were hoping for the same here. Now the early part of the movie seemed to have the same spirit of showing the playful character of Arthur whose present life was great with the family he had. But as the story progressed, my wife felt it was unclear where it was heading. I also felt that the movie a bit unbalanced with too much focus on Arthur taking care of his baby boy like he was a single parent. I read there was controvery surrounding Amber Heard during the filming and likely the reason for her decrease screen time.
Anyway both of us felt the movie was a lot better since the appearance of Patrick Wilson's character Orm. His dynamic and chemistry with Jason Momoa was really enjoyable to see added with the brotherly banter that seem realistic. It was nice watching Arthur making fun of his younger brother and there were plenty of moments where we laughed because of these. In fact it was one of the best traits in the film for us which I think the director James Wan (creator of Conjuring universe and directed plenty of successful films) was able to bring out.
The action were also very entertaining. I loved the fighting sequence which were quite well choreographed with Momoa showing his agility despite having a very large body. And I like that the action scenes were quite abundant whether in the sea or on the surface. With the good enough special effects made the action even more convincing. No wonder the movie had a high budget as it required a lot of visual effects works. Sadly though it might be challenging if not impossible to recoup the production value with its unspectacular box office performance.
In addition to the names I mentioned above, there were few stars who reprised their roles here such as Dolph Lundgren (Expend4bles, Masters of the Universe etc) as King Nereus, Nicole Kidman (The Undoing mini series, Bombshell etc) as Atlanna, Arthur & Orm's mother, John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones movies etc) as the voice of King Brine. The movie also had some new cast like Pilou Asbæk (Hidden Strike, Outside the Wire etc) as Kordax, Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building TV series, Black Panther etc) as the voice of the hilarious Kingfish and few others.
After finishing the movie which had duration of 124 minutes, my wife and I felt entertained and like this one too. However if I had to compare with its predecessor, I had to admit that I enjoyed that one more. Somehow the first movie had a more balanced story and probably because an origin story was almost always better than the subsequent films. In this sequel it also had cool action scenes with totally amazing sound effects but we were a bit disappointed with the way the final fight ended as it felt a bit anticlimactic. Plus we also thought there was something missing on the ending of the character Dr. Shin.
Btw there was a mid end credit scene just for fun but no post end credit scene. Should not come as a surprise as it is the final movie of DC Extended Universe and after this there would no longer be Aquaman played by Jason Momoa. It's pretty sad actually since I personally thought he nailed this role perfectly. So if you are a fan of Aquaman, I think you would still enjoy him here. And if you like a blockbuster action adventure movie of a superhero fighting super villain with strong power who wants to ruin the world (pretty standard plot), then this one definitely would entertain you like it did to my wife and me. However, if you want a movie with coherent story telling and expecting some other DC characters to appear here and are critical of such traits, you would probably be disappointed like the critics. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars