And so, the DC Comics movie universe, accidentally and then later officially shorthanded as the DCEU, ends in 2023 much as it began 10 years ago: With great clamor, and little indication of some grander connection to a vast web of intersuperhero continuity. Even the style of clamor present in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a world away from the emo-bombast of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, the big-yet-not-big-enough hit that kicked off this decade-long experiment back in 2013, and inspired the first of countless DC pivots that eventually (along with general corporate insecurity) allowed the whole thing to collapse in a heap. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, emboldened by the genuine success of its predecessor, clamors on its own terms, and collapses in its own heap.
This feels true even when Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom displays evidence of a drawn-out production – which it does almost as soon as it begins, when Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), also known as the Aquaman, launches into narration meant to catch us up on his life since the first film, which ended with him becoming king of the secret underwater society of Atlantis. Director James Wan splices together Arthur taking on a band of pirates on a boat, fighting creatures in an underwater arena and, principally, taking care of his infant son Arthur Junior in a way that suggests those first two things were perhaps once major setpieces that didn’t come together in this streamlined final cut. Mining them for montage material creates some fun juxtapositions; sometimes big-budget special effects are more fun when they don’t carry the weight of 10-minute obligations. But while this is an early sign that the Aquaman sequel will maintain the gleeful, fantastical muchness of its predecessor, it’s also a warning that this movie will be so busy, even inconsequential cutaways will involve marshaling vast CG resources. It’s one of those superhero movies where no one seems to fully inhabit a recognizably human body.
That’s what the Aquaman sub-series is for, though: a chance for DC’s godlike characters to go full-on Clash of the Titans, replete with a full cast of gods and monsters before even mentioning the various other Justice League members, all absent here as before. Arthur, already struggling to balance the dull duties of governance with the ragged joys of child-rearing (and it is sweet to see big, goofy Jason Momoa show sincere investment in getting his son down to sleep), is further bedeviled by accelerated climate change, which can be traced back to his old nemesis Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). Manta – a human, not an underwater-dwelling Atlantean – has discovered an ancient superfuel that further wrecks the environment, as well as a dark-magic trident. Put together, these MacGuffins should give him the power he needs to get revenge on Aquaman. Arthur must find him and stop him, insisting that his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson), the imprisoned villain of the previous film, is the only Atlantean who can help with this task.
This is how the movie eventually settles into a kingdom-hopping buddy adventure with Arthur and Orm bickering over best practices for underwater heroics. Before they even get to the titular lost kingdom, they’re zipping through a hidden jungle, eluding giant grasshoppers; starting trouble in the Sunken Citadel, an underwater Mos Eisley with its own celebrity-voiced Jabba the Hutt figure; and squaring off repeatedly with Black Manta who, as before, tends to enter and exit scenes via explosion. Fans of the Star Wars prequels or the Avatar pictures should continue to delight at this bounty of monsters, lasers and watercrafts, however cheesier Wan’s showmanship is than that of vintage Lucas or Cameron.
That’s part of his charm, anyway, alongside his sheer energy and horror-impresario flair for teeth-gnashing spectacle; Wan is a blockbuster filmmaker who seems amped to throw whatever money he’s been allotted up on the screen – or, rather, chucking his studio-budget treasure down into the glorious depths of the ocean. It does pay off: Compare Wan’s corner of the DCEU with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, where a fantastical world had all the awe and wonder of a sitcom reunion conducted via Zoom. Revived and pumped up for the sequel, Wan’s synthy semi-psychedelia still makes for a delightful trip, but maybe Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom could have used a little fresh air; for all of the eye-popping colors, creatures and action flourishes he engineers in and around the sea, there isn’t a single sequence as front-to-back satisfying as the surface-world rooftop chase in Italy that popped off the screen in the first movie.
It’s not a coincidence that the Italy sequence required the presence of Mera (Amber Heard), the underwater princess who has since married Arthur, given birth to his son, become Queen of Atlantis and assumed the wifely duties of not fully appearing in this film. Whether or not the plan was always to sideline Mera for this installment – Nicole Kidman’s appearances as the former Queen are relatively concise, too, suggesting a garden variety boys’ club – the filmmakers have not executed it with much grace. Heard, a steely highlight of Aquaman, here feels as though her scenes here were all added in post, with some obligatory CG ass-kicking and powers-flexing but not much in the way of lines, and certainly not any character development. Why could that be? Might it have something to do with Heard’s involvement in a highly publicized lawsuit from her ex-husband Johnny Depp, over the supposed defamation she committed by describing an abusive relationship in writing? Given the clunky way Mera is literally silenced in the movie (at one point she sustains a neck injury), it’s hard not to assume that someone important in the production considered her a liability and made a decision of profound, deeply disappointing cowardice: To treat her as radioactive, per the wishes of the dumbest 10% of internet idiots.
Heard’s demotion from her initial Padme Amidala status (serious ruler, woman of action, expert clotheshorse) might feel less glaring without the endless scenes Wan engineers featuring Black Manta steamrolling his reluctant helper Stephen Shin (Randall Park), a scientist who yearns to find Atlantis, only to wind up mixed up in Manta’s vengeance instead. In a movie with plenty of returning characters, countless new sights, and the overall feeling of subplots trimmed and rearranged to maximize momentum wherever possible, the focus on Park’s one-note character feels like the result of leftovers that couldn’t be extricated. Park deserves better than Robert Wuhl status, and these scenes also strand Abdul-Mateen in a kind of bad-guy limbo, rehashing his menace (Wan gives him one great horror-villain visual flash) without deepening the character.
Yet it’s hard to stay mad, or even flummoxed, at such a thoroughly daffy enterprise – at a movie that takes the DCEU’s reluctant-hero shtick to its most majestically cartoony extremes, until it comes back around to approximating the same universe’s best shot at superheroic joy. Those emotions are goosed by Momoa, who seems to genuinely love playing the character and seems sincerely enthusiastic about the movie’s environmental angle (no matter how abstracted it is from real-life threats). Is there much more to this version of the character, though? In a way, the lavish garishness of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom helps explain why this expanded universe wasn’t especially sustainable, even when it was really cooking. Aquaman left it all on the ocean floor; its sequel can only work harder for slightly less fun, and the rest of its universe can hardly compete.
Director: James Wan
Writer: David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, James Wan, Jason Momoa, Thomas Pa’a Sibbett
Starring: Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, Randall Park
Release Date: December 22, 2023
Jesse Hassenger is associate movies editor at Paste. He also writes about movies and other pop-culture stuff for a bunch of outlets including Polygon, Inside Hook, Vulture, and SportsAlcohol.com, where he also has a podcast. Following @rockmarooned on Twitter is a great way to find out about what he’s watching or listening to, and which terrifying flavor of Mountain Dew he has most recently consumed.