Arthur Curry’s life is a mixed bag.
I mean, sure, he has to admit that it’s good to be Aquaman. And the king of Atlantis. Ruling over an advanced underwater civilization and fighting alongside exotic sea creatures is super cool. And up on dry land, Arthur is equally stoked about spending time with his infant son, Junior.
But then there’s all that deep-sea politics to deal with. The Atlantian Council is always something of a spiny sea urchin irritation in his backside. And hey, just sitting on an underwater throne for tediously long ceremonies can be exhausting.
Arthur would far rather be an average Joe with an average family and an average glass of Guinness waiting for him after an average workday. But that’s not to be.
There are, though, more pressing things to worry over right now. For one thing, some massive environmental changes have been taking place on the surface and in the sea, thanks to bizarre global warming spikes. And those changes have caused plagues in Atlantis.
Then there’s David Kane, also known as the villain Black Manta. No surprise here, he’s wreaking havoc once again. In fact, Kane used Atlantian tech to create a super suit for himself and proclaimed his desire for vengeance after Arthur killed his father. Arthur and he have clashed before, but he’s now got supercharged powers from an ancient Black Trident that he discovered somewhere in Antarctica.
Arthur can’t help but sigh over that. Why is there all this dangerous ancient tech stuff stashed where baddies can find it? For that matter, why isn’t that imperious Atlantian Council helping him with any of this junk?
It looks like Arthur will have no choice but to find help elsewhere. Even though it pains him to do so, he’ll have to turn to his half-brother, the former king, Orm, to get a little extra muscle and some ancient Atlantian insight. Yeah, he was the guy whom Arthur defeated for the throne of Atlantis. And he was the guy Arthur sent to a desert prison, and who hates his guts. But sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
Maybe they can fix up this climate emergency stuff, too, if he can keep Orm from stabbing him in the back. Man! Being a king ain’t a piece of cake.
Arthur is far from your average superhero type. And in many ways, that’s a good thing. He’s ready with a lighthearted quip when dealing with his angry half-brother. And he’s learned to do the right thing at every turn, even offering aid to a vile enemy (something he didn’t offer in the past). And because of this open, positive change, Arthur is able to connect with his brother, Orm. The two men forgive one another and fight for the good of Atlantis and the world.
It’s implied that a lot of those changes in Arthur’s perspective have come about because of his infant son. Arthur is obviously overjoyed with the boy’s addition to his life. He also rejoices that his son has similar Atlantian skills that they can share. And that family addition has helped Arthur appreciate his single parent dad, Tom, even more. Arthur calls him out as a real hero. Tom replies, “Sometimes, not giving up is the most heroic thing you can do.”
In fact, the film as a whole lauds the importance of family love and support. (And those positive themes are in sharp contrast with David Kane’s desire to destroy Arthur and his family.) For instance, Atlanna, Arthur and Orm’s Atlantian mother, rejoices when seeing the two men together. And she pleads with them to stand strong by each other’s side. Later, Arthur and Orm avoid a great disaster by calling upon their brotherly bond.
In that mix, Arthur and all of his family members fight for each other and are willing to face any danger to protect others. And when Arthur fears that he isn’t well suited to be king, Orm tells him that he’s much better at the job than he thinks. “You do the right thing even when the wrong way is easier,” Orm tells him. “And you even ask for help from your worst enemy.”
Arthur later makes a speech before a crowd of people, encouraging everyone to overcome petty prejudices and work together for a common good.
The only reference to God pops up when the villainous Kane, thanks God for global warming.
On the other hand, Orm makes it clear that he believes “the safety and security of Atlantis is a sacred trust.” And all Atlanteans have prodigious powers in the form of super-strength and other extra-human abilities to fulfill that trust. Later in the film, someone states that that there are certain special aspects of the blood of the royal Atlantian family, too.
That blood discussion ties into events that deal with magic, black magic and spells that have been used to curse people, deliver abundant power, turn Atlantians into demon-like monsters and seal an entire kingdom in a perpetual frozen state. We hear that Arthur’s royal descendant sealed that dark and evil kingdom away with blood magic. And it requires blood from Arthur’s family line to unseal it.
The Black Trident Kane discovers is imbued with the above-mentioned black magic as well. And every time someone touches it, they not only see overwhelming visions, but they find themselves controlled and empowered by an evil, imprisoned sorcerer-king. Kane and Orm both find themselves under that sorcerer’s thrall. In fact, Kane is aware of the affect but chooses the promise of great power anyway. “If I have to make a deal with a devil, I will,” he declares.
Kane tells someone that his knife will taste blood whenever he draws it. And after nicking someone’s neck with it, he says, “Pray you never see it again.”
We see a number of human and fish-like females (including Arthur’s wife, Mera) wearing cleavage-baring tops and outfits. Some also wear formfitting outfits that accentuate their feminine curves. A blobby, fish-like pirate king has a harem of women caressing his oversized body.
We see several muscular and shirtless men.
Arthur kisses his wife, Mera. Mera, in turn, kisses someone on the face as a show of thanks.
David Kane wears a large scar across his face, a reminder of the last time he fought Aquaman. His father was also killed in the past by Arthur. Early on, Kane growls, “I’m gonna kill Aquaman, murder his family and burn his kingdom to ash.” And that hate-filled declaration is not only repeated but drives the majority of the explosive and destructive violence in this film. In fact, at one point Kane grabs Arthur’s infant son and moves to impale him with a large knife as part of his revenge and as part of a blood ritual.
From a more generic perspective, though, the audience itself is pummeled with a flood of CGI-crafted visuals filled with massive explosions, frenetic armed battles and fistfights, and supercharged humanoid bash-fests. Swarms of demon-like monsters rush the screen. People are grabbed and wrenched away by huge, monstery tentacles and robotic ship claws. Men fall into huge crevices that open in the ground. Combatants fire high-powered laser blasters and rip up the scenery high and low.
An ancient Atlantian weapon is affixed to Kane’s submarine that uses ultrasonic energy blasts to disrupt the nervous system of its victims. Everyone it hits writhes in agony. As a countermeasure, Arthur calls upon an enormous pod of whales that use their own sonic waves to blow up a ship and its Atlantian power reactor.
People are stabbed and impaled. Some are picked up and thrown and their powersuits explode on impact.
In one area, a specific form of pollution causes the local flora and fauna to mutate, resulting in gigantic flesh-eating insects and plants. For example, we see the bloody body of a dead rat that’s being eaten from inside out by a cloud of grasshoppers. They hop up, faces bloody, and give chase to Arthur and Orm.
When Arthur frees Orm from a desert prison, he finds that his brother’s captives are creatures that survive on human blood. He watches as they torture a shriveled Orm with beating sessions. The two must fight their way out.
With the Black Trident in tow, Kane is also superpowered in his Black Manta garb. He uses his enhanced eye beams to burn and badly sear his victims. We see several characters with raw, crisped wounds on their upper torso. One character is also impaled.
The Atlantian Council states that they’d rather eradicate humanity than coexist with them. An island volcano is blown up by missiles. Someone is hit with a thrown trident and explodes into a cloud of ash.
Because of the kid-focused romp that this film is supposed to be, the pool of foul language here feels particularly caustic and deep.
There is one barely truncated f-word and an f-word substitute in the dialogue, mixed in with seven s-words and multiple uses each of “a–,” “a–hole,” “h—,” “d–n,” “b–ch,” “b–tard” and “crap.”
God’s name is misused several times (once in combination with “d–n).
We see Arthur and his father sit back to drink beer on a couple occasions.
In this movie’s quest to be everything at once, The Lost Kingdom repeatedly thumps its cinematic chest over climate change and global warming and the way humans have been poisoning the Earth for a century. The film seems to assume all viewers will share the particular perspective on this issue that it preaches.
Arthur repeatedly has someone (and something) pee into his open mouth. Arthur also tricks his brother into eating a large cockroach.
[Spoiler Warning] We find out that Kane is not only stealing a powerful Atlantian fuel source called Orichalcum, but that he’s also using it to cause a global climate meltdown for his own power-seeking ends.
The era of superhero films has certainly hammered excited moviegoers in a big way in the recent past. But lately it’s felt a bit more like a stumbling hit or miss. And let’s face it, the DC Extended Universe, Warner Bros.’ constellation of loosely-connected, live-action comic book adaptations, has been anything but consistently stellar.
So, what about this latest entry? Now that the DCEU is coming to a close, to be replaced by filmmaker James Gunn’s new, multiyear DC vision, fans are eager to know how Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom will finish things out.
In answer, let me say that The Lost Kingdom is pretty emblematic of the whole DCEU that came before.
There are jocular moments here amid dour “I’m going to murder your family!” ones. We get shining heroic highlights and boatloads of bloated CGI bombast. Cool buddy-comedy story beats, and tonally inconsistent narrative fumbles. It feels as if director James Wan is throwing everything he can up on the screen to see if anything sticks. And he’s also hoping that in the deluge we won’t notice that the onrushing story doesn’t always make sense.
Now, let’s not be hypercritical of the plot here. This is a comic book movie after all. And comics aren’t always known for their keen and cogent eloquence. For what it is, there is plenty of Aquaman splash here to keep an action-hungry tyke happy.
However, therein lies the problem.
It’s not that there’s too little character connection or too little story throughline, but that there’s too much gunk for fun-seeking families to swim through.
There’s an abundance of underwater deadly carnage in this Aquaman pic, with deep-fried, seared-flesh moments and floods of demonic-looking screechers raking sharp claws at the screen. There’s way more nasty language in the ocean mix, too, with unfinished and substitute f-words and bucketloads of other salty lingo. And even the toilet humor seems edged up a notch.
So if you or other family members are thinking about wading into this sequel, keep in mind that there’s enough flotsam in this deep-sea actioner to at least dampen a discerning family’s enthusiasm.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
