Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the 2nd installment in DC Comic’s Aquaman series. While the film boasts a lot of the fun sequences and visuals of the first film, it had one major flaw that held it back. This film continues the story of Aquaman and the oceans surrounding him. This time Aquaman is married (to Amber Heard’s character Mera) and has a young baby to protect, along with the rest of the world. Jason Momoa is back in the role of Aquaman and he continues to be a fun and happy character. Nearly all of the initial cast is back other than Willem Dafoe. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Patrick Wilson have larger roles this time around, but play very similar characters. Wilson continues in the role of Aquaman’s brother and he’s a little nicer and a little more laid back this time around. The visuals makes for an entertaining ride, especially in 3D as I saw it. While it’s not a film that is a must in 3D, it does add to the experience enough to make it worth a couple extra dollars.
The biggest issue with the film is the complete lack of a new character. This leads to a bit of a boring plot and plodding characters. Typically in a sequel there is always going to be a new bad guy or a new sidekick. Or, at the very least, a new friend or love interest. Aquaman 2 had none of these. Same bad guys, same love interest, same family, same friends. Same everything. The only real difference was Patrick Wilson was working with him instead of against him. This wasn’t nearly enough of a change. There needed to be more and that was very disappointing. It felt like this film was really mailed in and considering it came out five years after the original, there’s no excuse for that. Not to mention all the different characters from DC Comics and the Aquaman series that they could have pulled from for this film. This isn’t a case of not being creative, this is a case of laziness.
The film is a fun, action-filled film that you can get escape from reality for 2 hours. But it’s not a film that anyone should run out to see. And if you’ve seen the first Aquaman, you might not notice much of a difference while watching the second one.
Overall- 5/10
Lead image courtesy of Warner Brothers
