Aquaman

"Let's split up, gang!"

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

Well I never saw Aquaman with a beard or longer hair. It's like Momoa didn't bother to lose his Game of Thrones look, and just kept it for some reason.

Aren't we tired of the short hair clean cut look of superheros?? I actually prefer bearded Aquaman, he looks badass.

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"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

So we can have black Nick Fury but long haired beardy Aquaman is too much? Lol

I still think it's funny they modeled the Ultimate Marvel Nick Fury off Jackson...then they cast Jackson in the role YEARS later.

I think the self-aware ridiculousness is the right direction for a DC franchise. Compared to Marvel, DC thrives on its absurdity and made the most out of it. The DCEU forgot about that because Zaxk Snyder just wanted something epic. But if the rest of the franchise took a page from Aquaman, the series would be patched if not fixed.

Well this is how I think they got away with it more cause they modeled the new look of the character off Jackson first, compared to modeling the beard and long hair off of a Game of Thrones character, the actor played before.

No one actually cares what Nick Fury looks like. No one worth listening to, at least.

Hell, I still mostly just refer to him as Samuel L. Jackson.

Could've been worse, they could've modelled it off of a Stargate:Atlantis character

Well I just saw the movie. I didn't think it was as good as a lot were making out to be but it's not terrible or anything either.

I mainly felt that Aquaman's origin story was rushed and not enough of it was shown that left me leaving questions, like they never actually show him meet the Willem Dafoe character, he is just all of a sudden there in the flashbacks. We never actually get to see Aquaman develop as much into the adult he is.

SPOILER

He is a kid who finds out he can talk to animals, then all of a sudden he is being trained in combat by Dafoe, and that's it it seems, origin story over.

Plus I felt that the last half of the story went on far too long and the action scenes were too dragged out. So the setup felt rushed by and the pay off too long as a result. It feels like the filmmakers weren't actually interested in doing a good superhero origin story and wanted to skip to a sequel more.

I also felt the movie had cliches that we have seen so many times before in the other movies. The villain wanting destroy civilization because it's too corrupt, or the "you killed my father!" cliche, or the brother i have brotherly issues over, who I must to kill to battle over a kingdom cliche, the man who thinks he's a nobody or not worthy, but is destined to become a King cliche, or the superhero must have a childhood where he was picked on by bullies cliche.

Not that these story ideas that have been done before are bad, but when you put them all in one movie like this, it just feels tired and rudimentary like it's a checklist, like we been there and see this too much before.

But that is just what I got out of it on a first viewing. However, the special effects are very good.

I was also kind of ambivalent, but I had the opposite problem to you in that it felt like it spent a bit too much time on his origins and had a kinda boring first half as a result. You immediately figure that Dafoe is a flat mentor archetype and his scenes with young Arthur set up some integral details like the mommy issues and the Atlanteans' abilities, so I'm not bothered (well except for the fact that it means less Dafoe). There's a lot to take in with the world-building and how there are seven underwater kingdoms and whatever else under the sea, so I don't need that much time spent on explaining Aquaman. At least the action in the back half makes up for it.

Oh okay, for me I felt I could have used more time on the origin story. I think the only reason why it was boring is cause they made it boring, and they just needed to make it better. I feel a more explained and longer origin story, wouldn't be boring if done better.

For example in Batman Begins, imagine if they didn't show Batman meet his mentor and it just skipped ahead and they were already training. It wouldn't be as good. But Batman Begins not only had a longer origin story, but was also not boring at all in my opinion, so I think it depends on how it's done

Yeah, in Batman Begins that was a necessary plot point to explain how Bruce Wayne goes from pampered rich kid to ninja-in-training, whereas with Aquaman we already know that his mother is the queen from the very first scene so we infer that Dafoe's character was assigned to teach him on her behalf.

Well I still feel like I wanted to see it more from Aquaman's point of view more. I mean he goes from kid who doesn't know he is part of the sea to sea warrior in training so I feel it's kind of the same concept in terms of what they should show. I don't mind them showing Dafoe meet him and explain things, rather than have him already there all of a sudden.

Dafoe sits at an open-air cafe, takes a sip of his Evian water as he watches a small group of young boys playing in the street on their way to the city's aquatic museum.

Two boys start to tease a smaller one and push him to the ground, scuffing his chin.

The boy looks up to a silhouette of a man leaning down to help him up.

Nuidis: "Well hello, Arthur. I've been watching you." *ultra-wide creeper Dafoe grin*

lol. Maybe it was best they cut those scenes. But totally agree with you Ironpony.

Batman Begins had to have a deep origin for the people that thought they already knew it from previous films

Much to the detriment of Doctor Strange.

But doesn't Aquaman have to one a deeper one too, especially since there hasn't been any previous films that told about it?

Superman: Good idea, Aquaman! Wonder Woman and I will take to the skies, Batman and Robin will go over land in their Batmobile, and you Aquaman, you... um... let's see (where should Aquaman go look?... Aquaman... aqua... oh I've got it!)... and you, Aquaman, you check the OCEANS!
Marvin, Wendy and Wonderdog, you three stay here and listen to Ted Knight narrate!