Aquaman and the Schlock Kingdom

By John Kirk

Rating: B-

It’s becoming painfully obvious how challenging it is to present comic-based movies in original ways.

Given their fairly simple story bases, their easy-to-understand characters that are already defined and previously presented from their source medium – comic films are falling into the rut of blending together in a four-colour melange of expected plots and character outcomes.

But schlock jokes are the asphalt the studios obviously hope can fill the rut.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is Warner Brothers/ DC Comics latest sacrificial offering to the altar of comic properties. And while the film isn’t bad in itself, it’s pretty clear that there’s a bit of a schism in deciding how to present this film and its hero.

Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen) face off.

Here’s a question that was brought up to me when talking about this film: Why does the kingdom have to be lost?

The story: building on the foundations of the previous film, which established Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) as the lost heir to the throne of the underwater mythical Kingdom of Atlantis, this sequel sees Arthur as a married man to Mera (Amber Heard), daughter to King Nereus of Xebel (Dolph Lundgren). He’s a father, and oh yeah, the King. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

He’s a working man, living a good life on land and in the sea, leading his xenophobic Atlanteans and struggling to get some sleep while learning to change the diapers of his infant son. The audience is supposed to accept Arthur as this working-class hero who also has noble blood lineage and able to withstand the enormous pressures of the depths and bench-press Russian Akula-class attack submarines. Second banana villain, Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) shows up out of revenge for the death of his father in the first film. Assisted by Atlantis-obsessed scientist, Dr. Stephen Shin (Randall Park), they discover a forgotten lost Kingdom that has a power source capable of giving Black Manta the power he needs to avenge his father’s death, but at the cost of the world’s climate. When does Arthur Curry sleep?

This illustrates the conflict in presenting our hero. He’s a super-hero, a king of an underwater kingdom, yet he loves his moments living with his father, lighthouse keeper, Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison) on land with his family. There are light-hearted family moments that are meant to make him more human and relatable, despite his super-powers and access to technology and a culture, light-years ahead of anything on land.

Humour is meant to be the glue in which director James Wan cements the character to the storyline. It’s similar to the way we were introduced to Marvel’s The Guardians of the Galaxy in which the hero, Star-Lord, a teen-ager abducted by alien scavengers, grows up to be a wise-cracking, 80’s music-lovin’ irreverent space-rogue. Humour brings down the lofty and elevated tones that our four-colour heroes represent in comic pages and there’s a lot of that sort of humour in this film.

It’s old hat though. Not to say that the comedic moments of Arthur getting peed on by his infant son or trash-talking his younger half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) aren’t funny. But by now, it’s a formulaic mechanism used to curry favour with the audience. It added an element of predictability to the film that was patently apparent to the audience who, at the screening I attended, laughed as if at dad jokes..

It’s a comic-fantasy that gets a passing grade, but not a high one. What’s weird is that is actually a high score for the Warner Brothers brand of comic movies.

Jason Momoa’s reliance on low-brow jokes and simple family values as the primary motivations for the character of Aquaman is a bit hard to accept with his chosen superhero role. Isn’t being a King enough of a job? Why would he bother to protect the seas while at the same time live in an abandoned lighthouse on a rocky shore? He’s the King of Atlantis – surely, he could find a better home in the depths for his family? But part of accepting the schtick of comic stories is that we accept these character choices and go along with them in the spirit of a willing suspension of disbelief. Still, it’s a lot to swallow.

The family moments of reconciliation do manage to elicit a level of feel-good spirit with the audience. That, and the cameo moments of character voices by the likes of Martin Short and one of my particular favourites, John Rhys-Davies, are genuine comedic surprises that add a level of unexpected endearment.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom isn’t an unentertaining film, but the missing scenes - like Ben Affleck and Michael Keaton’s rumoured Batman appearances - definitely do make one wonder if there will be an extended version of the film. However, when you consider that these might not work well with the schlock, it does manage to provide an extra significance for the what was really lost in this film.

I mean, if you’re going to accept the heroic schtick, you might as well make room for the schlock as well.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Directed by James Wan. Starring Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Amber Heard, Nicole Kidman, Temeura Morrison, Dolph Lundgren, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Martin Short, John Rhys-Davies. Opens in theatres Friday, December 22.