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Time will tell if 2023 will be remembered as the beginning of the end of the era of the comic book movie or if it was just a speed bump. Regardless of how it is viewed for the genre, it concretely is the year that the DC Extended Universe came to an end after a decade of movies that varied wildly in quality. In both cases, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom epitomize the systemic issues that plagued both the DC Extended Universe during its tenure and the issues that are impacting comic book movies as a whole going into 2024.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom follows Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) as he finds himself dealing with his new life as both King of Atlantis and as a father to his new son. He still has his enemies and Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) returns to continue his quest for revenge on Aquaman, this time using the power of the Black Trident to destroy both Aquaman and the world. With no other options, he has to team up with his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to stop Black Manta from resurrecting the lost seventh kingdom of Atlantis and destroying the world.
To be clear before getting into it, the movie is subpar. It has its moments, mostly when Momoa and Wilson are given the opportunity to play off each other, but beyond that it is not a particularly memorable experience. The effects are among some of the worst in the year 2023 (which is saying a lot), the plot is needlessly overly complex, and the moments in the movie feel generated by AI with how liberally they pull from other movies for both the aesthetic and the key emotional beats.
The best thing about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes in a more meta sense as it manages to encapsulate the problem with the overgrowth of the comic book movie genre over the last few years. The movie is clearly designed to take place reasonably close to Aquaman (within a year or two), however, it has been five years since the movie came out and the only interactions the viewer has had with Aquaman as a character are a post-credit scene in The Flash and a small cameo in the finale of Peacemaker. Viewers have a hard time growing with the character if they aren’t showing up in substantive ways, which is not an issue isolated to DC. Streaming series have increasingly long production times leading to multiyear gaps in releases instead of the usual annual release model that has worked for television for generations. Marvel Studios seems to lack direction because the viewer does not have a sense of who the Avengers even are anymore, especially since tentpole members have gone years without acknowledgement, let alone appearance.
On the other hand there is also the “power creep” evident in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom that’s just unsustainable from a budgetary perspective. This movie would have been better served as a story about Aquaman and Orm reconciling their differences and coming together as brothers to take on Black Manta who already has a solid motivation for wanting revenge on Aquaman and Orm. Relatively early on the stakes are needlessly cranked up to eleven, with world-ending stakes and an ancient evil sealed away by the ancient Atlantean king. This takes an already expensive movie (the underwater effects are not cheap to begin with) and cranks the budget up way higher than it has any need to be, especially when the emotional core of the movie is the familiar relationship between Aquaman and Orm and their coming together to take down Black Manta. This is also not isolated to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and applies to the other two bad DC movies this year with The Flash and Shazam! Fury of the Gods, as well as Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp Quantumania. Just because the heroes have extraordinary powers, does not mean they need to continually fight stronger and stronger enemies, they just have to have an emotional reason to fight.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom does not need to be seen in the theater, it does not need to be seen period but it will be on Max in reasonably short order for those with nothing better to do and a morbid curiosity. It’s not the worst movie to come out this year, it’s not even the worst DC movie to come out this year, but it’s still not great when Wonka is still playing in theaters. This will also be DC’s last outing for a while with only the sequel to Joker next year before the new DC Universe launches in 2025 with Superman: Legacy.
Final Rating: 5/10
