The first Aquaman movie in 2018 was one of the better movies in the entire DC Extended Universe (DCEU), and now it’s time for the DCEU to end with the sequel to that movie, Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. With James Wan returning to direct the movie, does the DCEU end with a bang or a whimper?

Fish Out Of Water

What is Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom all about? Well, to put it simply, Yahya Abdul Mateen II’s David Kane AKA Black Manta is now a global threat in his quest for revenge against Jason Momoa’s Arthur Curry AKA Aquaman, so the hero needs the help of his former enemy slash half-brother Patrick Wilson’s Orm to defeat the returning villain. In the meantime, Aquaman also has a new baby son to care for while juggling his responsibilities as king of Atlantis and superhero. The movie mixes all that in only about two hours, so that makes for not so much time or development devoted to any one aspect.

The biggest highlight of Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is definitely the buddy cop dynamic and relationship between Aquaman and Orm. While it’s perhaps not on the same level as Thor and Loki (or other iconic pairings), both Jason Momoa and Patrick Wilson have enough chemistry with each other to make it work. This is especially so for Orm, who is a better character this time around as Patrick Wilson gives more depth to his performance compared to the one-dimensional villain that he was in 2018’s Aquaman. However, since the movie has to juggle the buddy cop adventure elements with the new family elements, one had to suffer and that’s the latter.

It seems like James Wan had to cut out a lot of the stuff featuring Amber Heard’s Mera, so the new Aquaman family aspect doesn’t get enough screentime or development for us to care about them. Aquaman’s new baby is important to the plot, but since we see so little of him and Amber Heard’s Mera, it all feels secondary to the Aquaman and Orm stuff. Regardless of how you or anyone else feels about Amber Heard, the movie would have been improved with more time given to Aquaman’s new family. The weakest aspect of Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is also how formulaic, generic and predictable it is. There are no surprises or good easter eggs, so there’s nothing much for hardcore DC fans.

Despite how familiar and forgettable the movie is, James Wan does manage to inject a few moments of excitement that make the movie a bit more fun. In addition to the comedic banter between Aquaman and Orm, fans of James Wan will appreciate how the director still adds some horror elements into the movie, especially during one particular sequence that has a few jump scares. More of this would have been great, but Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is not a horror movie anyway. The action scenes are also thrilling enough with clear and clean choreography, especially during fight scenes when Black Manta himself is involved. Plus, Black Manta’s suit looks as awesome as ever and it’s still one of the best live-action adaptations of a comic book villain’s design.

Say Goodbye To The DCEU

Ultimately, James Wan and the cast did their best but Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is just another fun albeit forgettable and familiar superhero movie. As a result, the DCEU doesn’t go out with a bang, but it’s not exactly a whimper either. It’s an apt ending for the DCEU, considering that the cinematic universe never really reached the highs it should have compared to the more successful MCU and most of it was mediocre or average at best.

FINAL SCORE: 60/100

We attended an early screener of Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Malaysia. Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom is slated to premiere in Malaysian cinemas on 21 December 2023.