If you had been asked six years ago which was the best film in the DC cinematic universe you would have answered putting your hands in your hair and pointing somewhat reluctantly, at Wonder Woman a film with more than one flaw but which compared to, so to speak Dawn of Justice or Ayer's Suicide Squad felt like Citizen Kane . If asked today 97% of you would answer The Suicide Squad Gunn's and the remaining brave 3% “Zack Snyder's version of the Justice League . However there was a period short but intense, during which the answer to the initial question was only one: Aquaman which is still today the most gratuitously spectacular work of the entire DCEU.
Aquaman is an overflowing overflowing film you choose a similar adjective that is somehow connected to water. It lasts almost two and a half hours and yet you get to the end with the feeling that half of the issues that have been thrown into the field have been abandoned or treated too superficially. It is a film full of plots characters plots less classically superhero in structure tarting from the fact that the superhero protagonist enters the scene who already has his powers and masters them to perfection and closer to certain fantasy not so much as epic as it is political more Game of Thrones than Lord of the Rings at least up to a point.
All in all it is a simple story the crown prince of Atlantis does not want to assume his role and prefers to swim free and drink beer until something happens that forces him to take responsibility. But it is told with the breath of someone who is painting you the portrait of an entire dynasty of a world Aquaman covers decades of history seven different kingdoms an aquatic war of gigantic proportions.
Nearly 400 words into the piece it finally comes time to write the two magic words that are at the heart of much of Aquaman 's success Jason Momoa. Aquaman is him and consequently Aquaman is him. He is so explosive and the film so written around having Jason Momoa at his disposal that it invalidates any comparison with his comic book counterpart: the Aquaman of the DCEU is almost a new character and Jason Momoa is left free to shape him as he thinks. In a certain sense Aquaman is the Thor of the DCEU also considering the amount of irony present in the film unusual for this universe, we would not be surprised if one day an Aquaman Ragnarok came out that veers very strongly towards pure comedy.
Aquamanit obviously doesn't reach those levels it doesn't even come close to telling the truth but it still remained for years the most vital and also three dimensional film of the DCEU a cine-universe on which every opinion is legitimate but in which it is impossible not to notice a certain tendency to turn everything to gray chromatically but also metaphorically. It's a funny film but not forced: Jason Momoa is good he's handsome and he's nice and James Wan gives him the freedom to be himself a big leap forward for him too for years trapped in the Khal DrogoConan archetype . He's great to spend time with no matter what's going on around him a huge compliment to a superhero movie in this age where personality is less important than where you fit into a larger narrative.
Then of course, not everything that happens around Jason Momoa is up to him. Worse: it could be the superhero film Marvel included with the most sensational qualitative gap between the protagonist and the rest of the cast. Not that, say Willem Dafoe or Nicole Kidman aren't talented people quite the contrary. It's that in the rush to tell a sprawling epic story Aquaman forgets to treat them as characters and they themselves do little to stand out with the meager material available. Jason Momoa is the one who drives the film with his actions and his choices the rest of the cast is made up of narrative functions who spend more time explaining themselves and telling what they're going to do next than actually doing it.
And Amber Heard you ask. Well it's easy although she has a slightly better developed character than the others she has the problem that she is not particularly good at her job, so her Mera is quickly forgotten.
However Aquaman has a fundamental advantage that already in 2018 elevated it several heads above the competition and which still today makes it a more than pleasant vision. It's an advantage that lies where many other superhero films have their most glaring weakness: the ending. Despite a sector of villains that oscillate between the anonymous and the forgettable Aquaman has one of the most spectacular final sequences that modern superhero cinema remembers for staging but also for the very idea behind it a gigantic battle submarine involving every crazy creature you can think of from giant hermit crabs to leviathans.
Sure it's a CGI feast which also squeaks here and there. But it is an ambitious idea larger than lifeas they say in English speaking countries. It's an underwater orgy approached with the same desire to break everything as a fully fit Michael Bay one of those scenes that you want to pause every ten seconds to enjoy all the thousands of details that have been squeezed into it. It is a spectacular finale boastful but endowed with its own beauty with a taste for choreography that demonstrates the presence of an aesthetic idea behind it it is a finale that grows in intensity and bizarre scene after scene it is not limited to the simple accumulation of stimuli but constantly renews and improves them. There are so many good reasons to want to see a movie in theaters on the biggest screen possible seeing giant hermit crabs wrestle is one of them.
More than anything Aquaman is a film that still stands on its own today. Sure it's the piece of a larger universe but it doesn't weigh on it you could watch it for the first time without knowing anything about the DCEU and still enjoy it just enough. It is a film made with the idea of making a film first in other words and only after a piece of the mosaic. It's a rare commodity nowadays.
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