The Pitch: Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) is delighted to inform you that since last you saw him, he’s become a happy family man, thanks to his new wife Mera (Amber Heard) and baby boy Arthur, Jr. Like a lot of happy family men, Arthur doesn’t love his job — but that’s because being King of Atlantis involves a lot of tedious meetings with a council of fish-people who won’t let him do anything cool or fun.
Still, Arthur’s doing his best to make it work, until he learns that his old foe Black Manta/David Kane (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is causing trouble: Specifically, Manta, having been possessed by the spirit within an ancient evil trident that originated in Atlantis, is raising global temperatures, causing extreme weather conditions and threatening the overall safety of the planet. So, Arthur will have to work with his brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) to stop Manta — as soon as he breaks Orm out of ocean prison, that is.
The End of the DCEU: Did anyone involved with the making of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom even want to make an Aquaman movie? Because it sure doesn’t feel like that’s the case. Seriously, when even Jason Momoa — a guy who whose entire vibe is “I’m happy to be here” — visibly struggles to wring any sense of enjoyment out of a scene, there’s a real problem.
It doesn’t help that with the DCEU era now coming to a close, there’s no built-in MCU-esque interest in seeing how this second Aquaman film might connect with the rest of the franchise. (For those curious, there is pretty much zero connection with any other member of the Justice League — there’s not even an attempt made to acknowledge The Lost Kingdom as the final chapter of this story-verse.)
And, on its own, The Lost Kingdom faces numerous issues. The plotting is undercut by a dull villain (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a brilliant talent, but “possessed by an ancient god” just isn’t that compelling dramatically) and stakes that feel flat. The world-building, when it comes to Atlantis (or any of the ocean kingdoms), is pretty much non-existent. This is a movie where the character who undergoes the most significant change is Randall Park’s eventually-less-sinister scientist. Not, you know, the guy with his name in the title.
The Kraken Is Missed: Director James Wan’s original film suffered from many of the same flaws that have haunted the lesser superhero films of late — rote recitation of exposition-heavy dialogue, CGI that’s just not quite good enough to make us truly buy into what we’re seeing on screen. Yet Wan also leaned hard into occasional spurts of madness, like Nicole Kidman’s mid-film return dressed in immaculately tailored fish lady armor, and the casting of Dame Julie Andrews as a dang evil kraken; details that really made the picture sing, in its own demented way.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Warner Bros.)
That energy simply isn’t present here. Like, sure, there’s a silly cameo by Martin Short, and The Lost Kingdom also brings back the drum-playing cephalopod from the first movie, because we all loved that guy! Now he’s got a name — Topo — and… he’s Aquaman’s sidekick, following Aquaman around and carrying messages for him? It honestly feels a little desperate, a poor-quality copy of what came before. Topo was cool because he was a random dude who played the drums! He didn’t need to go full Rin-Tin-Tin.
In addition, a jumbled opening montage can’t patch over this film’s confusion over what to do with Amber Heard. Heard’s performance in the first Aquaman wasn’t necessarily Oscar-worthy, but she also wasn’t given much to work with — and Lost Kingdom gives her much less, in ways that become a distracting reminder of the gossip surrounding the making of this film, and the gossip that’s haunted Heard over the last few years. Leaving all of the behind-the-scenes drama out of it, the fact is that Heard is barely used in the movie, and when she is used, it’s not well. There’s a thematically appropriate cliche for this: Fish or cut bait. It does both her and the film a disservice.
The Verdict: At one point in The Lost Kingdom, an Atlantean criticizes the fact that the King of Atlantis spends half his time on the land — and you know what, that person’s got a point! It fundamentally makes no sense for Arthur to be king, and it’s not even a job he wants, and yet the story just plows ahead without actually exploring the issue in any significant way.
That kind of feels like the entire film in a nutshell. Momoa’s raw on-screen energy remains infectious even in the driest scenes, and Wan does wring a real sense of human connection out of the scenes between Momoa and Wilson, whose tempestuous fraternal bond is the emotional core of the film. Another high point is the return of Kidman and Temuera Morrison as Arthur’s parents, once again proving to be a charming on-screen pairing.
It’s not a complete bellyflop — there are glimpses of imagination and color in each scene that help elevate The Lost Kingdom over the very worst of the genre, and the underwater sequences, when seen in 3D IMAX, are pretty striking. Yet it’s still likely to be remembered less for what it is, and more for what it was: The end of an era, one going out T.S. Eliot style — a whimper, not a Batarang.
Where to Watch: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom floats into theaters on Friday, December 22nd.
Trailer:
