Over the last ten years, we have seen an uprising in a new phenomenon of cinema – the superhero genre of film. If there’s something we’ve seen in the last decade is that Marvel reigns supreme as champion while DC Comics struggles behind in creating its own universe.
It’s not been easy for DC over the last few years. Their biggest hit, The Dark Knight, came at a time while Marvel was just getting started. After a number of flops, the branded universe failed and has seen been dismantled with DC focusing on standalone superhero films including their latest release, Aquaman.
In his first full-length feature, the Atlantean king gets his start with Jason Momoa giving us his take on the famous DC character. We saw him for the first time in Justice League but never got to learn more about him until this film. The movie tells the story of Arthur Curry (Momoa) claiming the throne of Atlantis as its rightful heir against his half-brother, King Orm (Patrick Wilson). 
One of the best things about this film is its antagonists. They both have reasonable motives that serve the story well. But I did have one issue with how Black Manta is utilized in the movie. It’s revealed early on that Black Manta is working alongside Orm. The duo stage an attack on Atlantis to give Orm a leg up in his desire to wage a war on Earth. Black Manta’s motive for this is to get back at Aquaman, who left him and his father for dead after a failed heist on a submarine. SPOILER ALERT! We see very little of Black Manta (even with his inclusion on a post-credit scene), as he is seemingly given a Captain Phasma-like treatment. After a fight sequence in the middle of the film, he simply disappears, never to be seen again. Undoubtedly, we will see him again, but the way this rivalry is simply cut in the movie left a little more to be desired. The opposite can be said of King Orm, who I believe is one of the best villains in the DC film universe at the moment. He is a balanced, disciplined villain, passionate about bringing Atlantis to greatness again, and somehow isn’t overdone, and he translates well to the big screen.
Apart from its well-written villains, Aquaman is a beautiful movie visually. Its effects are by far the best of any DC film to date. Its story is steady and doesn’t bounce all over the place like previous DC films, and it has some of the best action stylistically in a DC film.
Even with so many positives, there are always a few negatives. While Aquaman is a step in the right direction, it still suffers from some of the issues that many DC movies have. Some scenes could have been shorter and while there were good moments in the movie, there were parts in the story that had flaws especially with continuity errors. Aquaman takes place after the events of Justice League and is supposed to be the first time Arthur Curry sees Atlantis. So how did the events in JL transpire if Arthur had not yet seen Atlantis before now? These little slip-ups in a major motion picture shouldn’t really happen. The writers should have paid a little more attention to draw better parallels between Justice League and this film. After all, the two relate directly to each other, yet some of the events and dialogue in Aquaman, don’t align with Justice League. Needless to say, the movie works just fine even with these issues, and Momoa looks more comfortable in this role.
Let’s take a moment to appreciate Aquaman for what it was – a good movie. Atlantis looks incredible on the big screen, the chemistry between Orm and Aquaman is well balanced and will set up a sequel nicely, and the plot was simple enough to show Aquaman’s origin all while showing off all the bells and whistles, even with its errors in continuation. While Aquaman is not perfect, it is indeed, a solid outing for DC, and they needed it.
