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What really works the best for this movie is how the sequel keeps the same thread as the original one, with the same characters, some new but on the same story on how Aquaman prefer to stay away from all the drama but main hard decisions that it is to be the king of the seven seas, with the contrast of looking for the help of his brother who was exile but now might be his right hand between all the trouble he is in against Black Manta, a true chapter two for the story.
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Platform: MAX
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The movie tries to make justice for the close to five years of waiting and keeps it going in the background with Aquaman now having a kid with Mera, true blue blood line as the realm would want, he had to stay juggling time between been the King of Atlantis, a father and a son to his human father Tom. This part of the movie felt like a good filler for the plot and makes things a bit more complex having Mera a bit distant at times since she is the one more into the Kingdom royal stuff and traditions while Arthur is more about living his wild life so its not straight up living their lifes at Atlantis as King and Queen.
Black Manta is back on the story and more powerful than ever, I find his story way more interesting on the sequel since they show how now he goes through a similar process as Arthur did to get the balck trident, similar to Arthur trident this one comes from a dark kingdom with an army of mostly undeath. As any other movie with so many threads to follow this becomes a problem when they beggin to fall short in time to keep develping each and jumping from one to another, specially the Black Manta felt that they had to cut down quality and time to develop his ship and other aspects about his plans, been a villain is not easy and less when you are trying to go around the world splinter the movie into two to three threads.
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James Wan returns to direct after the sucess of the 2018 version and the movie suffers from inconsistent CGI that goes from impressive to distracting horrors, they went hard on creating the underwater city Atlantis with all the different species, customs, ships, creatures, its a massive kingdom and I could only imagine they just couldnt go full blown perfection on each so its just reasonable that there will be some lack on quality in the CGI department at times, depending how relevant the scene at hand was. When you're making a movie primarily underwater where there is not much light and everything feels alien like, you need high level visual effects to sell the world and sadly Aquaman 2 often falls short. There are moments where the underwater kingdoms look magical and immersive but then others where you can practically see the green screen edges, Im probably exagerating but thats how it felt.
The movie pacing is another issue, with the first part that drags basically because there is not much progress to the problem Arthur was facing, plus Mera's character didn't help that much specially how bad many Johny Depp fans think of her during that time, its not until Arthur breaks his half brother Orm out of prison that action and Momoa's charisma starts to pick up the pace of the movie. From that point the movie turns into a best buddies adventure that actually works better than expected thanks to the chemistry between Momoa and Patrick Wilson, on top of been the powerful brothers couple that her mother wanted them to be. But even with this improvement, but then it comes the Black Manta side of the story that felt rush and short, plus I hated the inside of his ship, for me probably the worst CGI of the entire movie.
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The environmental message is pretty heavy throughout the movie as how the Orichalcum was so toxic for the sea and earth but so powerful at the same time very similar to what fossil fuel type is now days and how much damage it can do to our planet if not properly manage, on the movie it was something way more toxic but its a methaphor. At least I would say it gives some sort of present real world relevance beyond just another superhero movie, creating a connection between whats on the screen to our present days wih polution and we humans been a destructive living thing.
Jason Momoa probably is the Pedro Pascal of superhero movies in the sense of how well some characters fit him, similar to how some actors have play James Bond or Batman and they just feel natural either because of their heavy British presence or dark side superhero vibes. Jason fits perfectly Aquaman and brings back his charisma and physical presence, the truth is that if it wasnt for him and the heavy fantasy aspect of the movie I would not enojoy it one bit, it would probably end been a Ryan Renolds Green Lantern. For the most part aside from his physic, what works the best for Jason and the movie is his charisma, jokes never feel force and its like he match the Aquaman they trying to describe, one that never takes things fully seriously, always ready with a smirk, specially when Orm is around him, been the perect contrast to his brother, Momoa does play the character as an extension of himself, full blown tattoed savage funny guy with a heart of gold, that just works and would probably does the same on any other similar character he might play in future projects.
I might give it a too high calification for what it deserve but the fact that it works great as a sequel for the first movie plus wrapping things up very well makes it a movie I would watch back to back on a weekend, as the story does makes sense but its unfortunate that the CGI doesnt work that well on the sequel, I gave this movie a 7.5/10 and I know that for part of the audience that was more of a movie critic than enjoying what was going on the screen the script felt flat and silly at times but I would say it works just fine for a jounger audience, may be if I get on the same side yes would give it a lower score but I'm a bit bias too since I grew up during the 80s and 90s watching the Justice League and having movies been made out of this characters feels amazing, unless its as crappy as the Green Lantern movie.
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