King of the Seas

So awesome

“King of the Seas”

A Review of Aquaman by Nick Olszyk

MPAA Rating, PG-13

USCCB Rating, A-III

Reel Rating, Four Reels            

            Aquaman holds a special place in my heart; it was the first comic book hero I distinctly remember from my earliest childhood. I was attracted to the bright colors, wonderous landscapes, strange underwater creatures, and the title character’s sleek costume. When the DC cinematic universe began in 2013 with Man of Steel, it had seemed to forget this childlike excitement, instead preferring the dark and somber cynicism of the current age. This more adult tone hurt its first few installments – which struggled critically and financially. It finally found its feet with Wonder Woman, a chapter that was significantly brighter and upbeat. Aquaman continues this positive trend with a film that captures it 1940s glee with the best of 2010s visual effects. Thank goodness that small kid from 1991 got to see his hero on the big screen at last.

            Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), like Hercules or Perseus, is a demigod who is “destined to unite two worlds.” His father was a New England lighthouse keeper. His mother was an Atlantean royal who fled an arranged marriage. Raised by his father but trained secretly in the ways of the sea by a close friend of his mother’s, Arthur becomes the Aquaman who spends his days drinking beer and performing simple acts of heroism like rescuing a sinking submarine or thwarting a gang of pirates. Yet, he is not perfect and early on commits a sin of omission that will come back to haunt him. One day, Mera (Amber Heard), a princess of a rival subterranean kingdom, comes to him for help. Arthur’s half brother Orm (Patrick Wilson) has claimed rule over Atlantis and is building an alliance to start a war against humanity. She insists he challenge Orm for the throne, but they first must find a lost MacGuffin…er, trident that will defeat him.

            “What is a hero?” This simple question is a shadow that hangs over nearly every superhuman fantasy from Zorro to Superman to Deadpool to Thor. It had rarely been addressed in the DCU, but here is ever present. Arthur is hesitant to rise to the occasion. The Atlanteans killed his mother when they discovered her affair, and he could care less about being king. Mera understands Arthur but challenges him. “Atlantis has always had a king, but now it needs something more,” she pleads. “What’s greater than a king?” he wonders. “A hero,” she says plainly. “A king fights for his own, but a hero fights for everyone.” Being a hero isn’t just about performing good deeds. As Jesus says, “do not even the pagans do as much.” Rather, it is good deeds directed toward a revolutionary worldview that acknowledges the inherent dignity of every person, even one’s enemies. This time, when Arthur has an opportunity to seek vengeance, he chooses mercy. Echoes of Christology are faint in Aquaman, but they are present.

            Yet Aquaman’s Campbellian narrative is not even its greatest asset. That would be the fantastic world created by director James Wan, production designer Bill Brzeski, and costume designer Kym Barrett. It’s vast universe of sharks, coral, glittering gold, and Leviathan sized sea monsters worthy of Verne, Lovecraft, and Stevenson. There are both 15^th century mermaid knights riding atop giant seahorses and 27^th underwater spaceships with lasers, which would seem to be paradoxical, but for a picture that’s as much silly fun as Aquaman, it is pitch perfect.

            Like the recent Ant-Man and Spider-Man movies, filmmakers are getting wise that it is better to be entertaining than win Oscars, though both are fine. A comic book movie does not need to be original, it simply needs to be intriguing in creating a world we want to explore. Aquaman does that better than any film this year.

This article first appeared in Catholic World Report on Jan. 7th, 2019.