Whilst the film is far from perfect I didn't expect Aquaman to be so much fun, visually interesting, and be packed full of so much world building that it's hard to believe the entire story takes place on Earth.
Apart from some of the obvious film inspirations like Indiana Jones, and Romancing the Stone some scenes reminded me very much of Blade Runner in the way we are shown the vastness of the Atlantean city.
Although we get Aquaman's origin story this film is not strictly an origin movie. It's more of a side story to the main plot of Arthur Curry's (a.k.a. Aquaman) journey to becoming leader of the seven seas and thus preventing a war with the surface humans.
Casting Jason Momoa as Arthur/Aquaman, it is really showcased here as to why he was the right choice to turn a superhero, who had become the butt of many jokes, back into the really cool, and bad ass character that he actually is. Jason clearly enjoys the role.
Whilst we still get the kind of surfie/beer drinking/rock star image from the character in Justice League, all that is toned down a little, in favor of a little more thoughtful portrayal that is still fun to watch. I also like that, whilst he's a pretty smart guy, he does tend to tune out when something isn't really that interesting to him.
The two main female roles, Queen Atlanna (Nicole Kidman) and Mera (Amber Heard) are equally as bad ass with some amazing fight scenes for each of them, though it would have been nice if Nicole had more to do overall.
James Wan, in my opinion, gives a master class in world building and CGI, basically handing Zack Snyder his ass (and I like Snyder's films for the most part). I'd put Aquaman on a par with Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1 for design, world building and CGI. With that said, there are a few dodgy CGI moments but, with so much CGI done mostly really well overall, I can definitely forgive a few areas that were underdone.
I've seen a few comments saying the film was a little long but it didn't feel that way to me. Others have said the main character arcs aren't really fleshed out all that much with very little character growth - which is probably a fair point. In many respects Aquaman is more or less along for the ride for the first two acts of the film.
However, as a comic book movie, I feel it delivers on entertainment, gives you a whole lot of interesting visuals, and is generally just a lot of fun. I'll certainly be adding it to my movie collection when it becomes available on home video.
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