When AQUAMAN hit our screens five years ago, audiences responded positively, making it the DC Extended Universe’s biggest box office success by far – a record it still holds today. Since that time though, audiences have begun to tire with the whole superhero film genre, AQUAMAN actress Amber Heard lost her defamation case against her ex-husband Johnny Depp, there was Covid and lockdown and all its production and release delays, there were the writers’ and actors’ strikes which further delayed production and release and, probably most key, the DCEU was killed off by DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran, who will reboot the new and hopefully improved DCU franchise in 2025 with SUPERMAN: LEGACY. AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM is the final installment in this less than stellar film franchise and the expectations couldn’t be lower.

If you remember from 2018, and I certainly didn’t, AQUAMAN/Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa, DUNE; TV’s GOT) kills pirate Jesse Kane, leading Kane’s son, David (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, CANDYMAN; THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7), to vow to avenge his death. Arthur later joins forces with Mera (Heard) to defeat his half-brother Orm (Patrick Wilson, INSIDIOUS: THE RED DOOR; THE CONJURING: THE DEVIL MADE ME DO IT), who was planning to destroy the surface world for polluting the oceans. In the end, Arthur becomes the king of Atlantis and in a post-credit scene, marine biologist Stephen Shin (Randall Park, ALWAYS BE MY MAYBE; THE INTERVIEW), a conspiracy theorist who is obsessed with finding Atlantis, is rescued by David Kane and he agrees to help Kane take his revenge on Arthur if Kane can help him find the elusive underwater city.

Fast forward four years and in AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM, Arthur is now happily married on land to Mera and they have a cute little boy named Arthur Jr. Arthur is still the king of Atlantis but it’s a job that he really doesn’t enjoy because he’s always at odds with his council. Climate change is occurring with unprecedented speed and the warm temperatures are producing fissures in Antarctica’s polar icecap. One such fissure reveals a lost world to Kane and Dr. Shin, who have been busy all this time searching for a powerful element that can heat up the oceans. When Kane finds the Black Trident, which belonged to King Atlan’s evil brother, Kordax, he sees a vision of Kordax (Pilou Asbæk, OVERLORD; TV’s GOT) being entombed with his army in a world of ice. Arthur realises that he must work with Orm if he’s going to stop Kane but first he must rescue his half-brother, who is now imprisoned in the Kingdom of the Deserters. Slight problem, though. Arthur is the one who put him there and no one trusts that Orm will do the right thing.

I think we can all agree that Jason Momoa is not a great actor but what he lacks in theatrical talent he more than makes up for in exuberance. That’s certainly the case here. It’s not so much the actor getting lost in the character; it’s the character getting lost in the actor. What we see with AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM is less AQUAMAN/Arthur Curry and more Jason Momoa clowning around. In this film, Arthur rides a Harley-Davidson to Steppenwolf’s (the band, not the fictional supervillain) 1968 rock classic “Born To Be Wild”. Arthur loves his Guinness, “za” (pizza, according to the hip kids, apparently) and cheeseburgers, and he’s fast with the zingers. Momoa wrote the treatment to this film and it clearly has his stamp on it with many references to his Polynesian heritage. Unfortunately, it doesn’t really have much to do with the story.

As for the story, AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM suffers from the same problem that so many superhero films of late have – the villain is not very compelling. When Kane dons his Black Manta suit, we expect amazing things to happen but they’re average at best. Instead, the story focuses on the journey to get to King Kordax and what might happen if he’s released from his icy bonds. Kordax is a far more interesting character than David Kane is but we’re not given enough of him. There’s plenty of brotherly banter going on between Arthur and Orm, which is fine up to a point, but fans of this film genre want less talk and more action. Here, we’re given the opposite until the final act gets cooking. The effects of climate change, which is really at the heart of the story, is left to TV news sound bites and one very JUMANJI-like chase scene. Fortunately, the film is a lean two hours and four minutes (the rumoured scene with Batman, or perhaps a few Batmen, got left on the cutting room floor, presumably when Gunn and Safran took over), so it moves along just fast enough so as not to get boring. It doesn’t get exciting either though.

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM opened yesterday in Hong Kong and it opens around the world today. For a low stakes film, it delivers exactly that. The film is showing here in Hong Kong in 3D IMAX, which is how I saw it. It’s just not worth the added ticket price. If you plan on seeing it, save your money for some “za” and stick with 2D.

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