DC Extended Universe
Dec 31, 2023 7:37:16 GMT -8
Post by Jeremy on Dec 31, 2023 7:37:16 GMT -8
And the DCEU is done! Finished! We have now reached its grand finale, and... um, it's not really that grand or final.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a film that wants to coast on the success of its predecessor, and... doesn't quite succeed. The first Aquaman (which we discussed waaaay back at the beginning of this thread) was very big and very dumb, perhaps the epitome of turn-your-brain-off superhero cinema. The sequel - reuniting the same director with pretty much the entire cast (Willem Defoe's absence is dismissed in a quick aside which I found unintentionally hilarious) - is more of the same, but it feels... less big. The story and characters feel almost inconsequential, and it doesn't go all-out nuts like the original did.
In retrospect, I think James Wan and DC miscalculated by including all of the interesting Black Manta developments in the first film. He was the secondary villain there, but he's the main bad guy now, and... his motivations are the same, and the story doesn't bring out much new to him, other than to make him more insane than ever. The rest of the craziness in this film is carried not by character but by tons of CGI effects that don't look particularly good but are spottily amusing to watch. (My favorite is the drum-playing octopus, who gets a refreshingly expanded role this time around.)
The highlight of the film is the interaction between the two leads, with Jason Momoa doing his usual surfer-bro thing and Patrick Wilson loosening up as Orm. The film's script is not great (there are a lot of moments where a funny line gets stepped on by a follow-up line that ruins the joke), but Momoa and Wilson are clearly having fun, and it's hard not to go along with it. Even though the parallel between Aquaman/Orm and Thor/Loki are so unsubtle that the film actually references it.
Oh, speaking of unsubtle: The climate-change message of this movie is about as heavy-handed as a Captain Planet episode directed by Adam McKay. Again, it's unintentionally hilarious.
Anyway, farewell to the DCEU. You were never as consistent or coherent as Marvel, but you were kinda fascinatingly messy over these last few years, whereas the MCU has just gotten annoyingly messy as of late. Whether it was your dead-serious Snyder stages, or your comedically silly Shazam/Harley Quinn stages, or whatever the heck Black Adam was, there was always something to talk about. It is also insane that you lasted long enough to make eight consecutive box-office bombs. I'll miss you.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is a film that wants to coast on the success of its predecessor, and... doesn't quite succeed. The first Aquaman (which we discussed waaaay back at the beginning of this thread) was very big and very dumb, perhaps the epitome of turn-your-brain-off superhero cinema. The sequel - reuniting the same director with pretty much the entire cast (Willem Defoe's absence is dismissed in a quick aside which I found unintentionally hilarious) - is more of the same, but it feels... less big. The story and characters feel almost inconsequential, and it doesn't go all-out nuts like the original did.
In retrospect, I think James Wan and DC miscalculated by including all of the interesting Black Manta developments in the first film. He was the secondary villain there, but he's the main bad guy now, and... his motivations are the same, and the story doesn't bring out much new to him, other than to make him more insane than ever. The rest of the craziness in this film is carried not by character but by tons of CGI effects that don't look particularly good but are spottily amusing to watch. (My favorite is the drum-playing octopus, who gets a refreshingly expanded role this time around.)
The highlight of the film is the interaction between the two leads, with Jason Momoa doing his usual surfer-bro thing and Patrick Wilson loosening up as Orm. The film's script is not great (there are a lot of moments where a funny line gets stepped on by a follow-up line that ruins the joke), but Momoa and Wilson are clearly having fun, and it's hard not to go along with it. Even though the parallel between Aquaman/Orm and Thor/Loki are so unsubtle that the film actually references it.
Oh, speaking of unsubtle: The climate-change message of this movie is about as heavy-handed as a Captain Planet episode directed by Adam McKay. Again, it's unintentionally hilarious.
Anyway, farewell to the DCEU. You were never as consistent or coherent as Marvel, but you were kinda fascinatingly messy over these last few years, whereas the MCU has just gotten annoyingly messy as of late. Whether it was your dead-serious Snyder stages, or your comedically silly Shazam/Harley Quinn stages, or whatever the heck Black Adam was, there was always something to talk about. It is also insane that you lasted long enough to make eight consecutive box-office bombs. I'll miss you.