CINEMA
Wet Wet Wet
RELEASED OUT NOW! 12A | 124 minutes Directors James Wan Cast Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Nicole Kidman
It’s tempting to imagine a pirate’s curse was placed upon this tardy sequel to 2018’s wildly successful Aquaman, with rumours of major reshoots, rumblings of a fractious set and a release date bumped back by an entire year. On arrival it finds itself the final, dying remnant of the original Snyderverse, overshadowed by anticipation for how James Gunn will reshape the DC pantheon on the big screen. All connective tissue to the wider franchise has already been snipped away. For once there are no multiverse-bending Batcameos, not a hint of the rawk guitar riff that always cued a welcome injection of Gal Gadot. Any trace of Zack Snyder’s dour, desaturated vision is long gone. Where once there were Wagnerian smackdowns between sullen spandex gods, we now have cheap sight-gags of babies weeing in the face of the King of Atlantis. These days Jason Momoa’s Aquaman suit shimmers like a green and orange disco.
It may feel carefully quarantined from all that’s come before, but this is very much part two of its own story. A frighteningly intense Yahya Abdul-Mateen II encores as Black Manta, now scouring the oceans in search of the fabled Seventh Kingdom and ancient tech that will bestow the power of “dark magic”, even at the cost of the seas themselves. This quest sets up a backstory that also allows for some well-meaning but heavyhanded environmental messaging.
Also back is Patrick Wilson as Aquaman’s half-brother Orm, modestly known as Ocean Master. Pairing an uptight, painfully earnest Wilson with Momoa’s Guinness-quaffing biker bro should, by rights, deliver buddy movie gold – director James Wan is on
