After so many complaints that the DC cinematic universe was just too darned bleak, the powers that be attempted to channel Thor: Ragnarok and inject a little levity for a change. Unfortunately, comedy is hard, and the cast of Aquaman just couldn’t pull it off, but you have to give DC some credit for at least trying.
The cast was really out of their element here, which is almost funny in itself because being in or out of your element was a major theme of the film. Jason Momoa as Aquaman had no sense of timing at all, and he spent the whole movie simply making crude, inappropriate remarks and smirking at his own jokes. No one else really fared any better. Simply put, Aquaman tried really hard to be funny, but it just wasn’t. And I’m clearly not the only one to think so. The theater I saw it in was about half full, and there were maybe three half-hearted chuckles from the audience in the entire 143-minute run-time.
Visually, it was an unending cascade of flat CGI. Some of the underwater scenes looked cool, but, for the most part, it did nothing to really stand out from all the other CGI blockbusters we’ve been getting. Fight scenes were the standard super hero fare. Everyone absorbs massive damage with no noticeable effect until it’s time for someone to lose.
This isn’t even the most CGI-heavy scene in Aquaman. IMDb.com.
