Now with Jason Momoa doing Lobo in an upcoming DCEU movie sometimes I go back and look at the very two movies from DCEU that in my opinion were decent, they were not bad even considering how The Lost Kingdom was in the middle of the storm after the legal dispute between Amber Heard and her ex husband Jhonny Depp aka Jack Sparrow, she even got a ton of scenes deleted from the movie and still I think Momoa took the movie on his shoulders and perform well enough to be remember, well its true that it didnt perform as expected but it was a sequel that went through a lot and I still feel it was entertaining to watch on a back to back during a weekend with not much to do. We also need to take in consideration they took five years to release the sequel after the hit that was the first Aquaman movie, talk about a lost opportunity, may be I'm just trying to defend this movie too much but consider this were the times when the rumor about super hero movies been exhaust was a thing due to the MCU also not performing.
What really works the best for this movie is how the sequel keeps the same thread as the original one, with the same characters, some new but on the same story on how Aquaman prefer to stay away from all the drama but main hard decisions that it is to be the king of the seven seas, with the contrast of looking for the help of his brother who was exile but now might be his right hand between all the trouble he is in against Black Manta, a true chapter two for the story.
Platform: MAX
Rottentomatoes Rating
Black Manta is back on the story and more powerful than ever, I find his story way more interesting on the sequel since they show how now he goes through a similar process as Arthur did to get the balck trident, similar to Arthur trident this one comes from a dark kingdom with an army of mostly undeath. As any other movie with so many threads to follow this becomes a problem when they beggin to fall short in time to keep develping each and jumping from one to another, specially the Black Manta felt that they had to cut down quality and time to develop his ship and other aspects about his plans, been a villain is not easy and less when you are trying to go around the world splinter the movie into two to three threads.
The movie pacing is another issue, with the first part that drags basically because there is not much progress to the problem Arthur was facing, plus Mera's character didn't help that much specially how bad many Johny Depp fans think of her during that time, its not until Arthur breaks his half brother Orm out of prison that action and Momoa's charisma starts to pick up the pace of the movie. From that point the movie turns into a best buddies adventure that actually works better than expected thanks to the chemistry between Momoa and Patrick Wilson, on top of been the powerful brothers couple that her mother wanted them to be. But even with this improvement, but then it comes the Black Manta side of the story that felt rush and short, plus I hated the inside of his ship, for me probably the worst CGI of the entire movie.
Jason Momoa probably is the Pedro Pascal of superhero movies in the sense of how well some characters fit him, similar to how some actors have play James Bond or Batman and they just feel natural either because of their heavy British presence or dark side superhero vibes. Jason fits perfectly Aquaman and brings back his charisma and physical presence, the truth is that if it wasnt for him and the heavy fantasy aspect of the movie I would not enojoy it one bit, it would probably end been a Ryan Renolds Green Lantern. For the most part aside from his physic, what works the best for Jason and the movie is his charisma, jokes never feel force and its like he match the Aquaman they trying to describe, one that never takes things fully seriously, always ready with a smirk, specially when Orm is around him, been the perect contrast to his brother, Momoa does play the character as an extension of himself, full blown tattoed savage funny guy with a heart of gold, that just works and would probably does the same on any other similar character he might play in future projects.
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