查看原文
其他

Review: Aquaman's surf-bro hero vibe is better than the film

Joshua Rothkopf TimeOutBeijing 2019-05-16



Aquaman opened in cinemas around China last week (Fri 7), reportedly making quite the splash at the Mainland box office. According to China Daily, the opening day saw a cool 154 million RMB in takings, or in other words, 86 percent of all box office sales on Friday. While the film has yet to open in North America (we know, amazing), Time Out New York's movie aficionado Joshua Rothkopf has seen the flick. Read his review below and head out to cinemas across the city to see it for yourself. 


 

Jason Momoa's surf-bro superhero is a welcome addition to a ponderously serious genre, but his movie as a whole feels waterlogged.


If you’ve ever wanted to watch a five-course seafood dinner have an epic battle before your eyes (as infantile and wonderful as that sounds), Aquaman’s final 20 minutes will be your new favourite thing. Gargantuan lobsters and crabs – hailing, of course, from the Kingdom of Brine – rumble against weaponised, saddle-equipped sharks and an armada of creatures that pass by in a blur of bubbles. Howling above the din with his trident and golden armour is mega-tattooed Arthur (Jason Momoa, wearing this superhero stuff extremely lightly, and all the more charming for it), or, as he’ll come to be known, Aquaman.


Helmed by director James Wan, who has grown from 2004’s rough-and-ready Saw into a playful steward of big-budget ridiculousness (Furious 7), Aquaman seems inspired by some of the more psychedelic panels devoted to DC Comics’s water-breathing warrior – pages filled to the brim with a gob-smacked fascination with the world below in all its colourful diversity. But getting to that delirious showdown feels like holding your breath for two hours. Certain audiences will care deeply about who becomes 'Ocean Master', the ruler from among the warring factions of the mythical city of Atlantis and elsewhere, just as there must be those who wonder who will win Game of Thrones. But all the exposition is deadening, even with brave actors like Nicole Kidman and Willem Dafoe delivering it. 'The king has risen', Dafoe intones, answering the film’s least suspenseful question (and possibly remembering when he starred in stuff like The Last Temptation of Christ).


Trailer via QQ


Instead of trying to surf this one, it’s better to let it flow over you, like composer Rupert Gregson-Williams’s bloopy score, a lovable throwback to the work of '70s synth wizard Jean-Michel Jarre. Fleeting moments are inspired: a dark, plunging escape from the Creatures of the Trench, a striding emergence from the sea scored to a dance cover of Toto’s 'Africa'; a Sicily-set sequence in which Arthur and his redheaded squeeze Mera (Amber Heard, committed to the crazy) come off like honeymooners – that is, until they start destroying priceless statuary like ugly Atlantean tourists. Aquaman is more seawater than bongwater, unfortunately, but when it gets trippy, it floats within hailing distance of Doctor Strange.


Follow Joshua Rothkopf on Twitter: @joshrothkopf


For more great films to see in cinemas around Beijing this month, hit 'Read more'.

You might have missed

6 indoor heaters that'll keep you from freezing this winter


A 96-year-old Beijinger talks Mao, marriage and happiness

More from Time Out Beijing

16 excellent things to do in Beijing this December

Check out our latest issue

November-December: Bag the lot at Beijing's best shops


    您可能也对以下帖子感兴趣

    文章有问题?点此查看未经处理的缓存