It’s a Duplication Festival at the movies this week, with “Rebel Moon — Part 1” rehashing “Star Wars” and “Seven Samurai” while “Anyone But You” plays like a greatest-hits compilation of rom-com tropes and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is a depressingly uninspired superhero adventure sequel that leans heavily on plot points and battle sequences we’ve seen in at least a dozen other films in the genre — and almost always done better.
This is the 15th and final film in this version of the DCEU, which actually had a good run for a stretch with the likes of “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” “Wonder Woman,” the first “Aquaman” and “Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)” but has sputtered to the finish line with the lightweight and unmemorable clunkers “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” and “Blue Beetle,” the passably entertaining but overlong “The Flash” and now this going-through-the-paces victory lap for Jason Momoa’s wisecracking, Guinness-drinking, motorcycle-riding, good-time bro Arthur Curry/Aquaman.
With James Wan returning to direct the sequel to the gloriously wacky and brightly colored thrill ride that was “Aquaman” (2018), this story finds Arthur Curry reunited with his half-brother and sworn enemy Orm Marius (Patrick Wilson) for what is basically a buddy comedy that features two of the least interesting villains in modern superhero movie history, lots of CGI creepy-crawly and/or slimy creatures and some underwhelming 3D visuals. (Hmm, a complicated relationship between a long-haired, awesomely muscled, noble and righteous warrior who commands the throne of a magical kingdom, and his duplicitous and clever younger brother, where have we seen that before? The parallels are so obvious Arthur even calls his brother “Loki” at one point, which makes one chuckle but also groan a bit.)
“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” opens on the lightest of notes. Arthur is married to Mera (Amber Heard, who has maybe a dozen lines in the entire film and disappears for great chunks of time). With their infant son who is called simply “Junior,” they all live with Arthur’s human father Tom Curry (Temuera Morrison) in Tom’s lighthouse. (Cue not one, but TWO, visual gags of Arthur changing diapers and getting doused in the face with a spray of pee.) Arthur divides his time between his sitcom life on dry land and his duties as the King of Atlantis, where he literally falls asleep as the members of Atlantian High Council or whatever it’s called drone on and on and pretty much prevent him from getting anything done. Aquaman is clearly missing the days of exciting battles and high-stakes missions!
That’s where the A-man’s archnemesis, David Kane, aka Black Manta (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) comes in. As you might or might not recall, Aquaman killed Kane’s father in the original film and damaged Black Manta’s red-helmeted suit, and Kane is hell-bent on exploring the depths of the oceans in search of technology that will give him back his powers and then some. Making proclamations along the lines of, “I’m going to kill his family and burn his kingdom to ash,” Kane has assembled a small army of henchmen and henchwomen and has enlisted the services of Dr. Stephen Shin (Randall Park), the obligatory marine biologist who’s in it for the science and only realizes very late in the game that he’s partnered with, you know, a megalomaniac whose goal is to get revenge on Aquaman and in the process destroy all forms of life in the world above.
Kane discovers an ancient vault filled with Orichalcum, a glowing green mineral that yields awesome powers but also emits huge quantities of greenhouse gasses, and yes, we’re going to be hammered with heavy-handed messaging about fossil fuels and climate change, and the damage we’re doing to our planet. There’s also a whole bit about a powerful black Trident and its creator, an ancient evil dude named Kordax, who has been frozen in an icy prison for years but can be freed via blood magic, how about that.
Arthur needs the help of his brother Orm Marius to save the day, but Orm has been imprisoned in the desert for having killed the king of the Fisherman Kingdom. With the encouragement of his mom, Atlanna (Nicole Kidman, who has come to this place for magic), Aquaman springs Orm from prison, and they embark on a quest to find Kane and save the planet, bickering and bantering every step of the way as they deal with all manner of threatening creatures above and below land. Some of the special effects are impressive, but more often than not, it’s painfully obvious the actors are on a massive soundstage, doing battle with imaginary thingees that will be edited in later.
With overused needle drops such as “Born to be Wild” and “Spirit in the Sky” on the soundtrack, “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” is filled with the usual array of video-game-looking battle sequences while the great-looking cast seems to be going through the motions, as if they’re as exhausted as we are with the DCEU and they know it’s time for everyone to move on and make way for the new DC Studios.
