Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom was a “nothingburger” movie, with no character development, a predictable plot, and boring fight scenes. Following the trend of several recent DC films, it was a major disappointment for a superhero film, and at points, used CGI comparable to films from the 70’s.

The lack of character development was evident, as the heroes learned no new lessons and gained no new outlooks on issues that affected their lives throughout the movie. Additionally, the villains had no redeemable qualities that could make them sympathetic to the audience or any logical reason to explain their actions. The movie attempts to portray Aquaman as a mature and caring father at beginning by showing multiple scenes of him changing his son’s diaper, while reusing the same unhumorous joke of his son urinating on him in the process. Towards the middle of the film, Aquaman obtains a sense of caring for his brother and says he would have treated him well had they grown up together, even though Aquaman imprisoned and tortured his brother.

The movie follows Aquaman in his attempts to figure out the cause behind the great spike in climate change and stop it. The start of the movie is solely exposition, explaining the events that happen between this movie and it’s far superior predecessor.. Meanwhile, the middle of the movie introduces us to our villains, Manta Ray and the mysterious shadowy force that possesses him through the black trident. This big bad villain uses the black trident to possess Manta Ray and have him create mass global warming to free him from a magic spell trapping him in Antarctica. 

 At the start of the movie, there is a clear environmental agenda that is shoved down the audience’s throat but is never truly developed, used instead as a background plot-point to the villain’s plan. The final big bad villain that is faced in the movie has less than one minute of  screen time outside of flashbacks and exposition, being defeated in less time than the sum of the scenes of Manta Ray staring in a mirror.

The movie has a lackluster plot, forgettable fight scenes, no character development, and bad writing.

2/10